This is the Trophy of the battle of Marathon

It is dated to 470-460 BC.

In September 490 BC, on the plain of Marathon, 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 of their allies from the Boeotian city-state of Plataea, under the command of General Miltiades, fought and defeated the army of the powerful Persian Empire. The battle led to the ignominious end of the first Persian attempt to subjugate Greece under the rule of Darius I.

On the column was probably placed the statue of Victory, in bigger size than natural and with lively movement.

According to ancient custom, the Athenians erected a wooden trophy on the battlefield, from which they hung the Persians' spoils of arms.

A few years later it was replaced by a monumental trophy made of white marble to commemorate the great victory over the Persians. On the column was probably placed the statue of Victory, in bigger size than natural and with lively movement.

Part of the Trophy is now exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Marathon, while a copy of it is placed near its original location in Panagia Mesosporitissa.

The Trophy was restored in 2004, preserving parts of the column and the capital. In 2016, the capital was completed by Professor Manolis Korre with two parts of the suffix.

You could visit the permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Marathon, where the history of the region from prehistoric to Roman times is presented through finds from the prehistoric cemeteries of Vrana and Tsepi, the burial mounds of the Athenians and Plataeans who fought against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).

What did orator Demosthenes say about ancient Macedonians?

By Sarantos I. Kargakos

Had it not been for Demosthenes' slanderous characterizations against Philip - especially against Alexander - the question of the Greekness of the Macedonians would not have been raised. Every supporter of this opinion relies on Demosthenes. The other data they put forward are merely supplementary elements, which have no historical weight.

We could consider Demosthenes' insults as an outburst of political passion that drives him into the madness of insults and that's all. When someone insults, he does not mince words. That is why Demosthenes often calls Philip the barbarian, knowing that he is insulting and humiliating him. But if Philip was a barbarian (foreigner), why should this characterization bother him? Even with this designation, Demosthenes wants to portray Philip as a foreigner who usurps the freedom of Greece in order to unite all Greeks against him. In politics, the end justifies the means.

But the extent to which Demosthenes' characterizations are accurate can be seen in the insults of his great rival, Aeschines, who also calls Demosthenes a barbarian!

In particular, in the famous "On the False Embassy" oration,the insulting phrase is heard twice: "And you say this, Demosthenes, although your lineage on your mother's side is descended from Scythian nomads". And again: "On his mother's side, Demosthenes is a Scythian. A barbarian who uses the Greek language!"

His mother Demosthenes Kleoboulis was the daughter of Gylonos, who had settled in the Taurian peninsula (Crimea). But I ask: Are insults a solid basis for the scientific foundation of historical theories? With this I do not want to bypass the only "document" that Mr. J.B. quotes. Rather I will present all insults of Demosthenes chronologically in order to be able to draw the necessary conclusions. Before doing so, however, I will avoid mistaking the great orator for a common insulter and examine the meaning of the Demosthenes-Philip dichotomy, which reflects the dichotomy of the democratized southern Greek cities versus the monarchical Greek north. One element is that the Greeks had a politics of city-states. They had a city-centric view. The city was the center of all political action. In other words, Athens, Sparta, Thebes were important cities.

Statue of Demosthenes

Macedonia, on the other hand, was a state with many cities, but they were not so important that they determined political life. Thus, the state-centered monarchical system of the northern Greeks contrasted with the city-centered democratic system of the southern Greeks. Demosthenes' opposition to Philip was thus not racial, as many propagate. It was politics. If Philip had in mind the Great State, Demosthenes, who had grown up with other political ideals, had in mind the Great Man, "the free in justice". The Citizen, not the servant of the state. The personality and character and not faceless political being. Therefore, he remained faithful to the idea of "Athenism". Only Athens gave him some guarantees for the State of Free Citizens.

Demosthenes did not reject the idea of Panhellenism. But he gave it cultural meaning. Philip made a realistic policy. Demosthenes from the 4th century BC imagines a federation of cities with a democratic form of government. Philip, on the other hand, sought a unity of Greeks by all means. He was a Machiavelli who did not write, but acted. Therefore, the conflict between Demosthenes and Philip was not a conflict of races, but a conflict of visions.

Yet despite noble visions, neither shied away from mean means. After all, they were engaged in politics, not religious preaching. Macedonia and Philip were what Prussia and Bismarck were to Germany. If Bismarck expected to unite Germany with Kant's wonderful vision of perpetual peace, he should have eternal life as well. But the politicians who create eternal work are those who know that life is short and time is running out.

Let us now turn to the "shocking" document that J.B. quotes:

"Not only a non-Greek and not related to the other Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that could be called with any honor, but like a pestilent knave from Macedonia, where one cannot even buy a decent slave" (The Third Philippic, Demosthenes' political orations ). But let us see what Demosthenes himself says: "Not only is he not a Greek, nor has he anything in common with the Greeks, but he is not even a barbarian of good stock, but a pernicious Macedonian, from whose country one cannot even buy a slave."

The reader should note that Mr. J.B. commits a scientific indecency. He translates "pernicious Macedonian," which is indeed a heavy epithet, with the phrase "pestilent knave from Macedonia," which has no correspondence with the original. No Greek researcher denied that this text, because of its verbal severity, raises the suspicion of an ethnic division between Greeks and Macedonians. It is also not absent from any Greek historiography, ancient or translated. However, what Mr. J.B. seems to ignore the psychology of language, i. e. a word that means something specific, is used with a different meaning in a specific case. We all know, for example, what history means.

Statue of Philipp of Macedon in Thessaloniki, Greece

But you have to know the psychology of the Greek language to understand the phrase "we will have histories", which means entanglements, struggles, and so on. We all know what politics means, but few know that politics in the medieval Greek language meant also whore! So, in order to understand Demosthenes' phrase, we need to know the psychology of language, which means that in relation to Philip, we need to trace the psychological transitions or upheavals that Philip's politics triggers in him. We begin with an observation: of the nine orations Demosthenes made against Philip, Philip is called a barbarian in only three (the relevant part in the "Against Stephanos" oration is a later addition). But let us start with the orations from the beginning:


1. In the "First Philippic" oration against Philip, written when the Macedonian king had reached Thermopylae and was also threatening to cut Athens off from the allied cities of Thrace and Euxinus, Demosthenes uses harsh language but never calls him a barbarian. Neither in the First nor in the Second Olynthiac oration.


2. Philip is first called a barbarian in the Third Olynthiac oration: "He is not an enemy, he does not possess what is ours, he is not a barbarian, whatever else one may say". The last sentence ("whatever else one may say") shows that the previous word "barbarian" is also used as an insult and not as a national designation. Demosthenes here stigmatizes Philip's behavior and not his origin.


3. In 346 BC, Demosthenes delivered his "On the Peace" oration. Philip has already conquered Olynthos, crushed the Phocaeans, and become a member of the Delphic Amphictyony. But now that the threat is more immediate, Demosthenes says nothing in his speech about Philip being a barbarian. Yet it would have been a wonderful opportunity for him to denounce before all Greeks that a barbarian had become a member of the amphictyony in which only Greeks participated. The reason why he did not do this is simple: he knew that all Greeks knew that Philip was not a barbarian.


4. In 341 BC, Demosthenes delivered the "On the Chersonese" oration,which is a war cry against Philip, who is not called a "barbarian" here either. And yet Demosthenes had just returned from Macedonia, where he had gone as an ambassador and stayed for three months. Therefore, he had the opportunity to learn the language, customs and traditions of the Macedonians. If he thought they were barbarians, why would he miss such a wonderful opportunity to comment on them? 


5. A year later, he delivers the "On the False Embassy" oration and while he sharply characterizes Philip, he still says nothing about barbarism. This oration is of a legal nature and is directed against Aeschines, the leader of the "Macedonian party" in Athens. His aim is to show the opportunism and political immorality of Aeschines and to point out his contradictions. Specifically, he says of Aeschines, "Formerly he preached before the people and called Philip barbarian and destructive. But now Aeschines calls him the most Greek of men and the greatest friend of Athens!". With this rhetorical trick Demosthenes tries to expose Aeschines in the eyes of the Athenians as well as in the eyes of Philip.


6. Finally, in "third against Philip" is found the sentence to which J.B. refers and modifies in the translation. In this oration from 341 (three years before the battle of Chaeronea) Demosthenes, desperate to see Philip's omnipresence, has lost control of his words, treats Philip like a gladiator, and uses the worst insults against him. This verbal frenzy and verbal jibes are aimed at insulting Philip personally and his country in general. This is also evident in the sentence of the ancient commentator of Demosthenes, who examines the characterization of "barbarian" in the third Olynthiac:

"Because Demosthenes wants to insult Philip, he calls him a barbarian. But if he really wanted to investigate, he would find that he is a Greek from Argos, descended from the lineage of Hercules, as all historians confirm."

Statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, Greece

Personally, I do not like simple interpretations. Demosthenes has a political goal in the sense that he wants to destroy Philip by any means. He sees the Macedonian monarch as an enemy of Greek freedom, i.e. the autonomy of the Greek cities. Therefore, with the last sentence, he actually wants to portray him as a foreigner in the eyes of the other Greeks and the Macedonians as foreigners seeking Greek independence in order to achieve a panhellenic alliance against them. So passionate is he that he does not hesitate to recommend to the Athenians an alliance with the Persians against Philip (Fourth Philippic):

"I think you should send a legation (to the Persians) to converse with the Persian king, leaving aside the silly phrase "the barbarians are the common enemy of everything and everyone".

Thus Demosthenes frees the Persian king from the status of barbarian and assigns it to Philip, whom he also calls "the robber of the Greeks" and implores the gods to destroy him.

How could the Parthenon remain standing for 2,500 years without a foundation?

The mystery is revealed after studies showed that the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis is triple seismically shielded despite the fact that it has no foundation.

According to civil engineer Niki Timotheu, studies of the temple's architectural and structural form have shown that the ancient world had already discovered what we now call "seismic isolation". According to Niki Timotheu, the temple successfully contradicts the theory of modern construction because, without having a foundation at all, it is triple seismically insulated.

This triple insulation is located, as she explained, in different parts of the building. The first point is in the layers of huge horizontal and extremely smooth marble stones on which the Parthenon stands.

The second point is found in the elastic metal joints that connect the slabs of each layer, made up of small iron piles in the middle, around which lead has been poured (lead has the property of protecting iron from rust and weakening the elasticity of each wave, since part of its kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy).

And the third point is found in the columns of the building, which were not set in one piece, because the ancient Greeks knew that in order to withstand the vibrations of the earth, they had to be set in slices that were perfectly superimposed.

The result of this triple insulating formula, as Mrs Timotheu noted, was that the seismic waves on the surface moved one layer of the marble slabs over the other, while the joints dissipated the kinetic energy developed by the earthquake! The columns, as they were arranged, made the whole building sway, but not collapse.

Haloa: The "obscene" feast of ancient Greece

Haloa was one of the festivals that the ancient Greeks systematically celebrated every year in honor of the goddess Demeter, known as Haloea (goddess of the fruits of the earth), Dionysus (god of the vine and wine) and Poseidon Fytalmios (god of coastal vegetation).

Haloa was a three-shaped peasant feast of antiquity, and the customs of worshiping the gods in this context cause us to call this celebration "obscene". A second opinion is that they were also celebrated in honor of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter.

The Haloa were held around Attica and extended to Eleusis, where they ended, then followed the Poseidonian procession and finally the initiation into the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone.

There are two versions about the period of this celebration: the first one says that Haloa was celebrated in the month of June (Ekatombeonas) with the harvest of the Spartans and the second one in the month of December (Poseidon) with the harvest and the opening of the new wine. In Haloa, no hierophant participated, but a priestess who initiated the women, and all exchanged free speeches and conversations, and at the end there was a common dinner. The dinner included all foods except those forbidden in the ceremonies (eggs, pomegranates, etc.). But why was it called "obscene"?

In this celebration, the women had with them figurines in the shape of sexual organs and food in the corresponding shapes of phallus and vulva. At the end of the meal, they buried the phalluses in the ground, believing that in this way vegetation and fertility would be strengthened.

In Haloa, among other things, obscenities were exchanged between all the women, even the priestess urged the married women to commit adultery and they danced orgiastically with each other. From the 4th century BC, hetairas participated and women flocked to the streets and danced to provocative songs.

Hetairai at Haloa festival dancing around a giant phallus (Oedipus Painter, 480 BC) By Wikipedia

In general, Haloa was a festival of women in ancient times and was celebrated at night, although the preserved information is insufficient compared to other customs of the ancient Greeks. Moreover, there are two versions of the conceptual origin: the first states that Haloa means the threshing floor according to Philochorus, the second that it means the vines according to the commentator Lucian.

The Haloa festival lasted several days, at the end of which athletic competitions like the Olympics took place, in which not all citizens of ancient Athens were allowed to participate, as was customary in other celebrations. However, in this celebration the young people had the right to speak publicly.

From the above it is clear why Haloa is characterized as an obscene celebration of antiquity, because in modern times the use of strange effigies and provocative dances with obscene vocabulary is not common, although in antiquity it was a habit and considered normal.

Palatiano (Ioron) of Kilkis city, Greece: The ancient city that worshiped Dionysus and idolized Patraοs

The story of a city founded in the 10th century BC, glorified the family of Patraos, who is unknown until today, and when it was mysteriously destroyed, it was never inhabited again.

In a magical place at the foot of the Krousia massif, which is as green today as it was thousands of years ago, the ruins of an ancient city are preserved on a hill. From this peak the inhabitants saw their life, the land that fed them, the water, the plants that sprouted, they saw the sun dancing on the leaves of the olive groves, the vines that promised delicious wine, the figs that filled their daily table with sweetness. They saw the land where their herds grazed, next to the river Echedoros, meaning "the one that has gifts" and gave everything that its name promised, its raw materials, its precious metals, gifts of wealth, the most important of which was gold!

The ancient city of Palatiano, 20 kilometers north of Kilkis, was in a naturally fortified position and controlled the important passage from the ancient region of Christonia to the regions of Parorvilia and Sintica, that is, to Lake Kerkini and Serres, and even further west.

It is even very likely that it is identified with the ancient city of Ioron, which means guardian, and the name is fully justified by its location.

Palatiano was founded in the 10th century BC and developed in the classical and Hellenistic years from the 4th to the 1st century BC, centuries in which it became an urban center.

It reached its peak in the Roman years, from the 1st to the 3rd century AD, when it was destroyed by an unknown cause. This era is called the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) and Palatiano flourishes and benefits from the goods of peace.

The city was protected by fortifications and its development was adapted to the morphology of the terrain. In the excavated eastern part of the hill, which developed amphitheatrically, a high retaining wall contributed to its division into two districts.

Today's ruins, set in a beautiful natural landscape, seem to exude the splendor of antiquity. The visitor can walk through the authentic ancient streets of the city and climb to the top of the hill where the sanctuaries of the gods, the center of public life, were probably located. He can cross the narrow streets between buildings, houses and workshops, follow the natural slopes of the hill and wander through the neighborhoods that were once bustling with life.

The Palatiano was destroyed - for unknown reasons - but never rebuilt and never inhabited again, but the houses of the ancient inhabitants have survived the centuries unscathed. The modern passerby can imagine the people who once filled these buildings with life. In the rooms of the houses were found the personal belongings of the former inhabitants: mirrors and jewelry, tools for the house and field, lamps to drive away the darkness of the night, storage and drinking vessels, even toys, small clay carts with wheels for children, so many thousands of years ago, just like today.

The head of the Department of Antiquities of Kilkis, Georgia Stratouli says that "among the most important monuments that testify to the wealth of the city are the two honorary Heroa found in one of its neighborhoods. One of them, the family Heroon(a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero) of Patraos, Ammia and their three sons, is preserved in very good condition, with four of the five statues of the family members almost intact."

Patraos wears a tunic in a classical statue type that exudes prestige and respect, while the wife and mother, Ammia, is a respected mistress. Two of the three sons, one of whom is depicted as an athlete in heroic nudity while the other holds scrolls. Perhaps he was educated, perhaps he had distinguished himself in the political or intellectual life of his place.

The archeologists studying the material are now called upon to answer the question: Who was this famous Patraos really? Was he a metal trader who became rich? The archeological excavation brought him and his whole family to light, and the discovery is perhaps another myth in the labyrinth of human imagination.

According to Ms. Stratoulis, "the inhabitants of Palatiano believed in Olympian gods: Zeus, Hermes, Athena, but it seems that their favorite was the god Dionysus. In fact, a full-figure statue of the god with a panther skin was found in the area, while an inscription gives him the epithet GONGYLOS (= round). However, they also worshiped other deities such as the eastern Kybele, the Greek mother of the gods and the Egyptian god Bissa".

The finds from Palatiano indicate a robust, developed and diverse urban society, associated with agriculture and animal husbandry, but also with crafts and trade, while the large number of coins suggests trade relations with other Macedonian cities.

It is very likely that the source of their great wealth was some kind of metalworking craft, which was apparently very important for the inhabitants of the ancient city. Perhaps Patraos became rich through it, who raised an honorary Heroon for his family.

"The important thing about this archaeological site is that we can empathize with the people of the past. How did the people who lived in these houses, who walked through the alleys to get to their sanctuaries, or to their properties at dawn? What stories can we tell? Let us think about them when we look at their personal belongings," says Ms Stratoulis.

Palatiano is a vibrant city. A city that still exudes the aura, the joys, the sorrows, the failures and the successes, the loves and the sorrows of a complex but also simple society. And by its simplicity it fascinates the visitor.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis has created a very interesting film to introduce the Palatiano to the general public. The general coordination and the overall editing of the film is the responsibility of the head of the Ephorate, Georgia Stratoulis, the scientific editing is done by the archaeologists Nektarios Poulakakis and Maria Farmaki, while the "tour guide" in the area is also the archaeologist Theodoros Papakostas and the direction was led by Thanos Kartsoglou.

What is the Epimenides' Sleep? - The incredible story of the famous sage Epimenides

One of the most amazing, but also paradoxical stories from the time of ancient Greece is undoubtedly the story of Epimenides.

Both the concept of the cave and the concept of descending into it is not a simple matter, but hides a very serious initiation, connected with the revelation of secrets about life and death. Epimenides, one of the most famous sages who ever lived in Crete, slept in a cave for 57 whole years!

Epimenides is considered one of the most famous sages who ever lived in Crete. He was not only a religious teacher, but also known for his divination and prophetic abilities.

However, perhaps the knowledge of the most important event of his life has been preserved, thanks to which he has remained known until today.

Thus, his father once lost one of his sheep and sent his son Epimenides to the field where the sheep was lost, to look for it and bring it back.

Epimenides actually set out to find the sheep, but it seems that he got confused along the way and instead of reaching the field his father had shown him, he got lost and accidentally entered a cave. Being tired from the search for the sheep, he fell asleep.

What is particularly impressive, however, is that Epimenides slept in this cave for a whole 57 years! The memory of this paradoxical event has been preserved until our days by the proverbial phrase "Epimenides’ sleep".

But our story does not end here.

When Epimenides woke up, he went in search of the sheep again, believing that he had slept only a few hours.

But soon, in the effort of his new searching, he realized to his surprise that during his sleep everything around him had changed, since he could no longer recognize anything of what he knew before falling asleep.

The field had changed hands, even his village was undergoing very large and inexplicable changes, but even as he tried to find his own people, he found that he was no longer where he was before falling asleep.

Very soon Epimenides found that most of the people he knew had already died. Nevertheless, at some point he managed to find his brother, who by now was an old man and explained to him exactly what had actually happened.

Perhaps this event of Epimenides' sleep would not be so important if we did not have an important testimony from Diogenes Laertius.

In his book on Pythagoras, Diogenes Laertius mentions that Pythagoras traveled almost the entire world known at that time in order to come into possession of all the important initiations. On his way of searching the truth Pythagoras also visited Crete to meet Epimenides.

The esoteric knowledge that Epimenides possessed was thus so important that even Pythagoras aspired to be initiated by him and to complete his initiation, when together they descended into the famous "Idaeon andron", the cave where Zeus, the highest of the gods,  was born.

The revealing ancient text reads as follows:

...when he was in Crete with Epimenides, he came down to Idaeon andron

...Then (Pythagoras) visited Crete and descended to Idaion Andron accompanied by Epimenides, but also in Egypt to the depths;

but he also visited the shelters of the temples of Egypt.

and learned about the gods in secret.

Thus he learned the secret mysteries about the nature of the gods.

As we can see, Pythagoras shows a special predilection for visiting hidden mystical places in different parts of the planet, which are completely heterogeneous among themselves in terms of their religious beliefs.

With his attitude he proves that the inner initiation is in any case a valuable empirical knowledge necessary for our personal development.

We should add that "Idaion Andron" is a cave on a plateau on Mount Idi (Psiloritis) in Crete, where, according to Greek mythology, Zeus was brought up.

Today it is an important archeological site where excavations have been carried out since 1884 and various objects (archaic statuettes, vials, bronze shields) even from the Minoan period have been discovered.

It is therefore very likely that inside the “Idaion Andron” initiations took place on how to receive a divine education, similar to that of Zeus.

So, one of the results of this "Epimenides sleep" is the revelation of very important hidden secrets related to the understanding of the nature of God.

Undoubtedly, this is the highest knowledge that one can acquire and it can reveal to one the deepest meaning and the ultimate purpose of life, because both the concept of the cave and the concept of descending into it are not one and the same. It hides a very serious initiation, connected with the revelation of secrets about life and death.

Epimenides also became the occasion of a well-known paradox. In one of his poems he had written: "Cretans are always liars".

In the 19th century, on the basis of this sentence, the following logical paradox was formulated, also known as the Epimenides paradox: Epimenides says that all Cretans are liars, Epimenides is a Cretan, therefore Epimenides lies, therefore Cretans tell the truth, therefore Epimenides tells the truth, therefore Cretans are liars, and so on.

Epimenides' phrase was used by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Bishop of Crete, Titus, to rebuke the Cretans for their errors in the words of one of their own: "A prophet of their own said them; Cretans, you are liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." (1:12).

How Alexander became a Jewish Name?

By Yehuda Shurpin, Chabad.org

Original title: Why Is Alexander a Jewish Name?

Throughout history, Jews have been careful to retain their distinctly Jewish names. In fact, our sages tell us that although more than two centuries of exile and slavery in Egypt had all but assimilated the Children of Israel into the idolatrous society of Egypt, one of the reasons why they merited their miraculous redemption was that they retained their Jewish names.1

Traditionally, Jewish names are Hebrew, Yiddish or Ladino. Some other names that have crept in over the years and have become accepted as Jewish names are actually translations of Jewish names in foreign languages.

The name Alexander, however, is unique. It originates from the Greek king Alexander the Great, ruler of Macedonia, who established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen. In other words, its origin is definitely not Jewish.

Another difference: When names of non-Hebrew origin are written in Hebrew documents, such as a bill of divorce, there is a specific style of spelling used. Alexander, however, is spelled according to the Hebrew rules.2

How did Alexander gain such a special place in Jewish nomenclature?

Simeon the Just and Alexander the Great

The following is recorded in the Talmud3 and Megillat Ta’anit:4

On the 21st Kislev5 of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE), after Alexander the Great brought an end to Persian rule and marched through the Land of Israel, the Kutheans, bitter enemies of the Jewish people, convinced Alexander that the Jews rebelled against his sovereignty and that their Holy Temple in Jerusalem should be destroyed.

Alexander marched on toward Jerusalem at the head of his army. Hearing of this, Shimon HaTzaddik (Simeon the Just), who was then the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and one of the last remnants of the Men of the Great Assembly, donned the priestly vestments and went to greet Alexander, along with a delegation of Jewish dignitaries bearing torches.

The two groups walked toward each other all night. When dawn arrived, Alexander asked the Kutheans, “Who are these people coming to meet us?”

They said to him, “These are the Jews, who have rebelled against you!”

The two camps met each other at Antipatris. When Alexander saw Shimon HaTzaddik, he descended from his chariot and bowed before him.

“Should a great king such as yourself bow to this Jew?” asked the members of his entourage.

“I do this,” he replied, “because the image of this man’s face appears before me and leads me to victory when I am on the battlefields.”

Alexander then asked the representatives of the Jewish people why they had come to him.

“Is it possible,” they replied, “that gentiles will try to mislead you into destroying the Temple, in which we pray for you and that your kingdom not be destroyed, and we should remain silent and not tell you!?”

“Who are these people who want to destroy it?” asked Alexander.

“They are these very Kutheans who stand before you,” replied the Jews.

“If so,” said the king, “they are given into your hands to deal with as you please.”

The Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, plowing the area and sowing it with leeks (as a sign of complete destruction), just as they sought to do to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The description of this encounter in traditional Jewish sources stops here. However, In the Sefer Yosippon,6 another crucial part of the story is added:

Shimon HaTzaddik then took Alexander the Great on a tour of the Holy Temple. Alexander, impressed, wished to donate gold to have an image of himself placed in the Holy Temple so that he would be immortalized. Shimon demurred, saying that it was forbidden for the Jews to have graven images, and certainly not in the Temple. He suggested that he instead give the gold to the poor. And as for memorializing the occasion, Shimon suggested an even better way: all male kohanim born that year would be named “Alexander.”

Alexander liked the idea, and the Jews, who were very thankful to Alexander for all that he did for them, including sparing the Holy Temple from destruction, gratefully named their children after him. Thus, the name Alexander forever became a Jewish name.

FOOTNOTES

1.See Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 32.

2.Igrot Moshe, Orach Chaim, vol. 4:66 & vol. 5:10.

3.Talmud, Yoma 69a.

4.Megillat Ta’anit, ch. 9.

5.This follows the date in Megillat Taanit. The Talmud records it as 25 Tevet.

6.Sefer Yosippon, ch. 10. (Not to be confused with Josephus. There is much discussion about the authorship of Yosippon and whether it is, in fact, Josephus. However, that is beyond the scope of our discussion.) In Antiquities of the Jews, book 11:8, Josephus mentions Alexander’s visit to the Temple, but does not mention the part about the priests being named after him.

By Yehuda Shurpin