Alexander III of Macedon also known as Alexander the great lived from 356 to 323 BC. Alexander was born into a life of privilege. He had deep faith in the gods. He had dreams of glory and conquest, as well as world domination, which alienated his generals. As a ruler, he abandoned his responsibilities and did not sit the throne. He died young, leaving no heir to continue his legacy, but rather it was split among his generals who would continue to rule. He ruled over a kingdom from Greece to Pakistan. He learned about philosophy and the Greek Myths from his tutor Aristotle.
He was obsessed with conquest and war, as well as fulfilling prophecies. Part of this reason is why he wanted to take over many of these places, not just to be great as far as a king but to be great as a God.
Divinity was actually a very serious goal for him he thought he was a god towards the end of his life. He is known as being quite irrational, paranoid, alienated as well as his legendary traits of intellect, strategy and superstition.
His goal was to bring Greek culture to the east and he inspired his armies to do the same, but it meant that he was addicted to conquest. This would leave him dead at an early age and never really present on his throne as a ruler. He only was a Greek king for 12 years. He did not think he would ever die, so he never left any plans for his empire. Upon his death, it would split into three pieces.
Alexander the great wanted to become an immortal god. He wanted to be worshiped all over the world. However, after his death there was no heir and his empire was split. His generals are the ones who actually took over after his death. He died at 32, he did not live very long but he made a huge impact on the earth. Some debate that it was not because he was necessarily a very good general, rather that his army was very technologically advanced.
Many things were used to justify him being special. Sometimes he was compared to a God, and sometimes it was about things he did, prophecies or even his horse. His horse's name was Bucephalus. Some say it had a unicorn horn because he was a particular kind of carnivorous unicorn called a karkadann. Unicorns are said to be mounts to kings and it is enough to justify ruler ship in some ancient cultures. There are many accounts of many places simply giving into Alexander. Sometimes it is because of the legend around him. Other times they are trying to avoid combat. Alexander's forces were powerful and only continue to grow especially as his wealth expanded.
In The Travels by Marco Polo he says, “There used to be horses in this province that were descended from Alexander’s horse Bucephalus by mares that had conceived from him…they were all born with a horn on their foreheads” (The Travels, Book 2). Either way, it is said that the horses were descended from his horse and horses from his army as they travel through the region. This would have probably improved the local horse breeds and brought in new bloodlines which would have made those horses better quality. Since these were the vehicle and tools of combat they were some of the most important technology that many cultures had. Horse cultures were at an advantage over cultures that did not have horses. It definitely sounds like his horses left a mark on the horse bloodlines in the regions they were introduced to.
Horses would prove to be the turning point, giving him the advantage he needed to win his battles. For example, in 334 BC Alexander went from Hellespont to Asia minor. He had 48,000 allied soldiers, including Macedonian hoplites, he had 6000 calvalries and 120 warships. During the battle of Granicus in western turkey, Alexander defeated a Persian army that had 40,000 people. He would continue to grow his horseman until half of his units were Horsemen.
Another instance where he wanted to fulfill a prophecy is in 333 BC Alexander went into Phrygian which was the capital of Gordium. He found a relic which was an old wagon wheel. It had a complicated knot tied around the yolk. According to the locals it belong to the father of king Midas his name was Gordium. The legend of the Gordium wagon was there anyone who loosens all the ropes would win conquering Asia. Some legends say that Alexander cut the rope while others say he unhooked the Hester (or pin) from the wagon pole, but either way the knots released.
Alexander was very Interested in showing respect to the ancient deities. He gave sacrifices to Athena and anointed Achilles' gravestone with oil. He continued to conquer until finally he reached Egypt where he was accepted as a savior. There he was pronounce the son of Amun at the oracle of Siwa oasis in the Libyan desert. He was then given the title of being the son of Zeus-Ammon.
So in general it was common to call people the great. He may have been great but the people that he subjugated probably would not think that. Although, the reception of some areas like Egypt might make you question that. So while he was a great man he may not have been a great man to those that he had overtaken. He was the son of king Philip the second. At 13 years old he said he changed the Cephalus and he was already an accomplice general. He built of empire very fast. He was famous for never losing the battle. It's great to describe many things we can discuss that
Great can describe great deeds and accomplishments such as his conquering territories including the Persian empire and Egypt. It could include him being a good general or at least having a good technology since they had spears called sarissas. The people he conquered would not have called him great.
Great could refer to having an enormous impact on the world. He introduced the Greek language. He was a military model through history. He introduced the Persian idea of absolute monarchy. He brought it in to the Greco one on the world. He built cities most of which he named after so himself and when he named After his horse Bucephalus.
And he also could be considered great because of his legends. No life account exists from his time of life. This means that it is embellished. It features ravens with enchanted rain. He has a nearly mythic assassin wife. Even his horse is magical! There's lore surrounding his death. Although he died from fever there's legend has it could've been poison, assassination or even alcohol poisoning.
He was not good at Empire building. But he was good at inspiring people to remember him. For example Napoleon was obsessed with Alexander, and even used it to justify his trying to take over Egypt. However Alexander the great was better at taking stuff down. He did not really rebuild stuff after he took it down. Since there was not a lot of infrastructure this is why after his death the empire was broken into three pieces. These are called the Hellenistic kingdoms. And this may be why some of his stuff was destroyed by people as they tried to emulate him. Some of his stuff was destroyed by people trying to act like him.
Although he did a lot in his life to try to make everyone think he was a huge legend, and he did make a huge impact in the world, like many I am wary to use the term great. Because there would've been people that would have been unhappy with his actions. This means that in today's society we would not like to see anyone being a conqueror. We would look at someone trying to take over and create an empire as a bad thing. We have since moved out of this kind of world building and type of relationship. What did we lose because he thought that he was right in spreading this. Might does not to make right. He succeeded in having a huge influence over the world, spreading Greek influence. However it may have displaced other societies and cultures. This reduces our diversity in the world.
Really the fanciful legends that surround him Catch peoples attention. People want to think of him as a god riding a unicorn. People want to think he had this huge infleuence.
I think that Marilyn Monroe's popularity rose after her death. You see images of her all over. There's still all kinds of books. There's websites, movies, art and more That features her or was inspired by her. You even see her as images in the cartoons and on TV shows, even if it is just in satire. There are even some questions around her death, with some legends surrounding it. In fact, you even hear people saying that their Marilyn Monroe reincarnated, or they spoke to her ghost and stuff like that. So even today people want to try to emulate her and be like her. You can even look up how to do make up to look like her or even find Halloween costumes.
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