Alexander in India

Abstract

This chapter considers Alexander's expedition to India. The most common explanation for his motives is his pothos, his longing to go beyond, to see what was over the next hill—for in this case, he had been led by Aristotle to suppose that once he crossed the Hindu Kush, the River of Ocean would be in sight and he could go on quickly to conquer the entire world. The motivation is explicitly romantic, and is tied up with the idea of Alexander as an explorer rather than a conqueror. But his exploration also had a practical motive, “from a desire to explore the whole coastline along the route ... to gather information about all the coastal settlements, and to find out what land was fertile and what was desert.”