Military Rhetoric and Utopian Thought The Rhetoric of Subjugated People in Alexander’s Romance
by Giuseppe Veltri
Overview
Text 1: Talmud of Babylonia tractate Tamid 32a (transl. van Bekkum)
Alexander came to a place where there only women. He wanted to make war with them, but they said to him: "If you slay us, people will say: he killed women, and if we slay you, the will call you: the king who was killed by women.
He said to them: "Bring me bread". They brought him bread made of gold on a table made of gold. He said to them: "Do people here ear bread made of gold". They replied: "If you wanted bread, had you no bread in your own place to eat that you should have journeyed here?" When he left he wrote on the gate of (this) place: "I, Alexander of Macedon, was a fool until I came to the city of women in Africa and I learnt counsel from the women".
Text 2: Alexander Romance, MS Hebr. 671.5, Paris (transl. van Bekkum)
He marched thence to the island of the Amazons, after he had received a letter from there. He despised it and grew angry and he ordered a letter to be written: ’Alexander, the king of the kings, son of the God Ammon and queen Olympias, to Talistrida, queen of the island of the Amazons, greetings. I know that nothing has not been concealed to you with regard to the victory over king Darius and the conquest of that entire empire and what we do now to Porus, king of India. Now I am here before you. When this letter comes to you, you will
I shall tell you and inform you about the shape of my kingdom: let it be known to you that we inhabit two islands, one opposite the other. These two islands are found at the edge of the inhabited world, in the ocean. One of the islands is near the sea-shore, inhabited by women, all of them soldier-women, strong in warfare, at this time numbering 14,000 women who have not known a man. The men stay at the inner island separated from the women. Once a year we have a festival when all the inhabitants of the island are gathered and united. They stay together during the day of the festival, thirty days. When the days of the festival are over, the men leave the women in accordance with custom. …. When an enemy besieges us, the soldier-women are assembled and set out for the sea-shore against the enemy. Those who stay behind stand guard over the inner island as long as the war continues. The soldier-women arm themselves with arrow and slingstones. Surprised about the heroism of our soldier-women many men go forth to the continent to watch from a distance our heroism. When the battle has ended and the women return from fighting, then the men gather like one group and prostate themselves at their feet. When the battle had spread out and some women died, then their estate goes to the woman who fought next to them and saw their death. From all their inheritors their heritage is reduced. Therefore, our great lord, listen to the words of queen Talistrida! Our courageous women desire to wage war against you, now that they heard about you vigour and your triumph in wars, so that you may now put them to the test and they will acquire fame because of their heroism.
We advice you, our lord king, to obey by not invading our regions, because you will not earn glory, if you fight against us and defeat us. Even if you will be victorious, you feel more ashamed and low than you ever did before … If you do not listen to our advice and really intend to set out against us, be it known to you at first, that our women rejoice about this. In case you will not find them on the island, they have come near to you on the continent in order to fight against you".
… (Alexander) ordered as reply to be written, expressing contempt. After the introduction he wrote: "You must know that we have fought against the people of the world and conquered three quarters of the inhabited world …. Now that you have shown in your letter your wisdom, understanding and courage, know that you have to choose well, then you stay alive; if you choose death, then fight against us."
The letter reached the Amazons and they replied that they would accept and submit to his authority.
Items of background Information
Talmud: An encyclopaedic collection of dicta, stories, religious and legal texts, product of two Jewish schools from the third to the fifth century C.E. One of these compilations is entitled "Talmud Yerushalmi" (Jerusalem Talmud) and the other "Talmud Babli" (Babylonian Talmud). For more information in internet i.e. in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud (there more links)
Alexander Romance: collection of legends around the mythical figure of Alexander the Great. There are many versions of the romance which originally goes back to the historian Callisthenes (nephew and pupil of Aristotle) who once said that Callisthenes possessed great eloquence but lacked common sense). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Romance .
Thalestris was the name given to a (fictional) queen of the Amazons. Plutarch, who critically collected some of the sources of the meeting between the queen and Alexander, "makes mention of when Alexander's secondary naval commander, Onesicritus, was reading the Amazon passage of his Alexander history to King Lysimachus of Thrace who was on the original expedition), the king smiled at him and said ’And where was I, then?’" (See source and more details in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons ).
Questions
- What is the historical significance of the topic "women-soldier", origin of a legend?
- Why did they "accept and submit to Alexander authority" after such threatening words (and gestures)?
- What it the rhetorical logic of this episode?
- What is the nucleus of the second text?
Bibliographical references
- Banyham, Elisabeth, Alexander the Great. The Unique History of Quintus Curtius, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press 1998.
- Spencer, Diana, The Roman Alexander. Reading a Cultural Myth, Exeter: University of Exeter Press 2002.
- Van Bekkum, Wout Jac., ed., A Hebrew Alexander Romance According to MS London, Jews’ College no. 145, Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oriëntalistiek 1992 [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 47].
- -, A Hebrew Alexander Romance According to MS Héb. 671.5 Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, Groningen: Styx Publications 1994 [Hebrew Language and Literature Series, 1s].
- Giuseppe Veltri, "’The East’ in the Story of the Lost Tribes: Creation of geographical and political Utopias, in Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Though. Festschrift Joseph Dan, ed. Peter Schäfer and Rachel Elior, Tübingen: Mohr,2005, pp. 249-269.