The Deification of Alexander
Greek Views of gods and humans
Gods = immortal, humans = mortal
Gods can have children with humans
(cf. Gen 6:1-8)
Legendary heroes, demigods
Marvelously powerful, but still mortal
Can ascend into heaven after death (Hercules)
Remarkable humans can be “god-like” in their achievements
Great power of a ruler can make him metaphorically a “god among men”
Cult of the dead
Dead heroes are given quasi-divine honors
Tombs, memorials, offerings, etc.
No altars and sacrifices
Pre-Alexander examples
Lysander
Spartan victor at
Given divine honors, altar and sacrifices
Sources hostile against his imperial plans and arrogance
Dion of Syracuse was voted heroic honors in 357
Philip
Outstanding ruler is “a god among men”
people of Eresus
in
Philip’s statue synthronos with 12 Olympians at last festival [D 16.92.5,
95.1]
Ancestral background to Alexander’s deification
Descendant of the gods
Hercules son of Zeus (father)
Melqart/Hercules at
Achilles son of goddess Thetis (mother)
Therefore Alexander was a descendant of the gods
Stories of Olympias
Impregnation by thunderbolt (P 2)
Impregnation by snake (P 2)
Confided the secret of his birth to Alexander before he
left for
Legend of Nectanebo
Last pharaoh of
Secretly father of Alexander
Greek Oracles
Milesian oracles from Branchidae
Eugeneia by the agency of Zeus
Note: miraculous birth does not necessarily mean divinity
Ishmael (Gen
Delivered at
Egyptian Background
Egyptian pharaoh as “son of god”
Coronation as pharaoh and establishment as “son of Amon-Re/Zeus”
Siwah Oasis
Sources
A 3.3-4; D 17.49-51; C 4.7; P 26-27; J 11.11.9-10
Three questions
Son of God
Murderers of father punished
Rule the world
Secret prophecies
Recognized by the oracle as the son of Zeus-Ammon
Commonly discussed at court by 328
Proclaimed himself as such on a regular basis
Possibility of simultaneous human and divine partentage
Apotheosis
Great human achievements guarantee the hero will ascend to heaven
Without dying as Hercules, (cf. Enoch and Elijah)
After death
Recognition of this stature allows divine honors to be given during life
Alexander surpassed Hercules and Dionysus in achievements and should be honored
(A 4.10.6-7; C 8.5.11-12)
Proskynesis
Ritual prostration (either bowing or complete)
Performed at Persian court before the great king
In
Considered insulting, barbaric and blasphemous to do proskynesis before a man
Alexander’s demand for proskynesis
Accepting traditional etiquette from Persian subjects
Attempted to get Greek followers to perform as well
Court Ritual
Dressed at banquets as Ammon (purple robes, ram’s horns) [FGrH 126 F 5]
Ammon horns on portraits [Alexander Sarcophagus] and coinage
Dhu al-Qarnayn in
the Qur’an
Painted as Zeus with the thunderbolt by Apelles
(in Artemisium at
[
Burning incense [FGrH 126 F5]
Reverential silence [FGrH 81 F4]
Statues
Statues of the gods in temples for veneration
Memorial statues of men
Could be memorial but could also be used in acts of veneration
Alexander statues
Debate in
Spartan Damis, “since Alexander wishes to be a god, let him be a god”
Cults of Alexander
In
Lasted until second century AD
Translation of Alexander
D 18.56.2
Expansion of Divine Kingship cults after Alexander
Antiochus III Ephiphanes
Ptolemaic rulers of
Roman Emperors
Caesar was the first
Bibliography
A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander
the Great, (