Heracles, Macedon, and Alexander the Great

This chapter challenges the commonly held view that Alexander the Great’s emulation of Heracles was real, a notion based on a plethora of ancient material purporting to document a special relationship between the Macedonian king and the Greek hero. However, on closer inspection, it becomes clear that the major historiographical texts—by Diodorus, Curtius, Plutarch, and Arrian—develop the Heracles theme inconsistently and to very different degrees. Indeed, the review of relevant episodes and features demonstrates that the theme has an overwhelmingly literary nature, and that it extends beyond the historiographical tradition. The literary texts cannot be used as evidence for reconstructing an emulation of Heracles by the historical Alexander. This conclusion has consequences for how we understand Heracles’ broader role in the self-fashioning of the Argead dynasty to which Alexander belonged.