Hello all,
Here I go again, very slowly catching up with you all. X is a difficult letter, but I have found a very appropriate subject, or person. Xenophon's books were most important for Alexander, both his Anabasis, his On Horsemanship and his Kyropedia. Here we see that not just Alexander learned a lot from him.
All the best wishes, Read and enjoy,
/ NorthernLight
X Is For Xenophon
The Pella Palace, 346 BC
For once the young golden haired boy had a moment of peace and calm. He sat on the stone bench near the window, reading a scroll worn almost into tatters. A flickering oil lamp helped him to see the letters in the dim evening light. Also a sickle moon and the planets of Zeus and Ares outside his window enabled him to read his favourite scroll.
The Iliad was what Alexander liked the most. He could see Achilles before his Inner Eye. He had never met the great hero. Still , he thought that he knew him and his dear friend Patroclos for real. Now Alexander lifted his eyes from his beloved Iliad. He sharpened his gaze, trying to discern the Keep on the Second Hill. It was barely visible, but there was another flickering oil lamp in one of its windows. Alexander knew who was also reading in the light of that flickering flame. He wished that Hephaestion was there with him, but he knew that he had it far better together with his own family. The Spartan tutoring at the Palace did not agree with his new friend, and Alexander wanted Hephaestion to be well.
THUMP!
The door was thrown open and a thick knotted thick entered before Master Leonidas. The stern tutor held another scroll in his left hand, smacking it almost like a whip.
"Alexander! You read your Iliad every free moment I give you, "he roared at his hapless pupil. " You must know every line by heart now! I want you to learn something else, too. Here is a most edifying scroll about horses and horsemanship. Take it to your heart for a change."
The golden haired boy started to sulk, very much like Achilles in his tent at the shores of Troy. All the same he had to part from his beloved Iliad and take the new scroll.
"Xenophon", it read. "On Horsemanship", was the title.
Listlessly he started to read, expecting it to be dull and uninteresting. It was nothing of the kind. Soon the young boy was completely captivated. He could actually see The Perfect Horse before his Inner Eye. It was a stallion, black like a thundercloud, with fiery intelligent eyes, a large head with ears pricked forward in intent interest, curved and high set neck with a long black mane, its silken strands flying to the winds, a broad muscular chest, long legs and thick and determined hooves. The horse stamped the ground, beckoning to him. Young Alexander went to him and carefully grasped his black mane. Soon he was on the broad silken back, riding and racing with the surging northern winds.
It was the ride of his life. He wished that it would never end.
He woke up in his bed, carefully wrapped into his threadbare blankets. Master Leonidas had come by finding him asleep with the scroll. The stern tutor had put his young pupil to bed, not wanting him to catch a cold from sleeping on the stone frame of the Palace window. The scroll about Horsemanship lay at his bed table. Alexander remembered all of his new learning. He saw the wonderful black stallion before his Inner Eye.
/ I would probably never ride such a horse in the real world, "he sadly mused to himself. /
Three years later, at the Pella Horse Fair, he was to be proven wrong.
The Keep Of Amyntor, 346 BC
Long auburn hair shone in the flickering light of the oil lamp. Small but strong hands grasped an old scroll. It was carefully preserved and adored, but all the same it had been worn and torn almost into tatters. Beautiful blue eyes eagerly perused its contents. Sometimes the young boy looked through the window. He watched the sickle moon and the planets of Zeus and Ares. The Hunter had risen above the horizon. He was followed by Sirius and Procyon, his faithful hunting dogs. Hephaestion wished that Alexander was at his side, telling him bedtime tales about the star lit sky. He knew that his friend had to stay in the Palace and he silently said a Prayer for him, hoping that he was not too hungry and worn out after another Spartan schoolday.
He gazed through the window, seeing the walls of Pella and the Palace above them. A flickering light shone from a window. Hephaestion knew who was reading in that light. Golden hair and gray eyes came before him, the image so vivid that he almost reached out for it.
"Hephaestion! Are you dreaming about Achilles again? It is good and well, but now I have something else for you, "Master Lernias said, coming through the door with a new scroll in his hand. "I know that you and Alexander dream a lot about Persia. Here you can learn some real things about that distant country. It will do you good when you are actually there."
His kind old tutor gently took his beloved Iliad away and replaced it with the new scroll. "Anabasis", it read on its top. Hephaestion reluctantly started to read. He soon found that Master Lernias was right. Persia and the Persians came alive before his Inner Eye. He shared the hardships of Xenophon and his Ten Thousand and he saw the hostile landscapes and enemy troops, feeling himself stagger during the Long March.
He woke up in his own bed, wrapped into warming woolen blankets and sheep fleece. The night lamp shone at his bedside and both his old and new scroll lay there, beckoning to a new reading.
/ I hope that I will travel to Persia with Alexander - and I know that with him as our Leader we will never come to such adversities - but if something bad happens I wish that I would have the resourcefulness of Xenophon to take us to safety! /
Many years later, on the ice cold, snowy slopes of the Hindu Kush, in the wet and steaming jungles of India and in the hellish deserts of the Jaxartes and Gedrosia Hephaestion got the chance to prove his ability to lead an army during the hardest of circumstances.
He was very thankful to old Xenophon for the sharing of his experiences.
The End