The Alexander Mosaic

[Jim Webster]

I was reading a paper CHRISTOPHER TUPLIN,The Seleucids and Their Achaemenid Predecessors:A Persian Inheritance?

I came across this bit

Assimilation of Seleucids and Persians has been claimed in material that certainly or putatively emanates from a Ptolemaic environment. A remarkable recent example is Pfrommer's thesis about the Alexander Mosaic, namely that the historical image of Alexander fighting Darius also serves as a metaphorical image of Ptolemies fighting Seleucids, in which the Seleucids are assimilated to the Persians.32 I am not sure that scholarship on the Alexander Mosaic has yet really come to terms with this thesis or the wealth of observation about the Realien of the picture that underpins it (much of which may be chronologically and culturally valid in any case).

Pfrommer, M. 1998. Untersuchungen zur Chronologie und Komposition des Alexandermosaiks auf antiquarischer Grundlage. Mainz.

I haven't read the paper and like Tuplin am not willing to go bail on it. But it might explain why Darius appears to have pikemen advancing behind him.
But on a larger point, I thought it a useful reminder that the source material was produced to tell a story and it may not necessarily be the story we're trying to read 

[Erpingham]

But it might explain why Darius appears to have pikemen advancing behind him.
But on a larger point, I thought it a useful reminder that the source material was produced to tell a story and it may not necessarily be the story we're trying to read 

Does it explain why Alexander looks nothing like Alexander?  Has the appropriate Ptolemy head been put in, to underline the point/make a flattering comparison?

[RichT]

Meh. Sounds like a dumb idea to me, but who knows.

What did Alexander look like?

[Jim Webster]

Meh. Sounds like a dumb idea to me, but who knows.

What did Alexander look like?

short guy, always held his head to one side. Drank too much 

Other than that it's all a bit hazy, but there are articles

I found this one https://www.academia.edu/35354131/King_in_a_small_world_Depictions_of_Alexander_the_Great_on_his_shields_and_armour

[Erpingham]

I don't know.  But he did have a strong visual image he used, and his successors used, which doesn't look a lot like the Alexander mosaic.  Always been curious about that.

[RichT]

Well to my eyes the mosaic image and the less idealised sculptures aren't that dissimilar - they could be the same guy, allowing for the eyes being oversized in the mosaic (unless Alex really looked like Marty Feldman).







It's a good point though that:

I thought it a useful reminder that the source material was produced to tell a story and it may not necessarily be the story we're trying to read

We want and hope and expect the AM to be a photorealistic depiction of an actual moment in an actual battle, complete with accurate details of weapons, armour and tactics. The artist may have had some other intent entirely (though I think the details probably are accurate). Incidentally, there's a whacking great tree in the battle, relevant to the terrain thread...

But Seleucids as Persians? Pshaw.

[Justin Swanton]

Well to my eyes the mosaic image and the less idealised sculptures aren't that dissimilar - they could be the same guy, allowing for the eyes being oversized in the mosaic (unless Alex really looked like Marty Feldman).

Could be.