Alexander in Babylon
Alexander in Babylon is a historical novel by Jakob Wassermann that was published in Berlin in 1905. The manuscript - nine hundred pages long - was available in September 1903 and has been shortened considerably by the author.
action
- foreplay
In the desert, dark yellow and motionless , night falls - suddenly like horror . The laughter of madness resounds in the supply of the army . King Alexander lies on a low couch in the tent, at the end of the camp sits Hephestion , leader of the noble hosts and friend of the king. Alexander pushes towards the gods, seems exquisite to the divine. But doubt and confidence alternate . Hephestion, the only one who does not fear Alexander, is the guardian of the sick, roaring soul. Alexander is avoided, his presence spreads horror.
The wells have collapsed, the puddles have dried up. Even the conqueror of Asia suffers inhumanly from thirst. But: there is no such thing as death!
“Help us, Alexander!” Shout the mercenaries. “Save us if you are God's Son!” On the death march through the desert, nineteen of eight hundred camels are left. These sniff the way into the green land. Alexander does not share the joyous movement of his mercenaries.
- The diadem
In the spring of 324 BC BC Alexander reached Susa with the remains of his army . Alexander is holding a terrible criminal court among governors, judges and tax administrators who have taken advantage of his long absence in India to gain wealth. The diadem from the Cyrus tomb was also stolen. The thief is still undetected in the middle of the army. <
Among the Macedonians in the army of Alexander claimed a soldier from Ekbatana comes from there marched thirty thousand young Persians , dressed in armor and Macedonian in all exercises of the phalanx trained on. The Macedonians fear that Alexander no longer trusts them, his compatriots. Phason, one of their captains, hears the dull rumble of the uproar . Problems are solved on the spot with the sword. Phason kills the soldier who delivered the news. Another soldier finds the stolen diadem in the pool of blood next to the corpse. Alexander, who happens to be passing by, looks at the shining work of art in his hand . A magician calls out: "Throw it away, Alexander!" And warns whoever wears the diadem must die. Alexander the concept of death is alien and distant . So he challenges the alien gods - ties the diadem to his weasel fur cap .
- The wedding party
The Macedonians fear a slanderer and traitor in their friend, they no longer dare to put their thoughts into words. In them there is no faith, no trust, no hope, no joy, no firmness, no real seriousness. Sun breaks suddenly under the Edelknaben a conspiracy against the life of Alexander from. Hephestion finds out about it. He prevents further activities of the conspirators with a hard hand, without putting Alexander in the picture, but comes a little too late for Susa's mass wedding. The Persian brides move into the huge tent, in which there are more than ten thousand people. The brides seem willing, inclined to the commanded love, but some had lost their brother through their future Macedonian husband or their mother, who was violated shortly before death. Alexander marries Stateira , daughter of Darius . The bride's face is of a strange, wicked motionlessness. Perhaps she is thinking of her rival Roxane , who is waiting for Alexander in the royal palace in Babylon . Hephestion is assigned to Drypetis , also a daughter of Darius, for marriage. Drypetis smiles to herself like a shy slave, sensually worried.
Hephestion catches a single glance from Alexander at the wedding table and thinks he can read from it: The king knows everything about the last conspiracy.
After the wedding, Alexander meets a neglected crowd of children, descendants of the victims of the desert train. The orphans are led by the Indian Kondanyo. Alexander wants to hear something good from the wise man. Kondanyo says: "Blessed are those who do not hate, Alexander!"
Hephaestion receives a letter from Arrhidäos , the fearful aside stayer and brooding dreamers, the half-brother of Alexander.
- Liblitu
Arrhidäos, two years younger than Alexander , is the son of King Philip and a Thessalian dancer. Only a few Macedonians, ready for any crime , go with him against the Tigris . On the way they encounter the Liblitu . The Babylonian had escaped from the Macedonians in the temple of Anahita and was only spared by the intrusive mercenaries of Alexander by fleeing into the grove of the sacred serpents. Liblitu wants to bring Alexander's lawsuit in the army camp . Arrhidäos takes the lonely into his protection . The mercenaries desire Liblitu and follow her quietly like dogs . Liblitu flees to Arrhidaeus. He is busy with himself. The late arrival envies Alexander.
- The Macedonians
The armies of Alexander gather on the river Kufisu. Now it has become a certainty . Thirty thousand Persians arrive. Seized by a unanimous surge , the Macedonians pull up to Alexander's seat and want clarity. Alexander steps out alone and sends the battle-weary home. A commotion breaks out. “Traitor!” They shout at Alexander. “He took advantage of us and expressed it, and now he's throwing us in the dirt.” Later someone yells: “Up! Home! We are free! ”Alexander locks himself in his palace. The return to Macedonia without Alexander proves to be impracticable. The Macedonians plead for mercy in front of the palace wall and fall on deaf ears with Alexander. Phason takes all the guilt of the Macedonians and directs himself against the palace wall with his own sword.
- Hephestion
Hephestion rushes into Alexander's room and storms the king. “Now is the time you remembered the Macedonians. Friend! Beloved Alexander! ”He exclaims. But Alexander coldly rejects his friend and sends him on a campaign against Kolonai. Alexander steps out to the Macedonians. The soldiers try to clasp his knees . Alexander sees in their eyes the hatred of which the humiliated themselves know nothing. Then the horror comes over him. Those who wanted to be a god now suspect that being human means more. But he has no one but Hephestion. Then he finds the dead Phason and kisses the cool lips.
Drypetis wants the love of the forcibly wedded Hephestion. The husband has not yet touched the wife and releases her. Liblitu, who in the meantime has brought a complaint, approaches Hephestion, embraces him like a lover. Hephestion the senses perish. The Babylonian bites his shoulder and drinks his blood. Poisonous sleep overwhelms him .
- fever
While looking for the husband, Drypetis found his talisman and tells Alexander the place where it was found. Alexander finds Hephestion in the twilight. He kisses him on the lips and asks tenderly: “Why are your lips so cold?” Hephestion is tired of life, looks forward to death and leaves. The Macedonians later find him in a tattered dress, soiled armor and barefoot. Hephestion pulls the corpse Liblitus behind him. Hephestion dies.
- The nights between the streams
Alexander howls like an animal in front of the body of his dead friend Hephestion . The more the night advances, the more he fears the corpse. Suddenly he has a feeling of alienation and commands: "Let it be quiet and dark in Asia."
Perdiccas receives command of the noble hosts. Alexander looks back. The feeling of the past is new to him. He feels heavily laden like any other mortal. Eumenes , one of Alexander's captains, sees the grief and says to the king: "If you have forgotten all those who love you, at least think of those who hate you." Alexander sets off with his hosts for Babylon.
- The Chaldeans
The army moves into the Babylonian land . Shortly before midnight, Alexander received the Carthaginian embassy . The oldest ambassador bows his forehead down to the carpet in greeting. Arrhidäos laughs. Alexander chastises the half-brother. A Chaldean prophesies from the liver of a young donkey that has just been slaughtered. Alexander should turn back. He has the seven Chaldean priests captured. Nobody shows displeasure or fear.
In Babylon, Kondanyo, tired of seeing the human business, voluntarily mounts the stake.
The Chaldeans still advise Alexander to repent. If he still wants to defy the stars , he should at least enter Babylon looking towards morning. But the west gate is surrounded by swamps. Alexander orders the death of the seven Chaldeans who stand for the light of the future .
- Arrhidaeos
Hephestion's body is to be cremated in Babylon. The ambitious Macedonian Charippos is entrusted by Perdiccas with the wake at Hephestion's coffin. Drypetis wants to bury the beloved shell at Uruk in the city of the dead so that it does not fall into the fire and be excluded from Zarathustra's heaven . So she lets Charippos get away from the coffin. His guards are enjoying themselves in Babylon while Drypetis has the body removed. Charippos, left alone in the vast Babylon, meets Arrhidäos. Alexander's half-brother is just as alone and seeks Charippos' friendship. It is on the way. Charippos has left his post and has to go back. Arrhidaeos accompanies him. Perdiccas fears the punishment of Alexander and has Charippus killed for neglect of duty. The dead person is simply placed in the coffin. The guards, who are also neglected, are silent out of fear of Alexander. Arrhidäos does not mourn Charippos, but the friend whom fate denies him.
- The demon adorned with a diadem
At night the king moves through the Ishtar Gate into the lion- adorned processional street . He takes part in the feast of the noble Babylonian Nidintubel, and the gloomy gaze falls on faces in which there is an expression of hypocritical humility . Roxane had asked for Alexander from the royal palace in Babylon. He goes to her. Roxane is slim and long-legged . Roxane's movements have something asleep and melancholy as they do with noble captive animals . Roxane, lonely and cast out, is touched by Alexander's gaze, so searching for life, so firm, so rigid, so flaming and so dark that she gives herself to him. Then Alexander leaves Roxane and takes a cool bath in the water basin outside at night. In the basin he realizes that it is impossible to hold onto this inexplicable, called life, at will . And he wonders if that is so, which he then conquered kingdoms, killed men, kings dethroned and gods offended has . The world for which he strives is melting away.
Half-brother Arrhidaeos has sneaked to the pool and is now wearing the diadem.
- A dialogue
Alexander must punish this sacrilege with death. He only has the half-brother scourged. Perdiccas finally puts an end to this - out of old attachment to Philip of Macedonia, whose bastard the scourged one is.
The spring comes. It is said that Alexander was ill, that he caught a cold in the night bath. Alexander goes against the advice of the doctors to cremate his beloved friend Hephestion. The chastised half-brother meets him. Arrhidäos says: “You most abandoned person, Alexander. No heart beats for you, everyone just trembles before you. Alone you face the darkness. I know your torment. ”Alexander orders the fire to be lit. Charippos is on fire.
- The ring
Roxane is pregnant. Alexander's health is rapidly deteriorating. Eumenes, Perdiccas and Seleucus are always close to the seriously ill king, who can hardly walk. Perdiccas overcomes himself and asks Alexander who should give orders for him . Alexander pulls his signet ring from his thumb and hands it to Perdiccas. Perdiccas flees behind the walls of Borsippa with the ring and has the gate closed by a sealed royal order. Alexander doesn't want to die. Eumenes now asks the question of the name of the successor. The hatred of these living leaves Alexander's breath catching.
Alexander walks to the palace one last time and is assaulted by the crowd of his Macedonians as if they wanted to kiss him. The Macedonians push and push, step on his body, on his chest.
- Babylon
The Macedonians have found a successor for the dead Alexander - Philip's son . Arrhidäos has reached the goal of his most secret desires, but he by no means proves himself from the beginning. In astonishment, he leaves power to Perdiccas. When Roxane has her rival Stateira cut her throat in the power struggle, Arrhidäos has an epileptic fit . Slowly recovering, Philip's son devotes himself to playing the flute.
Self-testimony
The author spent four years doing historical research on the novel.
reception
- Hesse sees the text as art; not so much because of the figure of the great Alexander, but rather because of some "trembling, anxious tones" that come from that Babylon - articulated by the people - here and there.
- According to Margarita Pazi, Wassermann in the figure of Arrhidae expresses his admiration for Dostoyevsky .
- The young Aquarius has the gift and the creative power to capture the "Alexander Reich in its splendor and misery" on paper.
- According to Sprengel , the material only serves "to create an aesthetic, decadent mood of doom"
literature
- source
Jakob Wassermann: Alexander in Babylon. Historical novel. Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-373-00056-4 .
- First edition
- Jakob Wassermann: Alexander in Babylon. S. Fischer, Berlin 1905.
- expenditure
- Jakob Wassermann: Alexander in Babylon. S. Fischer, Berlin 1915 (4th and 5th ed.), 1918 (6th to 8th ed.), 1924.
- Jakob Wassermann: Alexander in Babylon. Ziff-Davis, Chicago 1949. (First edition in English)
- Jacob Wassermann: Alexander de Groote in Babylon. (Vol. 1). Amsterdam.
- Secondary literature
- Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse. The world in book I. Reviews and essays from the years 1900–1910. In: Hermann Hesse. All works in 20 volumes, vol. 16. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1988 (2002 edition), 646 pages, without ISBN
- Margarita Pazi in: Gunter E. Grimm , Frank Rainer Max (Hrsg.): German poets. Life and work of German-speaking authors . Volume 7: From the beginning to the middle of the 20th century . Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-008617-5 .
- Rudolf Koester: Jakob Wassermann . Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-371-00384-1 , pp. 28-29.
- Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9 , p. 155.
- Jakob Wassermann: Self-Contemplation. Appropriated to Marta. Salzwasser Verlag, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8460-0022-9 . (First edition 1933 (Koester, p. 90 above, entry 1933))
Web links
- The novel text at Gutenberg-DE
- The text of the novel at Gutenberg-DE (other source)
- Self-contemplations
Individual evidence
- ↑ Self- Contemplations , p. 18.
- ↑ Hesse in the " Münchner Zeitung " of December 9, 1904, quoted in Michels, p. 148 below
- ^ Pazi, p. 50, 1st line from
- ^ Koester, p. 28, 2nd line vu
- ↑ Sprengel, p. 155, 19th line from