fajrdrako | Alexander the Great... (Reply)

I went to a video-party at Tasia's place to see In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great.

Now, usually when I watch televised documentaries about history, they drive me nuts. They make unsupported statements, they try to be sensational but they don't back up their facts with sources, and I'm usually frustrated by the whole thing.

Michael Wood's miniseries are a big exception. This was terrific. It made it so clear how far Alexander the Great went, and with what difficulties - and we got to see Michael Wood's difficiulties, too. It was shocking to see the state of Kabul; dramatic to see the Indus Valley. I learned of some cultures I'd never heard of before. The history of Alexander was very plain and clear - much easier to understand than it was in the Oliver Stone movie. There were details left out - nothing about Bagoas, alas! Though Hephaestion was covered.

The first ten minutes of the four-hour series already got us past the Battle of Issus. There was a lot of travel to pack into four hours. A few visuals particularly interested me:

A tiny miniature of Alexander's head, twin to one of Philip, which is the only representation of Alexander from his lifetime. He looked young - but he would have been, it must have been sculpted before his father's death.

A relief on a wall in Luxor, showing Alexander as an Egyptian pharaoh in the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt - I would never have recognized him. He is pouring a libation on the penis of the god Amun. I can only find a tiny picture of it online, here - ironically, on a kids' history site.

A group of people celebrating a wedding somewhere in northern Pakistan, in the present, dressed in clothing that looks Balkan. I didn't quite catch the name of the cultural group (and I want to track it down), but they have Greek influence in their language and their religion relates to the Greek pagan pantheon. I'm not sure how different this would be from the modern Hindu pantheon. Differnt names? Different attributes for similar gods? I am not assuming that Greek and Hindu gods are necessarily cognate on a one-on-one basis by any means, but I know there are similarities and historically shared origins. Presumably these people's gods are particularly Greek, beyond the others.

The most heartbreaking moment was seeing the rubble of the interior of the Kabul museum, where the unique and priceless Greco-Indian artifacts had once been a treasure. I remember reading an article about the heroic efforts of the curators to preserve their artifacts.

And now I am particularly intrigued by Greco-Indian history. Tasia is urging me to write about it for the apa. I found a few online sources: