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Alexander’s India: The Perception of India, by the Greeks, prior to Alexander’s campaign to India

Davenport, Quinlan Connor
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Abstract
This thesis began with the question: What did Alexander believe he would find in India? Throughout the research and writing of this thesis, a variety of potential answers to this question have been found. Alexander may have believed in the fantastical, as the Greeks did not distinguish mythology as such, the mythological was as real as the sciences. It seems Alexander did believe in Dragons, but he may not have believed in the Pygmies. Alexander may have had a more realistic view, of the subcontinent, as after conquering Persia, he obtained access to the Persian records of the province. Alexander may have believed that beyond India was a wasteland, a desert, and earth encircling ocean, or the edge of the world. The answer to this question may not be possible to discover, but the rhetorical exercise can illuminate much about not just the man and his conquests, but of Greek society and their understanding of the world. This thesis also addresses the connections between ancient Greek and Indian society, primarily the connection between philosophical developments. This philosophical connection may have been through trade, through Persia, or from an older Dionysian conqueror; the method by which this was established remains unknown, but the existence of this connection is near certain. The most interesting development in the answer to this question came out of this philosophical connection, coming from the comparison of belief in death and the afterlife from these two cultures. When Alexander conquered Egypt he styled himself a Pharaoh, and when he had conquered Persia, he adopted the Persian Empire and the structure of the Empire. In the Orient, Alexander used the beliefs of the cultures he conquered to present himself as a god-king. The god-king model did not sit well with the Greek part of his empire, so Alexander followed the models of Dionysus and Herakles for his own deification. Alexander would present a story of his demi-god nature and a path toward deification. By incorporating the Indian philosophy, when Alexander conquered India, he conquered death.
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Thesis (B.A. in Classical Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2019.
Date
2019
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Alexander the Great 356 B.C.-323 B.C.
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Davenport, Quinlan Connor. "Alexander’s India: The Perception of India, by the Greeks, prior to Alexander’s campaign to India". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2019.
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