Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

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Alexander in the Underworld
Daniel Ogden
A s a semidivine fi gure cast in the mold of the great heroes of myth,
one expects to fi nd Alexander’s tradition conferring upon him a
katabasis, a descent to and a return from the underworld in life. After
all, Alexander’s own Heracles had managed such a thing more than
once. The tradition’s clearest construction of such a katabasis for
Alexander is found in the Alexander Romance. And this is indeed
just where we would expect to fi nd it, for the Alexander of the mature
versions of the Romance at any rate triumphs in all dimensions,
conquering not only, of course, the extreme East, but also the extreme
West (Rome: A[lexander] R[omance] 1.27 [ γ]), the depths of the sea
(in a diving bell: AR 2.38 [ β]) and the heights of the air (in a basket
carried by giant birds: AR 2.41 [ β]). The episode in question is Alexander’s
visit to the Land of the Blessed, which the king narrates in the
fi rst person in the letter of marvels he sends back home to Olympias,
in the latter part of the second book. 1 I summarize the tale as supplied
by the Leiden (L) MS of the β recension (39–41).
Alexander tells his mother how he arrives in the Land of the Blessed
(makarōn ch ōra), “a place where the sun does not shine” and wishes
to investigate it to see whether it constitutes the end of the earth. 2
Alexander wants to proceed into the land on his own, but Callisthenes
persuades him to take a picked army with him, leaving behind the
women and the old men. However, there is in the army an interfering
old man, whose sons are selected to march with Alexander. He begs
them to take him with them, disguising him by shaving off his beard:
they will not, he protests, fi nd him a burden, and a moment of danger
will come in which Alexander will need an old man; they will be
greatly rewarded if they can then produce him.
The army sets off. After three days they come to place full of fog,
and with no paths. After bivouacking for the night Alexander decides
to proceed further taking with him the bulk of his army, and turning
left, because that direction is the lighter. They pass through a rocky
and precipitous land for half a day, but then turn back because it is
impassable. So Alexander decides to turn right instead. This way the
road is less rough, but the darkness is complete and Alexander is
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