Alexander's sword

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Fiona
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Alexander's sword

Post by Fiona »

I realise there's no mention of such a thing in the historical record, but I was wondering if anyone was aware of any legend or tradition which gives Alexander's sword a name of its own.
El Cid had La Tizona, Arthur had Excalibur, Roland had Durandal, but I've never heard of Alexander's sword having a name. Yet he's had legends built up around him, just as much as these other ( some possibly) historical characters.
Maybe there is one, and I've just never heard of it. Or maybe he's just too early, and the naming of swords only comes into stories in later ages.
I'd be interested if anyone has any answers, or suggestions of where to look.
Thanks,
Fiona
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Re: Alexander's sword

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Fiona wrote:I realise there's no mention of such a thing in the historical record, but I was wondering if anyone was aware of any legend or tradition which gives Alexander's sword a name of its own.
Such legends did exist, although I don't know of one specifically concerning Alexander. If memory serves me right, Olympias had consecrated the sword killing Philip II to Apollo. Legend/tradition also says she named the sword 'Myrtale' - her own name as a child. [Justin ?]

This same tradition also implicates Alexander with the death of his father and depending on what our understanding of consecrated is (I think means it was placed on a funeral pyre and so no longer usable.) the sword may have end up with Alexander himself.

There was also something about Philip's sword, having an engraving of a chariot? upon it - and its meaning [Diod.?] I'm pretty sure no name was mentioned, only its derpiction and meaning.
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Re: Alexander's sword

Post by amyntoros »

smittysmitty wrote:
Fiona wrote:I realise there's no mention of such a thing in the historical record, but I was wondering if anyone was aware of any legend or tradition which gives Alexander's sword a name of its own.
Such legends did exist, although I don't know of one specifically concerning Alexander. If memory serves me right, Olympias had consecrated the sword killing Philip II to Apollo. Legend/tradition also says she named the sword 'Myrtale' - her own name as a child. [Justin ?]

This same tradition also implicates Alexander with the death of his father and depending on what our understanding of consecrated is (I think means it was placed on a funeral pyre and so no longer usable.) the sword may have end up with Alexander himself.
Memory serves you well :) - Justin is the source for the information.
Justin 9.7 It is even believed that he was instigated to the act by Olympias, Alexander's mother, and that Alexander himself was not ignorant that his father was to be killed; as Olympias had felt no less resentment at her divorce, and the preferment of Cleopatra to herself, than Pausanias had felt at the insults which he had received. As for Alexander, it is said that he feared his brother by his step-mother as a rival for the throne; and hence it happened that he had previously quarrelled at a banquet, first with Attalus, and afterwards with his father himself, insomuch that Philip pursued him even with his drawn sword, and was hardly prevented from killing him by the entreaties of his friends. Alexander had in consequence retired with his mother into Epirus, to take refuge with his uncle, and from thence to the king of the Illyrians, and was with difficulty reconciled to his father when he recalled him, and not easily induced by the prayers of his relations to return. Olympias, too, was instigating her brother, the king of Epirus, to go to war with Philip, and would have prevailed upon him to do so, had not Philip, by giving him his daughter in marriage, disarmed him as a son-in-law. With these provocations to resentment, both of them are thought to have encouraged Pausanias, when complaining of his insults being left unpunished, to so atrocious a deed. Olympias, it is certain, had horses prepared for the escape of the assassin; and, when she heard that the king was dead, hastening to the funeral under the appearance of respect, she put a crown of gold, the same night that she arrived, on the head of Pausanias, as he was hanging on a cross; an act which no one but she would have dared to do, as long as the son of Philip was alive. A few days after, she burnt the body of the assassin, when it had been taken down, upon the remains of her husband, and made him a tomb in the same place; she also provided that yearly sacrifices should be performed to his manes, possessing the people with a superstitious notion for the purpose. Next she forced Cleopatra, for whose sake she had been divorced from Philip, to hang herself, having first killed her daughter in her lap, and enjoyed the sight of her suffering this vengeance, to which she had hastened by procuring the death of her husband. Last of all she consecrated the sword, with which the king had been killed, to Apollo, under the name of Myrtale,10 which was Olympias's own name when a child. And all these things were done so publicly, that she seems to have been afraid lest it should not be evident enough that the deed was promoted by her.
My notes to Justin (John Selby Watson) explain that consecrating the sword means putting an inscription on it, as in "Myrtale (dedicates this) to Apollo". Once an item was dedicated to a god it literally belonged to the god, so the sword would most likely have been kept in a temple. OTH, I don't know if any items have been discovered in tombs which have inscriptions dedicating them to particular gods, but it's certainly possible. Either way, once given to the god I doubt that the sword would have ended up in human hands, at least not until the Romans came and robbed the temples! Then again, and to be absolutely fair, Curtius 3.3.11 does say that Darius' chariot was "consecrated to Jupiter". Personally, I'd find it strange if Alexander kept a sword which had first been used to kill his father and then dedicated to a god. All this depends on the story being true, of course – many people doubt the veracity of Justin at this point.

There was also something about Philip's sword, having an engraving of a chariot? upon it - and its meaning [Diod.?] I'm pretty sure no name was mentioned, only its derpiction and meaning.
Didn't find anything in Diodorus, but it was an admittedly quick search and I didn’t check all of the books. There's this from Aelian though, which says the chariot was carved on the sword which killed Philip!
Aelian 3.4 They say Philip received an oracle in Boeotia at the shrine of Trophonius, to the effect that he must be on his guard against a chariot. The tradition has it that he was in fear of the oracle and never got up into his chariot. After this the story circulates in two versions. Some say that the sword of Pausanias, with which he killed Philip, had a chariot carved in ivory on the handle; the other version that he was assassinated after walking around the lake at Thebes known as Harma {chariot}. The first story is popular, the second is not found everywhere.
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Re: Alexander's sword

Post by marcus »

smittysmitty wrote:Such legends did exist, although I don't know of one specifically concerning Alexander. If memory serves me right, Olympias had consecrated the sword killing Philip II to Apollo. Legend/tradition also says she named the sword 'Myrtale' - her own name as a child. [Justin ?]
Amyntoros has basically answered this one, so I won't repeat what she's said. However, it was a dagger rather than a sword - not terribly important as far as the actual question is concerned, nor indeed your answer(!), but for the record ... :P

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Re: Alexander's sword

Post by Fiona »

It looks like no tradition for a name for Alexander's sword, then - but thank you for all the interesting thoughts about consecration. A very universal instinct, it seems.
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Re: Alexander's sword

Post by amyntoros »

Fiona wrote:It looks like no tradition for a name for Alexander's sword, then - but thank you for all the interesting thoughts about consecration. A very universal instinct, it seems.
Fiona
I meant to come back and address your original question directly (apologies for the delay), but, yes, Alexander's sword was unnamed. At least there's no record in any sources of which I am familiar. Now I do I know for a fact that I'm missing some later, more obscure references to Alexander, but if his sword had been named anywhere I suspect that other writers throughout the centuries would have picked up on and repeated it.

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Re: Alexander's sword

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amyntoros wrote:Now I do I know for a fact that I'm missing some later, more obscure references to Alexander, but if his sword had been named anywhere I suspect that other writers throughout the centuries would have picked up on and repeated it.
The naming of swords is very much a post-Classical fancy, by which I mean from the post-Roman era. I am pretty sure it largely emerged from the fact that, during this period, bladed weapons actually became scarcer, and therefore more valuable, and owning a sword was a fairly exclusive status symbol. The idea of giving a sword (and sometimes other weapons, although much less commonly) an identity springs from this.

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Re: Alexander's sword

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marcus wrote:
The naming of swords is very much a post-Classical fancy, by which I mean from the post-Roman era. I am pretty sure it largely emerged from the fact that, during this period, bladed weapons actually became scarcer, and therefore more valuable, and owning a sword was a fairly exclusive status symbol. The idea of giving a sword (and sometimes other weapons, although much less commonly) an identity springs from this.

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That's very interesting. From what you say, it sounds as if what we call the Dark Ages suffered by comparison with the Roman era from more than just a lack of literacy. This sounds like a backwards step in technology, too - or maybe just in distribution and supply.
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Re: Alexander's sword

Post by marcus »

Fiona wrote:That's very interesting. From what you say, it sounds as if what we call the Dark Ages suffered by comparison with the Roman era from more than just a lack of literacy. This sounds like a backwards step in technology, too - or maybe just in distribution and supply.
I think it was distribution and supply rather than technology, although I would always be prepared to stand corrected! Having said that, I was about to say "lack of ore", but that was as a result of poorer mining techniques, surely ... so technology does play its part.

I'm fishing here, but I suspect that part of it comes down to the lack of centralised organisation and control, as well. Once people were back in tribal/village communities, the organisation needed for wholesale manufacture of weapons - as well as the leisure and money to produce them - was lacking.

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