I just found this illustration and I have to share it with you guys! So as many of you know, I’ve got this book about killer unicorns coming out next month. I may have mentioned it once or twice. The premise of this book, which I also may have mentioned once or twice, is that the people who have special powers to hunt unicorns all share the same three qualities: 1) female, 2) virgin, 3) descended from Alexander the Great.
Now, when you read the book (which I know you’re all going to do next month), you’ll find out why this is, but meanwhile, I wanted to share with you some of the interesting, unicorn-related facts about Alexander the Great.
You may already know that Alexander the Great was a great conqueror and Macedonian king who lived in the 4th century, BC. He conquered half the known world and died by the time he was 32. Alexander is most often pictured astride his beloved warhorse Bucephalus, whom he first trained as a child and who he rode almost his entire life (Bucephalus allegedly died in battle at the age of thirty). In fact, Alexander was so distraught when Bucephalus died that he named one of the cities he conquered after this brave horse.
One of the most famous stories about Alexander (next to the story of the Gordian Knot), was that when he was a child, he saw Bucephalus about to be put to death. Seems the horse, which was living in Alexander’s father’s stables, was deemed completely untrainable. On top of this, he was described as “anthrophagos” — man-eating. Obviously, they couldn’t keep a man-eating horse around. But Alexander saw potential in Bucephalus, and bet his father, King Philip, that he could train the horse himself. He did, and thus was formed a lifelong bond.
Great. So where do the unicorns come in? Well, back when Alexander was alive (and for centuries after), there was a popular book out about his life called the ALEXANDER ROMANCE. It was one of the greatest bestsellers in all of history. Imagine Harry Potter times Twilight, and you get the idea. Some of the information in the book was what we would today call true, and some of it is more like the legend of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. One of the legends about Bucephalus was that he wasn’t a horse at all — he was a special kind of Turkish-peninsula (where Macedonia is) unicorn called a karkadann.
Like Bucephalus, the karkadann was known to be absolutely untameable, man-eating, and, incredibly fierce. Also, In Greek, Bucephalus meant “ox-head,” which some believed to describe the fact that this animal had horns. In most
classical and medieval manuscripts of the Alexander Romance, Alexander is depicted as riding a horse with either one horn or two. In many, many versions, he’s shown riding a unicorn.
Pictured here is a page from an illuminated Medieval biography of Alexander that shows the scene in which King Philip lets the young Alexander tame the man-eating unicorn, Bucephalus. It quite clearly shows a “traditional” looking unicorn surrounded by the bones of its victims, and a bunch of scared courtiers huddled behind the brave unicorn tamer Alexander the Great.
And that’s from the middle ages! So much for the idea of innocent fluffy unicorns.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I don’t think anyone else has brought up this question, so I might as well. Did Alexander The Great have any descendants?
July 16th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
You don’t think anyone has brought up this question WHERE, exactly, PR?
Alexander the Great had two sons that made it into the history books. One, Alexander Macedonia IV, was the son of his wife Roxane and died at the age of 13. Another, Herakles, was the son of one of his official concubines, Barsine, and died at 23 when he challenged Roxane regarding who was the rightful heir to Alexander’s empire.
In addition to his two wives and a host of concubines, he also kept a Persian-style harem mostly made up of women given to him as gifts by conquered cities.
Though it is often argued that Alexander’s main lover was a Macedonian nobleman named Hephaestion, concepts of sexuality in that time period were not as rigid as we think of them today. He also, btw, had a young eunuch boy as a lover as well, though, obviously, neither of these pairings would produce children.
Finally, there were many people in at least the classical period who claimed descent from Alexander, including, according to some scholars, the owners of the villa in Pompeii where the famous Alexander mosaic was found.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I have no idea how much of these historical things are made up or real, but they are neat either way.
My question is, if someone conquers a city today, say Tampa(since that is where I am and am considering conquering) what sort of gifts should I anticipate?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I don’t think anyone had brought up the question here yet. As in, I didn’t remember anyone having said, “Nice concept, Diana, but did Alexander The Great even have any kids?”
Obviously, you are going with the idea that Bucephalus was a unicorn, and that Alex’s mastery over him is the source of the unicorn hunter’s powers. Even so, why would the passing of the power be limited to the female descendants? (Why yes, I love to nitpick, why do you ask?)
And I will assume at this point that you have decided that Alex TG had more than just the two sons the history books recorded. I will also assume that at least one of them was a daughter, and she was the one who displayed the same abilities that dear old dad had.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Nitpicking is kind of a waste of time for both of us, PR. For you, you can wait a month and read all the answers in the book. For me, I’ll just give vague answers for the sake of not ruining the book. The End.
So, suffice to say that some of what you’re asking is answered in the book, and some of what you’re asking has absolutely no bearing on the book whatsoever, for reasons which will become clear upon reading the book, and that, overall, my job as an author is not to answer every single question about the book to people who haven’t read it. If every facet of the premise was immediately obvious without having read the book, there’d really be no reason to read it, now would there?
July 18th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I will assume it is also not your job to make cookies for everyone who has read the book, too. Though, this really sounds like a book I would want to read while eating cookies.
July 19th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Remember, I share one trait with Amy — I tend to overanalyze everything. (Have you read some of the entries on my LJ?)
July 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
PR - I think you’re cute. Let’s hug!
*hugs*
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
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