Alexander the Great’s Travels and Musical Encounters

It is well known that Alexander spent about twelve years travelling, from the spring of 334 BC – the beginning of his expedition against the Achaemenid king Darius – until his death in Babylon in late spring 323, occurred on his way back, his nostos. There are so many references to sound and music in ancient Greek and Latin texts about the king’s travel, that one could rewrite Alexander’s biography through his musical experiences . Most musical musical events in Alexander’s life were described as mirabilia. One of them occurred before he was born – the thunderbolt, one of his birth myths – and one at the end of his life. At Pella’s court in 356 BC, Olympias heard a sudden thunder during the night before her wedding and Alexander’s conception took place . The music event at the end of Alexander’s life occurred in Babylon, perhaps in June 323 BC, and concerns his sudden silence: in the last days of his life he was described as speechless (anaudos) – in a sort of contrappasso – the marvellous power of his voice disappeared . He lost the high timbre voice which had calmed down Bucephalus, the horse Alexander was given when he was a boy , the voice which had sung his famous hymenaios at the wedding in Susa . Explaining the symbolism built around his silence is a big challenge: the meanings attached to his sounds and his music can in fact be regarded as being related to the way historiographers represent Alexander’s identity, political agenda and propaganda, but also to the representations of rites, cults and religious practices of his age.