proskynesis

1
proskynesis

• 334 BC

2
Proskynesis Greek name for the ritual greeting
in Oriental courts
3
What does Proskynesis look like?
4
What is proskynesis?

• It is a traditional Persian custom it was that
  Persians would crouch right to the ground with
  their head on the floor when people saw or were
  in the presence of the Great King (the Persian
  King).
• For the Persians this did not imply that they
  were worshipping. It just acknowledged the King
  as superior to them.
• For the Greeks they only did this action for
  when they were honouring and worshipping the
  gods. So it implied Alexander was a god.

5

• Alexander wanted to incorporate proskynesis into
  the standard court procedures. Alexander did not
  want the Persians to stop doing the act, as it
  was what they did for their king. So he decided,
  under the policy of fusion, to introduce the
  custom to the greesks and macedonians

6

• The question is Was Alexander wanting to be
  worshipped like a god and showing his arrogance.
  Or was he just innocently carrying on with the
  Policy of Fusion?
• Write down The Story p. 95 of Paul Artus and
  Who was callisthenes

7
The conspiracy of the pages

• 327 BC

8

• The pages were a group of young Macedonian
  servants to Alexander. They went with Alexander
  on a hunt. One of the pages called Hermolaus
  killed a boar, in front of Alexander. This was
  seen as a great insult to Alexander.So, as a
  traditional punishment for such an act, Alexander
  whipped him and took his horse away.

9
(No Transcript)
10

• So, Hermolaus was angry at Alexander. He planned
  to kill Alexander, and got the other pages in on
  his plan.They also did not like the policy of
  fusion.
• This plot was discovered by Alexander. He had all
  of them killed.

11

• Draw a cartoon of the story above, in your notes.
  
• Write down the notes under Hermolaus Motives,
  on p.98 of Paul Artus

12
Callisthenes involvement

• Callisthenes was also seen to be involved in this
  conspiracy to kill Alexander.
• Callisthenes was
• The nephew of Aristotle (Aristotle had tutored
  Alexander when he was young)
• Greek, not Macedonian
• Tutored all of the Pages, including Hermolaus.
  They thought Callisthenes would have encouraged
  the pages to resent Alexander the pages looked
  up to him and were inspired by the fact that he
  stood up to Alexander. It is also suggested he
  openly encouraged Hermolaus to kill Alexander by
  saying how would one become the most famous man?
  By kiling the most famous man.

13

• Write down Was Callisthenes involved on p.98 of
  Paul Artus

14
After

• According to Ptolemy, Callisthenes was tortured
  and hanged
• The Greek people, back in Greece got angry with
  Alexander
• Alexanders Army was not too concerned
• Many of them didnt like how Callisthenes was so
  arrogant
• This event shows the opposition to the Policy of
  fusion
• It also shows how Alexander was determined to
  proceed with his policy and destroy any
  opposition to it

In your yellow workbook, complete p.92 - 96