His legends, true and false, appear in 80 languages, from Iceland to Malaya. The Parsees curse him for destroying their holy books.
In Central Asia he is Sikandar (also Iskander). His red silk banner is still displayed in Ferghana, in Turkestan. Chiefs claim descent from him, their people claim descent from his soldiers, their horses from Bucephalus.
He appears in the Koran as Dulcarnain. In legend he explored as far as the Ganges, the Blue Nile, and Britain. He travelled to the heavens and to the underworld. In legends, he went indeed to the end of the world, and even to the bottom of the sea, where the very fish paid him homage.
He was the son of Apollo, according to his own mother, and there are signs that he believed this. At Gordium, he cut the fabled knot.
He tamed the wild horse Bucephalus with a word and a touch. That story is as good as any to tell in some detail.
Bucephalus
One day, when Alexander was a boy, his father and some of his companions were trying to break a horse. This horse was a magnificent black stallion, of such size and fierce spirit that no one had been able to ride him.
The men stood around the horse, each trying his hand and each being thrown or even being unable to approach the huge beast. None could manage it. Finally, Alexander asked that he be allowed to try. The men thought it would be a grand joke to let a mere boy (he was about 10 years old) attempt to ride the black stallion, so they let him.
Alexander approached the horse, who stood and regarded him. It lowered its head and the boy spoke to him softly, whereupon it immediately was tamed. Alexander leaped onto the horse's back and it bore him away.
The horse was Alexander's from that day on. He named it Bucephalus and it was his war horse and he rode it in all his major battles. Bucephalus served Alexander faithfully and died at last on campaign in India, where Alexander named a city in his honor.
In paintings, Alexander is always represented as riding a black horse. Like his master, Bucephalus entered into legend and became a creature of mythic abilities. There is a nice re-telling of the story of Bucephalus at the beginning of the movie The Black Stallion. If you have a chance to see the movie, you'll hear the main character's father tell the story, with the sort of embellishments that have nourished all the Alexander legends through the centuries.
Everything about Alexander was larger than life, both his real exploits and his imagined ones. Throughout the ancient world, great generals would dream that they could imitate Alexander. In the Middle Ages, he became a figure encrusted in legend.
Alexander's career marks a watershed not only in Greek history, but in the history of the entire Near East. Before Alexander, we speak of the Hellenic era (Hellas is the Greek word for Greece). After Alexander, we speak of the Hellenistic era. In the former era, Greece is more or less isolated or at least contained. The primary characteristic of the Hellenistic era is the spread of Greek culture across the entire Near East, and the mixing of Greek and Oriental currents.
Alexander also marks the end of the threat of the East. One constant theme from the 6th century to the end of the 4th is the danger posed by various eastern kingdoms, especially Persia. Alexander ended this. Even after the Roman legions came, much of the Near East continued to regard Greek culture as the highest form and the one most worth imitating.
