Damn straight. Who weeps for poor ‘Alexander the Purchased Slave’? Nobody, that’s who. And it’s a crying shame.
Will Cuppy wasn’t all that impressed.
Alexander the Greater. (Who will, in turn, be surpassed by Alexander the Greatest.)
I thought he was known as Alexander the Grape. Live and learn.
You ever hear about Wittgenstein’s sheep?
Ludwig Wittgenstein was teaching a seminar on basic logic. He was illustrating a point by saying, “let X be the number of sheep in a flock” and one of the students raised his hand.
Wittgenstein stopped and asked the student if he had a question. The student said, “Yes, Professor, what if X isn’t the number of sheep?”
Wittgenstein supposedly repeated this story for years and said he couldn’t decide if this was the stupidest question he ever heard or the most profound.
Hey, they didn’t call him “Alexander the Good.”
'Ware presentism. You are a product of two millennia of Christian civilization. Remember that in Alexander’s time and place, the highest heroic type to be admired was a hero who was mighty and invincible, like Achilles, or clever, like Odysseus, or both, like Herakles. None of whom were “good” men as we understand it today. Achilles was an arrogant prick, Odysseus a pathological liar, Herakles prone to fits of homicidal rage. Then along came Christianity and added a new kind of hero, the saint, which had scarcely been imagined before.
He never got his picture on bubblegum cards, did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubblegum card? Hmmm? How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubblegum cards?
Defeated basically all neighboring states in Greece, crowned Pharaoh of Egypt, defeated the superpower of the known world (Persia,) but missed the ultimate title because of too many (un-necessary) killings. Back then, his crimes would rate same as the Lewinsky affair today.
Well, the Russians called him Ivan Grozniy, a word meaning “terrible” not in the sense of “horrible” but in the sense of “awesome,” “mighty,” “awe-inspiring,” as in “Oz the Great and Terrible.”
Ivan was terrible in both senses, of course.
What about poor ol’ Alexander Not Appearing In This Thread?
Oh, I’m probably not supposed to mention him…sorry.
But what about Alexander the Large, O my brothers? As Bog is my witness, was he not ever and always a horrorshow malchick in a bitva, be it nozh scrap or pooshka or cutthroat britva, and ever ready with a nagoy pan-handle to give the devotchkas the good old in-out-in-out?
Are you referring to me?
Great meaning large or immense, we use it in the pejorative sense!
Nah, I believe you’re thinking of Alexander the Well That’s Just Great. Different guy.
Or possibly this guy. Much maligned in the moniker department, he - I mean, you rule for 20 years, you’re actually the first semi-decent dude to rule the place in over two hundred years, you’re even principled enough to take up arms against your own flunkies on behalf of the people… and all everybody remembers is your inordinate fondness for jelly doughnuts ? Friggin’ typical.
And not only that, besides killing all those people he cut that knot.
Everybody knows the whole point was to untie it, but Alex just pulled out his switchblade and sliced it through, as if that’s an accomplishment! And all those people who should know better say he’s wise for “thinking outside the box”, when he was really just a lazy vandal.
Plus he made that poor elephant walk all the way back to Greece from india.
Well, he *did *have a weapon in hand at the time, so…
Could be worse. I had him in the Celebrity Death Pool.
And with a career batting average of .238, I doubt we ever will. “Great”, indeed.