Your role in the latter part of the 4th Century BCE.

[jan]

Karen's post made me think of Pindar...natural born talent!

[Theseus]

First I have to say how much I enjoyed your post Karen! Very well done!

My role would have to have been one of moving around a lot. I get bored and am always looking for that next adrenaline rush. I would have done well in Alexander's army I think. I have a high tolerance for pain and think I would have done well fighting. I love swords and collect them, but to have been able to fight hand to hand with them would have been something else I know. I don't think I would have been just a foot soldier because I do like leading people,( I used to captain a hockey team) but I know I would not have come close to Alexander's leadership skills, but would have given him my best and nothing less.
Great topic!

[athenas owl]

I'd be a goddess (or a god, not picky)...so I could see and know everything! And the perks..all those liibations and incense and the occassional hecatomb.

Karen, and Marcus with the last lines...great!

[Theseus]

I also wanted to add can you imagine what it would have been like for those brave Macedonians leaving Greece and seeing all of the countries they went to for the first time. Entering Babylon's gates? Seeing Egypt? How about fighting elephants for the first time, feeling the Earth tremble beneath your feet as they approached? What amazing wonders their eyes must have seen.

[Fiona]

Very true - imagine the first time you ever saw an elephant, it was charging towards you in battle.
I'll say they were brave.
Fiona

I also wanted to add can you imagine what it would have been like for those brave Macedonians leaving Greece and seeing all of the countries they went to for the first time. Entering Babylon's gates? Seeing Egypt? How about fighting elephants for the first time, feeling the Earth tremble beneath your feet as they approached? What amazing wonders their eyes must have seen.

[marcus]

I'd be a goddess (or a god, not picky)...so I could see and know everything! And the perks..all those liibations and incense and the occassional hecatomb.

Not to mention the opportunities for congress with any mortal that takes your fancy, even if it means disguising yourself as a series of farm animals in order to achieve coition ...

ATB

[Phoebus]

That's the part of the mythos that disturbs me most...

Neither Zeus nor Poseidon, for example, needed to turn into bulls to mate with their respective women... One has to question whether there was a need for "disguise" or if the gods (or their writers, for that matter) were simply sadistic on a sexual level.

[jan]

Isn't that interesting? I just found this book and am halfway through reading it now. It is a most interesting interpretation of the travels of Alexander. Have you read it? Did you like it? I have just finished reading the Gordion Knot and the Battle of Halicarnassus chapters, but will finish it tonight. Very interesting book so far...what do you think? Jan

[jan]

Someone on another channel once said that at a movie she always identifies with the lead character. I believe that is natural, and only real actors and actresses have to play the secondary roles. Everyone wants to be the chief!

But of all the characters most interesting to imagine is probably Olympias! Without her, Alexander doesn't have a chance!

Still at an Alexander forum I am disappointed if everyone hadn't wanted to be Alexander himself too! Since he is only a legend, we can all make him up to be what we think he was! So I agree to being Alexander.

[jasonxx]

I changed my mind.... Ill be Harpalus... Plenty money parties and wild women.

Alexander and his boys can fight through deserts monsoon rains etc. Ill just live the high life on Alexanders cash.

[Vergina Sun]

Isn't that interesting? I just found this book and am halfway through reading it now. It is a most interesting interpretation of the travels of Alexander. Have you read it? Did you like it? I have just finished reading the Gordion Knot and the Battle of Halicarnassus chapters, but will finish it tonight. Very interesting book so far...what do you think? Jan

Yes, the book was a very creative interpretation of Alexander's travels. There were some surprising elements to the story (especially the use of fantasy, which I wasn't really expecting). The story is quite realistic in the fact that Bucephalus wouldn't have been with Alexander 24/7 and would have had a life of his own. I greatly enjoyed how the author told it from the voice of a horse. Obviously a horse would be more concerned about mares and eating rather than battle planning. What do you think of the portrayal of Alexander? I thought he seemed a bit childish at times, but then again he wasn't exactly an adult either. I would like to know what you thought about the end (I won't spoil it for you, but it has to do with the death of Bucephalus).

[marcus]

Since he is only a legend, we can all make him up to be what we think he was!

Eh?

[jan]

The stories of Alexander are legendary, but Alexander is a real person. Well, if you have read I AM A GREAT HORSE, you would understand what I meant...sorry, I was thinking as authors who have to be everyone...and Alexander is simply what or whoever the author Kathryn Roberts wants him to be.

No two extant sources have him described exactly as the man/god he appears to be, so I meant that when writing of him, and thinking as him, any author has literary license...some think him a demon, others a god, others just an extraordinary hero.

Sorry to have raised your eyebrows on that one!

[jan]

Laughing at the way Alexander is portrayed in this book, nobody would want to claim to have been him, would they? Yes, I have finally finished reading the book, and became used to the way Bucephalus dominates the other horse's with his horse dung, and believe that probably Kathryn Roberts may be doing that to her reader's also. It is an amusing look at the travels of Alexander, and she certainly develops his character into that of a demon more than a god, exorcising all her ghosts along the way. She certainly developed the characters of Parmenio and Philotas in a way that I had never thought to be likely either, but it held my interest and annoyed me as well.

I guess that is why when I responded to the role playing question, I was thinking in which person one would write a story about Alexander and his merry men. At one point in her story, I saw definite resemblances to King Arthur and his knights of yore also.

I am beginning to think that England is a hotbed of anal thinking only autors at time, sorry about that, but Roberts is from Stroud, England, according to the jacket.

I think of Alexander in terms of his childhood learning and developing his skills when a child, learning how to tie his sandals properly, cleaning and wiping his shield, learning how to hold his shield properly, to maneuver with it. The typical education for a young boy who has to learn the military life, riding with his daddy on his horse in battle even, prowling through the dark forests early in the morning, stealthily looking for game, watching Daddy make his kill so he can imitate daddy himself when the time comes...so Alexander as a child learns early all the pitfalls of the life of a soldier/leader/king.

So my version of Alexander would certainly never make him appear childlike even in his adolescence, but my book is yet to be produced as I keep altering it all the time, but for children, I want them to know how Alexander learned his Greek Alphabet, to read and write, to excell in sports, as he is a born natural in athletics, and all the tests that were put to him. He would never end up becoming the sorry person that Roberts is trying to instill into the minds of teenagers.

But the book is interesting and amusing! HA!

I had to laugh at times! And in her style of writing, and theme of ghosts and things yes ithe ending is appropriate and very touching. I went with her on her ride, and liked Charm very much, but found her deviation from history to be annoying. Roxanne was 16 when they were married, and Plutarch and others say that they fell in love at first sight! So there you go...what can you do but write your own book. So I feel challenged still to do that...I am just giving you some idea of what I would write for children to know about Alexander too.

[marcus]

I am beginning to think that England is a hotbed of anal thinking only autors at time, sorry about that, but Roberts is from Stroud, England, according to the jacket.

Ah, well, if she comes from Stroud that says an awful lot! I worked in Stroud for nearly a year and ... hmmm. It's a lovely place but ...

Roxanne was 16 when they were married

Well, she was of "marriagable age", which people often take to mean that she was around 16; but she might even have been younger (or, indeed, older).

ATB