How is Alexander the great viewed in the West?

[Kyriakos]

I hope Leoreth does not see this thread and have a heart-attack

Some months ago a local channel run a contest of "greatest greek people ever", and Alexander was voted as the overall greatest, beating Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and some other notables.
But some people claimed that Alexander should not have won, by merit that he was "just a warlord". I do not agree with this, since effectively his actions brought the hellenistic era, an era of great development of science and art, which probably would not have happened if Greece was confined to Hellas (particularly if it had been conquered in a new Persian expedition against it).

So the question is how do you view Alexander. What does his name mean to you. What about his legacy? Is he more important to Greek and European(and therefore Global) civilization than other famous greek people like Aristotle?

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if he did not die so soon. Maybe a greek version of the roman empire? Perhaps even a more advanced civilization for all.

 

[holy king]

as the guy who conquered the known world a long time ago.

 

[NovaKart]

So many people have the name Alex in the Anglophone countries and in Russia too. And in Turkey the name Iskender is still used, at least with Iskender kebab, the best kebab really. That's something to be said at least.

 

[Kyriakos]

So many people have the name Alex in the Anglophone countries and in Russia too. And in Turkey the name Iskender is still used, at least with Iskender kebab, the best kebab really. That's something to be said at least.

What? This is an insult to Megas Alexandros!

I used to eat kebabs while i was in London, but do not recall any Iskender one there. Maybe it is not international...

 

[NovaKart]

It's a specific type of kebab served over slices of pita bread with yogurt and tomato sauce on top. Actually it has nothing to do with Alexander the Great, just a coincidence in the naming.

 

[Ajidica]

Dead, gay, possible (but not really) Greek who got alot of people killed.

 

[Kyriakos]

Sadly even Kafka at a very short piece mentions something like "There is no Alexander anymore, no one shows the way to India, although there are many murderers" etc. :/

 

[History_Buff]

He was a guy who conquered the world, was probably a huge megalomaniac and very gay, kind of insane, brilliant general. Conquered the Near/Mid-East just long enough for it to implode after his death, providing growing room for Rome and Carthage.

Seeing as his empire collapsed almost immediately, I don't think his effect on the world has been that big, perhaps equally important, maybe a little less important than the host of great Greek philosophers. Nor do I associate him with any great flourishing of art and science (though I don't know much about that period, it may well have happened, but it's not what comes to mind).

Mostly, it's his great military achievements that define him in my eyes.

 

[Maniac]

Greece isn't part of the west?

 

[innonimatu]

What? Greatest greek? The great macedonian conqueror who thoroughly trounced the greeks? Stop trying to rob the ancestors of the noble macedonian people, you greeks!

 

[Phrossack]

He's drastically overrated. Alexander was lucky to face a rather weak empire with (mostly) low-quality troops. Hell, he was often able to take breaks from the war, what with the merciless and probably unnecessary siege of Tyre and his little spiritual trip to Siwa. He refused to destroy the Persian navy by sea, instead boasting that he'd defeat it by land. IIRC, an Ionian admiral in Persian service planned to land a sizeable army with huge amounts of gold in Greece to buy Greek support against Alexander's rear flank, but he died of disease. After winning a few major battles and lots of little sieges, Alexander was forced to stop, mercilessly dragged his army through a desert out of bitterness, which killed many soldiers, killed one of his closest Companions in a drunken rage, and died, possibly from his excesses in Babylon.

 

[CivOasis]

How is he viewed? Where I am, as the greatest military leader of all time.

That being said, he's also known for angering his almalgam of peoples, and isn't always considered a terrific guy in general.

Whether or not he actually fits those descriptions is a different matter entirely.

As a side note, I echo Maniac's question - isn't Greece the root of the West?

 

[Phrossack]

How is he viewed? Where I am, as the greatest military leader of all time.

That being said, he's also known for angering his almalgam of peoples, and isn't always considered a terrific guy in general.

Whether or not he actually fits those descriptions is a different matter entirely.

As a side note, I echo Maniac's question - isn't Greece the root of the West?

Much as the West boasts of its Greek heritage, not really. It gets said over and over, but which "Western" ideas exactly were passed down by the Greeks? And do they outweigh all the contributions of other cultures?

 

[CivOasis]

Some countries' governments, some languages' vocabulaires, architecture, literature, etc., came from Greece.

Do they outweigh the contributions of all other cultures? Probably not, but ancient and classical Greece (and its nearby neighbors) definitely influenced Western culture more than many other groups.

 

[Phrossack]

Some countries' governments, some languages' vocabulaires, architecture, literature, etc., came from Greece.

Do they outweigh the contributions of all other cultures? Probably not, but ancient and classical Greece (and its nearby neighbors) definitely influenced Western culture more than many other groups.

Governments? If you mean democracy, not really. Democracy in Europe seems to have evolved from giving groups of noblemen some rights (Szlachta, Magna Carta, Italian and Russian merchant republics, etc.) to gradually broadening suffrage. At least, this was sometimes the case. Just because the Greeks came up with something similar before the rest of Europe doesn't mean Europe borrowed the idea.

Languages' vocabulary? Yeah, a lot of words (in English, at least) are from Greek.

Architecture? Only in a few monumental buildings. By and large, you can't really compare European architecture to Greek architecture, with a few exceptions like the Brandenburger Tor.

Literature? Explain. The West did develop some writing on its own, like runes and Beowulf. Hard to say exactly what in Western literature was influenced/created by the Greeks.

 

[G-Max]

Today, he is mostly remembered because of Colin Farrell's butt. Also, Angelina Jolie was his mom, and she had a snake fetish or something.

 

[Kyriakos]

I did not mean to kick Greece out of the West, but rather ask how he is viewed in the rest of the West, since i provided an idea of his legacy here

Greece, historically, has both been (imo) a pillar of the West, but also an Eastern major civilization (as in the Eastern Roman Empire).

 

[Plotinus]

He was a thug who tried to outshine Achilles by doing worse things than Achilles did.

However, I doubt that most westerners know who he was, other than the name. Think of the Far Side cartoon where he's sitting morosely at dinner with his wife saying, "And another thing - I want you to be more assertive. I'm tired of everyone calling you Alexander the Pretty Good!" - but Larson evidently thinks that Alexander was some kind of medieval warrior, judging by the outfits.

Most people have no idea about this sort of thing. I remember about ten years ago a friend of mine was playing an RTS game that was set, I think, in the Trojan Wars, and Alexander the Great was a unit you could field. Even worse, my friend was under the impression that Achilles was a philosopher. And he was doing a PhD. So I doubt many people have much of a view of Alexander the Great at all, although they will probably have heard the name.

 

[NovaKart]

I don't remember seeing Colin Farrell's butt in Alexander. That movie was too stupid for me to watch it again just for that reason.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

People mistake him as Greek when he was actually Macedonian, and they think of him as the guy who conquered India when he only conquered part of it.