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

18 FATHER, SON, AND COURT
classical polis adult males did not shave, as the Theban Pindar took
for granted: in his “homosexualization” of Pelops’ myth, the beloved
of Poseidon returns to earth to get married just when his “beard
grows.” 38 Once the facial hair appeared, a young man was generally
supposed to be passing out of the erōmenos stage, whereas a male
who persisted in shaving, so they believed, might run the risk of projecting
a soft and unmanly appearance.
For all these reasons the so-called athletic type in classical sculpture
constituted a convenient canon of virility for the neoi (men under
thirty): the athletic type exhibited a cleanly-shaven face, but had his
hair cut. 39 It remained perfectly valid when Alexander ascended the
throne. Even Achilles could be represented in accordance with this
model, subjected to the civic discipline of the polis: the Attic a mphora
from Vulci and the mosaic from the Villa of Good Fortune in Olynthus,
the neighboring rival polis, illustrate this way of imagining
Homer. Kings had to be very careful, therefore, if they did not want to
be associated with symbols and qualities that were readily evocative
of a lack of manliness and a womanish appearance, the very antithesis
of royal charisma in any age. 40
Now, Alexander did not like the athletic ideal, as Plutarch records
(Alex. 4.9–11). Instead, he made here a revolutionary change, which
must, of course, have been based on his own physical appearance.
Combining the shaving of the beard with the long hair (or at least with
leonine and abundant mane), he produced an iconographic effect
unknown to previous royal portraiture. In Greece the anti-Macedonians
took advantage of the age and outlook of Philip’s successor to deride
him, to such an extent that he launched the campaign against Thebes
“declaring that since Demosthenes had called him a boy ( paida) while
he was among the Illyrians and Triballians, and a stripling ( meirakion)
when he had reached Thessaly, he wished to show him that before the
walls of Athens he was a man ( anēr).” 41
In this connection, the Alexander Mosaic, depicting the king in
battle, teaches us some important things. The Macedonian king is
shown with quite long hair and looks clean-shaven, but the big sideburns
and the general expression of the face, not to speak of his
courage in combat, neutralize any notion of delicacy or effeminacy.
Although unbearded, this Alexander is neither the Margites of Demosthenes
(Aeschin. In Ctes. 160) nor the harmless ephebe from the
Acropolis; though long-haired, his lionlike mane with the anastolē
and his huge eyes defy any am bivalent reading. He is fearsome
(deinos), without losing his majesty ( semnotēs), two essential components
in the iconographic and literary representation of Hellenistic
kingship. 42 In contrast, the Persian enemies are represented in a more