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.
Best regards,