Alexander the Great

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the life of Alexander the Great is one of the most well-documented lives of the time, and within all of that documentation, there is a sense that Alexander was either a tyrant or a saint-like human. It looks at how the mystery of his existence is challenged by the propriety of the ancient writings and the individual author's ideal of the hero, whom the writer wished to portray. It also examines how the value of Michael Wood's documentary film, "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great," lies in the extensive manner with which Wood discusses the differences between right and wrong in Alexander's time versus our own.

From the Paper:

"Reading the Works of Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, and Plutarch, regardless of the modern language interpretations still leaves the reader with his or her own impressions of right and wrong. It is therefore difficult to address the man Alexander as a whole. The author's all tell the story as historians, yet in a very different tradition of history. The historic fable, the genre of its time does two things, it retells the story as it has been retold before, either through other older epic poetry histories or through legend mixed with the narrators own idea of right and wrong for their time."

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