Heracles (Macedonian)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herakles ( Greek  Ἡρακλῆς ; * 327 BC in Bactria ; † 309 BC ) was an illegitimate son of Alexander the Great and the Persian nobleman Barsine , a daughter of Artabazos II. He was named after the Greek legendary hero Herakles , by to whom the Macedonian royal dynasty of the Argeades claimed a descent, of which he was the last male member. On his mother's side, he was of royal Persian descent, since his mother belonged to the Pharnacids , a side branch of the Persian royal family of the Achaemenids . Heracles was called "King" by the ancient historian Diodorus .

Life

When Alexander died in 323 BC In Babylon the nauarchos Nearchus spoke out in favor of the son of Barsine as a suitable successor. Even Ptolemy took this into consideration, but this proposal was rejected by most of the leading officers of the Army Alexander. At the mass wedding of Susa, Nearchus was married to a daughter of Barsine from her previous marriage to Mentor from Rhodes , and Ptolemy had become Barsine's brother-in-law on the same occasion. Ultimately, Philip III. Arrhidaios and the posthumously born Alexander IV. Aigos recognized by the army as kings, both uncle and half-brother of Heracles.

Herakles lived with his mother in Pergamon, unscathed from the Diadoch Wars . But after Kassander in 310 BC BC the young Alexander IV. Aigos had murdered and thus eliminated the last legitimately born Argead, called in 309 BC. BC Polyperchon, who was enemies of Kassander, made the then 17-year-old Heracles the new pretender for royalty. Polyperchon ruled the Peloponnese at that time , and because Heracles and Barsine were in his retinue from then on, it is likely that the two were sent to Europe by Antigonos Monophthalmos, who was allied with Polyperchon, of Pergamon. But in the same year Polyperchon and Kassander came to a peaceful understanding at a meeting in Tymphaia , which was secured by contract. In this contract, Kassander set the condition for the elimination of Heracles, whereupon the latter was murdered with his mother by Polyperchon. Their bodies were quietly buried and, as Justin noted, they were denied a proper burial for Heracles.

Pros and cons of fatherhood

In historical research, the paternity of Alexander the Great on Heracles was not undisputed. William Woodthorpe Tarn put on the basis of the surviving sources in 1921 on the thesis that Heracles could not have been the son of Alexander nor the Barsine. Rather, he was the son of any parent, who was only passed off by Antigonus Monophthalmos as the son of Alexander in order to legitimize his reign over the Alexander empire through him , which was also claimed by his enemy Cassander. One of the arguments put forward by Tarn is the fact that Heracles was not mentioned by all classical Alexander historians while his alleged father was still alive. The fact that Alexander never recognized any child speaks for it. Curtius Rufus , Plutarch and Appian name Heracles or a son of Barsine at the death of Alexander, but the Diodorus who wrote before them stated that Alexander left no heir or son at his death (Alexander IV. Aigos was born posthumously). Furthermore, the relationship between Barsine and Alexander is cited, of whom Arrian and Diodorus, among others , wrote that after the “capture” of the Persian royal harem in Damascus by Parmenion in 333 BC it was written. Became Alexander's lover, but the duration of this relationship could not be determined, as Barsine was not mentioned until Alexander's death. In addition, according to Plutarch, Parmenion urged Alexander to marry Barsine, but taking into account the latent rivalry between the king and his general, whom he later had killed, Tarn considered it out of the question that Alexander could even have accepted a woman as his mistress may have stood in a personal agreement to Parmenion. Based on the age of 17 years for Heracles to die mentioned by Diodorus, he would have to be in 327/6 BC. Was born when Alexander was just passing through Sogdia and Bactria . At that time he had married Roxane without mentioning a possible separation from Barsine. Alexander had also appointed Artabazos' father, Satrap of Bactria, which is why Tarn considers it unlikely that Alexander was still in a relationship with Barsine at that time, as he created a possible enemy through his marriage to Roxane and a repudiation of Barsine with Artabazos would have. In conclusion, Tarn classified a relationship between Barsine and Alexander, similar to his supposed meeting with the Amazon queen, in the realm of mythology. Heracles was the son of unknown parents, who was passed off by Antigonus as the son of Alexander, except that the powerful Diadoch ruler had made the mistake of pulling out a puppet that was too young when he was five years old.

In the end, the Tarns thesis did not gain acceptance in research; Heracles was accepted as the son of Alexander the Great in later publications. Robert Malcolm Errington later assumed Tarn a "moral prejudice" against the Alexander idealized by him, according to which a concubinage between Barsine and Alexander would have been impossible, and that he wanted to erase Heracles from history. It is also pointed out that Kassander apparently considered Herakles so threatening that he made his murder a contractual condition with Polyperchon. Barsine could also very well up to 327/6 BC. They belonged to Alexander's entourage and only took the birth of their son and the marriage of their lover to Roxane as an opportunity to look for a safe refuge for them and their son.

Grave find

In 2008, during excavation work near the tumulus of the royal tombs of Vergina (Aigai), a golden container was uncovered which, in addition to the remains of a golden oak wreath, also contained the remains of a male who had died at a young age. Chrysoula Saatsoglou-Paliadeli , Professor of Classical Archeology at the University of Thessaloniki , believes this is Heracles' tomb. The attribution is complicated by a missing inscription as well as by another grave find. In August 2009, under the Agora of Vergina, not far from the theater in which Philip II was murdered, two large silver containers were unearthed, one of which also contained a golden wreath in addition to mortal remains. According to Stella Drougou, also a professor of archeology at the University of Thessaloniki, the unusual location of the find suggests an act of punishment or illegality. The vessels also resemble the silver hydria discovered in Tomb III of the Tumulus, commonly attributed to Alexander IV Aigos. The identification of the sex and age of the second body is still pending.

Assuming that one of the two finds is the remains of Heracles, Justin's claim would be confirmed, according to which Heracles was buried in private secrecy, since a lavish and striking burial of a member of the royal house outside the tomb tumulus and under the Agora and therefore could hardly be approved by Kassander under unworthy conditions without arousing the displeasure of the Macedonians against them. The fact that golden wreaths were added to both buried persons can be attributed to the fact that at least their undertakers (cassander?) Recognized their royal descent.

swell

literature

  • WW Tarn : Heracles son of Barsine. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Volume 41, 1921, pp. 18-28.
  • RM Errington : From Babylon to Triparadeisos. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Volume 90, 1970, pp. 49-77.

Remarks

  1. ↑ For age information see Diodorus 20, 20, 1. With Justin (15, 2, 2) Heracles was only over 14 years old when he died, which means that his year of birth would fall into the year of his father's death (323 BC).
  2. ↑ Tymphaia was the home of the Polyperchon.
  3. ↑ Diodorus 18, 2, 1; 18, 9, 1.
  4. ↑ Plutarch Alexander 21, 7–9.
  5. ↑ See Errington, p. 74.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Heracles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἡρακλῆς (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION illegitimate son of Alexander the Great
DATE OF BIRTH 327 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Bactria
DATE OF DEATH 309 BC Chr.