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ALEJANDRO MAGNO: MAN, KING, HERO (I)

In late November of this year I spent two days in our institution Tudela talking about heroes in the framework of this activity .

For

I dedicate this blog four innings of the last hero I spoke of Alexander the Great, one of my myths of children through the biography of the character who had written a fictional Joseph LaCie the former editorial Bruguera.

I note that what I talked about in the West Bank was not history but the recreation of Alexander in the literature of antiquity and the Middle East: its conversion into flesh and soul legend.

OF HEROES AND MEN

hear about and think of heroes Achilles, Odysseus, Heracles, Oedipus, Theseus ... Asclepius and perhaps as much as Orfeo. But here things are going in another direction for now let's talk, while the hero, of a historical character of S. IV a. C., not a demigod, not a man who lived at the time of the demigods ...

Let's talk about Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia.

I

heroization begin by recalling that the real, historical figures is a phenomenon occurring among the Greeks came much earlier.

In fact, "real men" is the latest heroes category identified in the analytical classification of LR Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality, Oxford, 1921. Among

• "Real men" heroizados there were then, as now, athletes: no players (although it looks ! ) but boxers, and among these was heroizado, p. eg., euthymic of Locri, winner in boxing at Olympia in three Olympics.
• received a cult hero in life, according to Bruno Currie studied in a 2002 article: "Euthymos of Locri: A Case Study in Heroization in the Classical Period."
• Pausanias (6.6.5) transmits the legend of the son of the Cecina river god: the ascription of divine genealogy is a typical procedure heroization. According to Pausanias euthymic
• also made truly heroic actions in Temesa faced a monstrous ghost (the Hero, "the hero") to save a girl who was going to be given to the tribute, cf. Paus. 6.6.7-10:

When he returned to Italy [euthymic] fought against the Hero. His story is as follows: (...). Euthymic, who had come to meet Temesa when the rituals of the spirit, he learned what was happening and felt like entering the temple and see the girl. When he saw her, at first he felt compassion, then love for her. The girl swore that she would marry If you save it, and euthymic armed himself and waited the attack of God. Won the fight and the hero was expelled and disappeared diving in the sea. Euthymic had a glorious wedding and there's men were forever free spirit.

• Jack Donnelly (06/06/1910), euthymic lived well into old age itself an Old Testament patriarch.
• and euthymic was not an isolated example: it is similar for Teógenes of Thassos, another boxer, mid-century V a. C.

Alexander was obviously a historical figure, yet the fact is that around his figure legends should forge in very early, perhaps even in your own life, how unusual your business: Remember that Alexander

transcends the political space of the polis to create a universal empire based in Greece. It is worth recalling some facts about his life:

• Alexander, king of Macedonia, named Alexander, had to live between 356 and 323 a. C.;
• was the son of Philip II of Macedonia and Olympias;
• from the victories achieved by his father, Philip II could bring their power to all Greek cities;
• the war began after the Persian Empire , whom he defeated;
• arrived in its desire for conquest, to the Indian Ocean and India;
• however, did die a fever in Babylon at a young age ("Thirty-three?), favoring, of course, the creation of "myth" around him.

The Dictionary of myths Garcia Gual this figure by Alexander as a "myth" more.

The four entries that begin to devote Alexander

• refer to ancient Greek sources on Alexander, a more historical, more legendary others;
• also lend special attention to Pseudo-Callisthenes and tradition converge upon it, I want to present and former base on which further developed the whole legend of Alexander;
• for it, speak far less important literary authors such as Plutarch or Arrian.

remember, however, that the figure of Alexander also interested in the Latin authors. It is very interesting, for example, the work of Quintus Curtius Rufus: History of Alexander the Great, as translated Gredos (1986): reading does not disappoint.

• The author is a mystery: we know who you are very complex place it chronologically.
• The work is preserved in fragmentary: we have five books almost complete, reaching out to Alexander's death, but lack the story of his early years. Curcio testified
• admiration for the grandiose figure of Alexander (courageous, generous, magnanimous), but also highlights its shortcomings: the anger, the tendency to drunkenness, the vanity that leads him to be seduced by the East ...: the defects are crescendo as factional disputes among the Macedonians (many of which eliminate Alejandro).

Joseph B. Torres Guerra