Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/31997
Title: The banquets of Alexander
Authors: Mestre, Francesca
Gómez, Pilar
Issue Date: 2009
Publisher: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra
Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos
Journal: http://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/2353
Abstract: Banquet scenes are often described in Plutarch’s Lives. In the Life of Alexander, Plutarch defines the exemplary profile of the Macedonian king in his relations with others – his companions and friends and his defeated enemies. The social institution of symposium, so deeply rooted in the Greek tradition, is used as an instrument to highlight certain aspects of Alexander’s “Greekness”, either to contrast them with the customs of the barbarians, or, alternatively, to confirm that the conqueror fully adopted barbarian ways. In spite of the fact that Alexander behaves immoderately at banquets, Plutarch neither criticizes him openly nor censures him; the behaviour should not be taken as belonging to Alexander’s ἦθος, but to the changes that he introduces in the Greek tradition itself.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/31997
ISBN: 978-989-26-0908-9 (PDF)
DOI: 10.14195/978-989-8281-17-3_19
Rights: open access
Appears in Collections:Symposion and philanthropia in Plutarch

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