FILE Nº 0411 · History · DECLASSIFIED
Did You Know? Alexander the Great Was a Huge Fan of the Trojan War Epics!
TL;DR — In 334 BC, Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, began his war against the Persian Empire.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, began his war against the Persian Empire. Although Macedonia was only a small kingdom, he led a Greek-Macedonian army of about 40,000 men across the Hellespont into Anatolia, or Turkey, successfully.
For many leaders in history, the first thing they would do was plan and prepare to defend against the coming battle. But what Alexander did after setting foot on Persian land was the opposite. He told his generals to hold the army in position and wait, while he went off to perform rites following the footsteps of literature at the city of Troy… just like that…
This decision came from his having grown up reading Homer’s epics (Alexander’s era was about 800–900 years after the time of the Trojan War).
He also believed that his royal line was descended from Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War! So he set out with his close friend Hephaestion to visit key sites from the Trojan epics, and Alexander paid his respects at the tomb of Achilles at Ilion, a city standing on the ruins of ancient Troy.
The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus records that Alexander’s close companions saw a “good omen” in the area and told Alexander that the goddess Athena would bless him with victory. So Alexander went to the temple of Athena to make offerings and perform rites.
But he did not come back empty-handed on this trip. Alexander also performed a ceremony to take down ancient armour and a shield from the Trojan War era that hung in the temple of Athena, and carried them back to use on the battlefield, before returning to prepare his army for its first battle with the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus River, where he successfully won victory over the Persians.
P.S. The Wild Chronicles will also be running a tour following The Odyssey, an adventure to the fallen city of Troy, on 13-20 Feb 2027!! If you are interested, message our Line OA and type “Interested in the Odyssey tour”.
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