El nacimiento de Alejandro en Plutarco y en Heródoto: intertextualidad y recepción

Abstract

In Plutarch, Alex. 2.4, we are told that Alexander’s birth and conception are tied to Philip’s dream (ὄναρ). He placed a seal with the image of a lion on his wife Olympias’ womb, although Herodotus (6.131.2) tells us that Pericles’ mother dreamed that “she gave birth to a lion” (cf. Plut., Per. 3.3) as well. The vision of the seal baffled all μάντεις except Aristander, who thought that Olympias was pregnant and that her son would have the nature of a lion (cf. Plut. Alex. 2.4). In this work, in addition to reviewing herodotean influences, the author studies the iconography and some literary sources about the “lion” in the Hellenistic period, focusing on the Plutarchean expression ἐδόκεε δὲ λέοντα τεκεῖν.