alexander-the-great.co.uk

[joanna]

By the way, Cynisca, the 'Shrine site' is interesting. I voted, too.

The question : " Do you believe that Alexander the Great was a good man ? "
Can you guess my answer ?

[apelles]

I loved the shrine site too--a gentle little place to be.Thanks Cynisca.
Here,s a small paragraph I found on the flyleaf of one of Manfredi,s novels. (I didn,t like the book,but I liked this.)

And you,Alexander,sleepless in the dead of night.
Where do your eyes roam?
Where does your heart wander?
Your,s is a quest for far-off lands,where constellations set,
Where the last waves of Ocean die.

Lovely isn,t it?I think it sums up his pothos.

[joanna]

Oh, yes lovely !

The Manfredi's novels about Alexander are not all bad. I heard that the new movie on Alexander with Leonardo Di Caprio ( if they finally make it ) is going to be based on Manfredi's books.

Anyway , I've read his books in Italian. What I can't stand is Mary Renault's calling Bucephalus... 'Oxhead' ! Come on, it sounds fake. Why did she use the English translation, I wonder. It's not the same with Alexander instead of Alexandros. Oxhead...! Sounds weird..

[joanna]

Here is Christa Wehner Radeburg's poem on Alexander :

It was as if the dawn broke forth in song

as Alexander lay concealed in Olympias' womb.

The forests of Macedonia rustled in accord,

surrounding Pella's grove at Phillip's castle.



The young prince saddled his horse and rode

toward the East,

transforming the world.

Bucephalus strained,

Bucephalus stamped,

Bucephalus struggled

against the youth's strength.



The Iliad ran through his dreams,

engrossed ... soon he stood upon the hill of Troy ...

Achilles was near.

We remember Issus Battle, Darius' death,

the battlefield at Gaugamela,

Persepolis reduced to ruins...

Still Susa's fountains add their melodious melody

to the joyous sound of strings and wedding dance,

as Orient's splendor with the legion was entwined.



The young man's path led on to the heights of Hindu Kush

where battle he did win, but lost Bucephalus.



Babylon, Babylon, Babylon cries silently

for a young son of Greece,

the friend of his youth, Hephaestion,

Iskander even...



A king's golden throne is shattered,

scattering stardust through the night for light.



For centuries the desert sands remain aglow,

borne within a mind as old as time.

Twilight falls, spreading its glow over the Euphrates,

from whose depths Hellas' legacy emerges,

harbored in the dawn as it breaks forth in song...

[joanna]

Another thing I wanted to say and I found it in " The Alexander Order " is the one I'm going to post it in a minute. It is taken from the 'Spiritual Corner ' they have in their site. I guess, this is a page where the 'elite' members of the Order can write about Alexander.
Here it is :

Lend Me Your Name, Alexander !


"His men worshipped him; his enemies dreaded him; his successors imitated him.

Once, on the eve of battle he appeared in a dream to Pyrrhus, boldest of Greek generals, and when Pyrrhus asked what help a ghost could promise, 'I lend you my name,' he answered. True to the story, it was the name which remained a living fascination for two thousand years. It attracted the youthful Pompey, who aspired to it even in his dress; it was toyed with by the young Augustus, and it was used against the emperor Trajan;among poets, Petrarch attacked it, Shakespear saw through it; Christians resented it, pagans maintained it, but to a Victorian bishop it seemed the most admirable name in the world. Grandeur could not resist it ; Louis XIV, when young, danced as Alexander in a ballet; Michelangelo laid out the square on Rome's Capitol in the design of Alexander's shield; Napoleon kept Alexander's history as bedside reading, and legend has it that he dressed every morning before a painting of Alexander's grandest victory. .............
....Alexander was a hero in his own lifetime. Through the continual interest of the educated West in the Greek past and through the spread, mostly in Oriental languages, of a legendary romance of Alexander's exploits, his fame reached from Iceland to ***;......when the Three Kings of the Orient came to pay homage to Jesus, Melchior's gold, said Jewish legend, was in fact an offering from Alexander's treasure...."

[carabest]

Wow! Joanna that is splendid!

[Cymoril]

[apelles]

[quote="joanna"]

[Cymoril]

[joanna]

Have you read Kavafis? This 'archaic style' in some of his poems is so charming. I love his poems.

[Sikander]

Greetings,

I have been collecting poems about Alexander, his world and the times for many years. I am currently seeking original work or lseer-known poems. Does anyone here have favourites? Is there any that you feel truly touch upon the soul of the man and/or his times?

Also, I am looking for original quality artwork that could be used in a project. Does anyone here have suggesitons as to where I might look? Outside of the usual books (Faces of Power. Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art, etc), does anyone know of a source that I might consider? Is anyone *here* an artist?

Regards,
Sikander

[joanna]

Did I tell you that I found my first poem I had written on Alexander?

[Alita]

And now for something quite different:

Because you have defied me, my son
And gone your own way through paths of strife
I will lay you down on your back
And burn away your iniquity.

One day you will suffer terribly,
One for every year you caused suffering
To those unlucky enough to be in your path.
Your hand will loose its grip on their throats.

Yet my ear is attentive to your cry
I have always been with you
You are my prized possession
Forged in the fires of my breath.

I will not leave you - though you have strayed
Surely you get your strength from me
I heard your voice day and night when you prayed
I never withheld the power you requested.

As you lie here now, in your burning flesh
Your heart reaches out for me
I will give you the thing you ask
For now you realise you need it.

And when you pass through the bright doors
You will see, and know it is I
Who gave you every breath that drove you so far
Though men after you may wonder - you are mine.

[Cynisca]

I do like that and it has left me wondering....
Philippos?

[Alita]

Open to interpretation!