Alexander bans the exposure of dead corpses to vultures!

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smittysmitty
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Alexander bans the exposure of dead corpses to vultures!

Post by smittysmitty »

Reading a bit of R.L. Fox's Alexander earlier today and on page 302 he states:

'Meanwhile, the natives saw garrisons installed in their main villages; Cyrus's old town was being changed into a new Alexandria, and already, as in Bactria, Alexander had banned the exposure of dead corpses to vultures, because it repelled his Greek sensitivities.'

Does anyone know where Fox draws this information from, I presume its from one of the main sources but which one?

Many thanks to anyone that may be able to help.

cheers!
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Paralus
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Post by Paralus »

That one I can't bring to mind. Sounds like the sort of thing that Plutarch might relate.

Perhaps Lane-Fox got it from the same source he used for the line that the Macedonians abandoned the sarisa for the invasion of India and they never used them under Alexander again.

Pity no one told Diodorus that for his description of Jhelum. Nor Curtius who has Alexander running Abilutes' son through with a (quickly fashioned?) sarisa.
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Wicked men, you sin against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander.

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Sandra
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Post by Sandra »

I doubt this is Plutarch... Although he has some very strange things, but nothing like this...
I vaguely remember something like that in one Russian author, but should check...
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amyntoros
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Re: Alexander bans the exposure of dead corpses to vultures!

Post by amyntoros »

smittysmitty wrote:Reading a bit of R.L. Fox's Alexander earlier today and on page 302 he states:

'Meanwhile, the natives saw garrisons installed in their main villages; Cyrus's old town was being changed into a new Alexandria, and already, as in Bactria, Alexander had banned the exposure of dead corpses to vultures, because it repelled his Greek sensitivities.'

Does anyone know where Fox draws this information from, I presume its from one of the main sources but which one?

Many thanks to anyone that may be able to help.

cheers!

I'd hazard a guess that RLF has based this on the quote from Strabo (although there may be a further reference that I don't recall).
Strabo XI. XI. 3 Bactria. Anciently the Sogdiani and Bactriani did not differ much from the nomads in their mode of life and manners, yet the manners of the Bactriani were a little more civilized. Onesicritus however does not give the most favourable account of this people. Those who are disabled by disease or old age are thrown alive to be devoured by dogs kept expressly for this purpose and whom in the language of the country call entombers. The places on the exterior of the walls of the capital of the Bactrians are clean, but the interior is for the most part full of human bones. Alexander abolished this custom. Something of the same kind is related of the Caspii also, who, when their parents have attained the age of 70 years, confine them, and let them die of hunger. This custom, although Scythian in character, is more tolerable than that of the Bactrians, and is similar to the domestic law of the Cei; the custom however of the Bactrians is much more according to Scythian manners. We may be justly at a loss to conjecture,* if Alexander found such customs prevailing there, what were the customs which probably were observed by them in the time of the first kings of Persia, and of the princes who preceded them.
*The text is corrupt.
Much has been made of Onesicritus' statement that the old and disabled were thrown alive to the dogs, but as there's no reference to any other form of burial and the fact that the interior of the city was "full of bones" the above can also be interpreted to mean that ALL bodies were exposed to the elements by the Bactrians. Again, although only dogs are mentioned, certainly they would have had to fight with vultures or any other carrion birds for the flesh of the corpses.

It may appear gross to us, but it seems to be a variation of the Zoroastrian Sky Burial in which the bodies were raised on high for the vultures to eat; the reason being (I believe) that neither fire nor earth nor natural sources of water should be polluted with the flesh of the dead. However not all ancient sky burials involved raising the bodies up from the ground and it seems to vary with location. See this website about a Lost City of the Silk Road.
The religion of the pre-Islamic inhabitants had emphasized burial rituals. There were special rooms for washing bodies to be prepared for burial. Shards of pottery lay all over the ground. Some had been left where they had been uncovered. The saddest items were shards of small pots interspersed with small bones—I recognized femurs and tibias. These were the remains of children. Parents would put the body of a dead child out in the desert to be consumed by scavengers down to the bone. From ancient times, people of central Asia had passed on their dead through “sky burials.” Pre-Islamic Turkmen worshiped the heavens and prayed to the sky god Tengri. Afterwards, the bones would be placed in small clay pots and preserved. Other collections of pottery had been placed in orderly heaps around the outside of the excavation.
Now I may be wrong, but I doubt that wood was dragged into the desert to build towers to raise the bodies above the earth. More likely they were left on the ground and the bones could be easily collected after the vultures had done their work.

Sky burials are still practiced today by Tibetan Monks, but there is a closer connection to Alexander in that there is a community of Parsi in India who still follow the practice. See this link if interested.

I see this as one instance where Alexander's own religious sensibilities outweighed his tolerance for the religious practices of the conquered peoples. Funeral rites for the dead were extremely important to Alexander and it is possible that he could not tolerate the leaving of bones on the ground even more than the supposed throwing of live people to the dogs. (I'm not sure if Onesicritus is to be believed about the latter.) I've emphasized the "on the ground" aspect because, except for the tombs of the kings, we don't know what the funeral practices were in the Persian heartland. We are told that Sysigambis was allowed to make arrangements for certain of the Persian dead, but we never learn what they were. Could it be that they were placed on towers which were built and then the bones removed later for entombment? My personal opinion is that it is possible and that "off" the ground sky burials would not have offended Alexander as much as observing dogs eating the bodies and the bones seemingly remaining uncollected. All just conjecture, however. :)

Best regards,
Amyntoros

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smittysmitty
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Post by smittysmitty »

Thanks for that Amyntoros,

That was a very quick response, well done. I'd say your right in saying RLF has drawn upon Strabo for this information (and quite possibly other sources). I t seems to have gone against the grain of what we, or perhaps more appropriately I, believed Alexander was all about. But then again, the Bactrian campaign was a difficult time for Alexander and his tolerance of other's custom's and beliefs may have become somewhat tested at this given period of time.

cheers!
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