Never fails ... just about to close the blogging program and my spiders send something of interest. In this case, it's an excerpt from a piece in the Mauritius Times which suggests:
A similar story is found in a number of blog posts, e.g. here ... here ... and here (the latter has an, er, interesting discussion on whether or not it is important to find out whether it is true or not). FWIW, it's all over the non-Classical blogosphere, so I guess it's worth pointing out that the only thing akin to a funerary 'dying wish' that Alexander expressed (as far as I know) was to be buried at Siwah (we need not get into that whole leaving his realm to 'the most powerful').
Whence comes this tale of empty arms originally, I do not know. A lecture by a Nigerian speaker on the topic of civil servants quotes ''we came to the world with empty hands and we are leaving the world with empty hands" as if it is a well-known proverb. A similar sentiment is recalled as being repeated by the writer's uncles and father early on in a 'spiritual' OpEd piece in the Times of India. Another item from India suggests this might be a popular saying in that land. Perhaps some Indian life of Alexander includes this?
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Roger Pearse dixit:
Alexander the Great it was, I think, who requested that when he dies, he would like his upper limbs to show outside his coffin with the hands turned upwards, for everybody to see that they were empty: although he was a great conqueror, he would be leaving the world with empty hands.
A similar story is found in a number of blog posts, e.g. here ... here ... and here (the latter has an, er, interesting discussion on whether or not it is important to find out whether it is true or not). FWIW, it's all over the non-Classical blogosphere, so I guess it's worth pointing out that the only thing akin to a funerary 'dying wish' that Alexander expressed (as far as I know) was to be buried at Siwah (we need not get into that whole leaving his realm to 'the most powerful').
Whence comes this tale of empty arms originally, I do not know. A lecture by a Nigerian speaker on the topic of civil servants quotes ''we came to the world with empty hands and we are leaving the world with empty hands" as if it is a well-known proverb. A similar sentiment is recalled as being repeated by the writer's uncles and father early on in a 'spiritual' OpEd piece in the Times of India. Another item from India suggests this might be a popular saying in that land. Perhaps some Indian life of Alexander includes this?
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COMMENTS
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Roger Pearse dixit:
Interesting post. There is a considerable Alexander literature in
Arabic, all fictional, much unpublished. The story has the sound of
the sort of "Arabian nights" tales to me, and probably this is the
source.
Some texts include correspondence between Aristotle and Alexander, in
which the latter is tutored in how to make talismans that will provide
water for his troops in the desert and allow him to defeat the
Persians (e.g. Ms. Mingana Syr. 142). Aristotle is clearly considered
as a "hakim" - which could mean a philosopher, a learned man
generally, a wizard or a magician. We are squarely in the days of
Aladdin and Ali Baba, in short.