Travels with Alexander the Great

[magicmountain]

Steve Coates reviews the Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander in the New York Times

The plunder of Persepolis

"An indelible scene from the life of Alexander the Great finds the ­prodigious warrior-king — just 25 years old in 330 B.C. — and his conquering army on a stretch of R&R at Persepolis, one of Persia’s great capitals, now marked out for plunder. During a drunken revel characteristic of the rough Macedonian court, an Athenian woman named Thais, the mistress of one of the high officers present, made a startling suggestion. It would be a fine thing, she said, if with her own hands and with Alexander looking on, she set fire to the palace built by King Xerxes, who a century and a half earlier had reduced her home city to ashes, 'that it might be recorded to posterity that the women who followed Alexander had taken a severer revenge on the Persians for the sufferings and affronts of Greece, than all the famed commanders had been able to do by sea or land.'

"Swept away by the general enthusiasm, Alexander 'started from his seat, and with a chaplet of flowers on his head and a lighted torch in his hand, led them the way, while they went after him in a riotous manner, dancing and making loud cries about the place; which when the rest of the Macedonians perceived, they also in great delight ran thither with torches; for they hoped the burning and destruction of the royal palace was an argument that he looked homeward, and had no design to reside among the barbarians.'"

Coates concludes that Arrian's "enigmatic and incendiary protagonist" helps make The Landmark Arrian "the most thrilling volume in this fine ­series".

Full review here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/books/review/Coates-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

[magicmountain]

Persepolis in flames.

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

Roger Peyrefitte (17 August 1907 – 5 November 2000) was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and gossipy non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights. It is his three-part biographical novel on Alexander the Great, however, which he considers his life's work. "The research took decades," Peyrefitte recalls. Before beginning to write, he followed the footsteps of the young Alexander on a historical trail from Greece over present-day Israel and northern Egypt to India in order to let himself be inspired at the original battle sites. On the trilogy, in which erotic episodes are not infrequent, Louise Weiss wrote in 'Le Figaro' with great enthusiasm: "A long and wonderful epic in which Roger Peyrefitte has canonized Greek civilization, and through which he has canonized himself."

http://www.meaus.com/peyrefritteAlex.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Peyrefitte

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

In the era before CGI,  the matte painter provided special effects for movies made during Hollywoods' Golden Era. These examples of the craft are from Robert Rossen’s 1956 film Alexander the Great.

http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/09/epics-alexander-great-and-solomon-and.html

“Such was the end of the palace that had ruled all the East."

"Large sections of the palace had been made of cedar, so they quickly took flame and spread the conflagration over a large area. The army, encamped not far from the city, caught sight of the fire. Thinking it was accidental, came running in a body to help. But when they reached the palace portico, they saw their king himself, still piling on torch wood, so they dropped what they had brought and began throwing dry wood into the blaze themselves. Such was the end of the palace that had ruled all the East." --Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander the Great,

It is known that Alexander regretted burning the city. On his return to Persepolis
Arrian observes that: “Alexander himself regretted it when he saw the palace for a second time.”

“An encampment at night is a spectacle which is always grand, and often sublime.”

Alexander himself ascended one of the eminences, from whence he could look down upon the great plain beyond, which was dimly illuminated in every part by the smouldering fires of the Persian encampment. An encampment at night is a spectacle which is always grand, and often sublime. It must have appeared sublime to Alexander in the highest degree, on this occasion. To stand stealthily among these dark and somber mountains, with the defiles and passes below filled with the columns of his small but undaunted army, and to look onward, a few miles beyond, and see the countless fires of the vast hosts which had got between him and all hope of retreat to his native land; to feel, as he must have done, that his fate, and that of all who were with him, depended upon the events of the day that was soon to dawn—to see and feel these things must have made this night one of the most exciting and solemn scenes in the conqueror's life. He had a soul to enjoy its excitement and sublimity. He gloried in it; and, as if he wished to add to the solemnity of the scene, he caused an altar to be erected, and offered a sacrifice, by torch-light, to the deities on whose aid his soldiers imagined themselves most dependent for success on the morrow.

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=abbott&book=alexander&story=defeat

[magicmountain]

Desert star of melting silver,
Gleaming through the clouds
The crossroads of desert merging in midnight's gloom,
From here to Persepolis
This royal road of ghost castles, disappearing into nowhere,
Neath glowing starshine
Like fields of rubies in the night.

Crescent moon in the heights of clouds, luminous, over desert vistas
I hear the Silk Road calling me
Toward endless mountains, unconquered in the purple night
My dreams, my treasure, slipping by like hot desert sands
Carried by the wind over crossroads of infinity.

Castles crumble in the clouds
As Shahrazad sings her songs to the wind,
In waves of desire, over Parthian roads of barrenness
My passion burning like stars in the sky
Feeling the warm caress of desert winds against my face
As I follow my love to the end of time,
Through the swirling sands of Persian nights.

[magicmountain]

        “

Is it not passing brave to be a king,
And ride in triumph through Persepolis?

- Christopher Marlowe 

[magicmountain]

Persepolis Recreated

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCwxJsk14e4

  Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGeJRTw7mW8

Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIPHEb9lWXA

Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXLaeZnJzVY

Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqQH56JcEhE

[magicmountain]

Book of Kings

Eskandar (Alexander the Great) watches as a pilgrim reaches for the door handle of the Ka'ba.
(from the Shahnameh or Book of Kings)

Written more than a thousand years ago by Abolqasem Ferdowsi, the Shahnameh, or "Book of Kings," recounts the mythological history of Iran from the first fitful moments of creation to the Arab conquest of the Persian Empire in the seventh century A.D. Ferdowsi was a member of Iran's aristocratic class, which maintained a strong attachment to the heritage of pre-Islamic Iran.

According to legend, he composed the Shahnameh under the patronage of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, who promised him one dinar for every couplet. But when Ferdowsi presented the sultan with nearly 60,000 couplets, a flustered Mahmud offered him a fraction of his promised reward. Insulted, Ferdowsi rejected the money and returned home to the city of Tus, where he died impoverished and embittered. But his poem endured.

Alexander (called Eskandar in the Shahnameh) is pictured as a just, sage-like king in this epic poem which states that his father was the Persian King. His mother, a Macedonian woman, was pregnant when she was sent back to her father Philip.  The story goes that astrologers told Philip that Eskandar was going to be the ruler of the world and that the child should not be killed.

On his way from India to North Africa Eskandar makes a stop in Mecca, which may be seen as a rite of passage in his long journey towards self-discovery. Eskandar pays respect to the Ka'ba, the House of Abraham, which Ferdowsi describes as "the place of worship before any others existed…where God causes you to worship and to remember him." Here, he watches as a pilgrim reaches for the door handle of the Ka'ba; in later versions Eskandar himself is depicted as a pilgrim. This recasting of Alexander illustrates how effortlessly the epic transforms history to serve the interest of national myth and ideology,”

[magicmountain]

Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American scholar of religions, writes: "In 1971, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi journeyed to Persepolis to celebrate 2,500 years of kingship with an opulent party for hundreds of international luminaries featuring plates of roast peacock stuffed with foie gras and 5,000 bottles of Champagne. Standing on that hallowed ground, surrounded by soldiers dressed as ancient warriors, the last shah brazenly linked his rule to that of the semi-divine kings of the Shahnameh."
 
The country's most popular tourist attraction is not Khomeini's tomb or the tombs of the imams, but the ruins of Persepolis, where the government is currently rebuilding the gardens and pavilion built for the shah's infamous Persepolis spectacular. When I visited, young Iranians were milling about the grounds in a trance, touching everything, as though a touch could transport them to another Iran. I stood with them in front of the palace walls, trying to imagine Persepolis as Ferdowsi must have seen it, recalling the eulogy he wrote a thousand years ago for a civilization he watched pass away in his mind's eye.

Where are your valiant warriors and your priests,
Where are your hunting parties and your feasts?
Where is that warlike mien, and where are those
Great armies that destroyed our country's foes? . . .
Count Persia as a ruin, as the lair
Of lions and leopards. Look now and despair.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/books/review/30aslan.html?pagewanted=print

http://www.aryamehr.org/eng/pers/4a.htm

[magicmountain]

2,500-year celebrations revisited

“Tell me about the party at Persepolis,” I said. “Who’s idea was it and what was your role in it all?”

Surrendering to a current of memories, Mr Ansari remained silent for a while as he contemplated my question. I knew that he had thought about the questions and the answers he wished to provide. But I also sensed a burden lifting.

“It’s a long story,” he sighed. “My memory is a bit rusty but I will try to give you a picture, as accurately and detailed as possible, even though it was so many years ago.”

And so Mr Ansari told me the story in a serene voice without letting his face reveal any emotion. But as he spoke my mind floated to a time when the royal palaces were restored, gardens blossomed, and every ancient stone had regained its grandeur. Visions of my Persian boyhood kept getting in the way.

Ah Persepolis! As a child it had dazzled me with its brilliance and overwhelming symbolism. How could I forget the thrill of sitting on a double-headed griffon or placing my hand on the warm limestone surface, tracing the face of an Achaemenid warrior.

Countless images assailed me: lizards scurrying down the mass of fallen stones, the majestic columns towering above me, winged bulls with human heads, the sun baked royal stairway and diverse reliefs that spoke of reverence and absolute obedience to the sovereign ruler of the day.

I was remembering, I suppose, what I wanted to remember, going back in a sort of mental journey, starting again at the beginning of it all not bounded by time or space. In trying to recover something of my childhood experience I realised that what had remained was a headful of brilliant moments, already distorted by the wisdoms of maturity.

It was time to bridge the gap by turning back the clock.

Read on here:

http://parsikhabar.net/culture/2500-years-the-persepolis-celebrations-of-1971/1510/

[fritzkep]

I've been told that the opulence of that gathering was one of the main causes of his downfall.

But what have they replaced him with? A corrupt theocracy? Not really the latter, since God's wishes are a little too much in line with the imams to be believed.

[magicmountain]

I've been told that the opulence of that gathering was one of the main causes of his downfall.

But what have they replaced him with? A corrupt theocracy? Not really the latter, since God's wishes are a little too much in line with the imams to be believed.

Fritz if the author of the Book of Kings were around today he would say again:

Count Persia as a ruin, as the lair
Of lions and leopards. Look now and despair.