Can a real person die of a mythical cause? Can real Alexander the Great have died of toxic bacteria suspected in the mythical river Stynx, as scolars will try to prove?
Alexander the Great was a real person of flesh and bones. He was proclaimed a king at the age of 20. He ruled and conquered half of the ancient world. And he died young, at the age of 32.
According to antique sources, Alexander the Great died on either 10 or 11 June 323 BC, in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon(Iraq). The majority of ancient historians spoke of foul play and a good portion of poison mixed in his bowl with wine. But modern ‘detectives’ dismissed these speculations arguing that twelve days had passed between the start of his illness and his death thus long-acting poisons were probably not available in the ancient world.
Several other causes have been suggested all these years and centuries as the cause of Alexander’s death; malaria and typhoid fever, pyrogenic spondylitis and meningitis, pancreatitis or even a virus. Some suspect a deadly overdose of medicine made of (poisonous) plants. And few even blame years of heavy drinking as the cause of Alexander’s death.
Now research scolars try to prove a new and rather “original” cause of Alexander’s death. I have copied exerpts from the Discovery News story, which goes:
“An extraordinarily toxic bacterium harbored by the “infernal” Styx River might have been the fabled poison rumored to have killed Alexander the Great (356 to 323 B.C.) more than 2,000 years ago, according to a scientific-meets-mythic detective study.
The research, which will be presented next week at the XII International Congress of Toxicology annual meetings in Barcelona, Spain, reviews ancient literary evidence on the Styx poison in light of modern geology and toxicology.
According to the study, calicheamicin, a secondary metabolite of Micromonospora echinospora, is what gave the river its toxic reputation.
The Styx was the portal to the underworld, according to myth. Here the gods swore sacred oaths.
“If they lied, Zeus forced them to drink the water, which struck them down. The 8th-century B.C. Greek poet Hesiod wrote that the gods were unable to move, breathe or speak for one year,” co-author Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar at Stanford University’s Departments of Classics and History of Science, told Discovery News. “
story byRossella Lorenzi/Discovery News http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38282729/ns/technology_and_science-science/
More information about the River Stynx – Geographically Stynx was in Epirus, I think.. at least the river Acheron is there….
The River Styx was a river in Greek mythology which formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld (often called Hades). It circles the Underworld nine times. The rivers Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, and Cocytus all converge at the center of the underworld on a great marsh. The other important rivers of the underworld are Lethe and Eridanos, and Alpheus. The ferryman was called Charon. It was a ritual to put two coins on the eyes of the deaths, so they would pay the ferryman to take them to the other side.
The gods respected the Styx and swore binding swearing on it. Zeus swore to give Semelewhatever she wanted and was then obliged to follow through, resulting in her death. Gods that did not follow through on such an oath had to drink from the river, causing them to lose their voices for nine years. Then, being exiled from the council of gods for nine years after that. According to some versions, Styx had miraculous powers and could make someone immortal. According to Greek mytholody Achilles was dipped in it in his childhood, acquiring invulnerability, with exception of his heel, by which his mother held him. This is the source of the expression Achilles’ heel a metaphor for a vulnerable spot.
