Affective Relations and Personal Bonds in Hellenistic Antiquity: Studies in Honor of Elizabeth D. Carney

The intense bonds among the king and his family, friends, lovers, and entourage are the most enticing and intriguing aspects of Alexander the Great’s life. The affective ties of the protagonists of Alexander’s Empire nurtured the interest of the ancient authors, as well as the audience, in the personal life of the most famous men and women of the time. These relations echoed through time in art and literature, to become paradigm of positive or negative, human behavior.

By rejecting the perception of the Macedonian monarchy as a positivist king-army based system, and by looking for other political and social structures Elizabeth Carney has played a crucial role in prompting the current reappraisal of the Macedonian monarchy. Her volumes on Women and Monarchy in Ancient Macedonia (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000), Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great (Routledge, 2006), Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life (Oxford University Press, 2013) have been game-changers in the field and has offered the academic world a completely new perspective on the network of relationships surrounding the exercise of power. By examining Macedonian and Hellenistic dynastic behavior and relations, she has shown the political yet tragic, heroic thus human side, thus connecting Hellenistic political and social history.

Building on the methodological approach and theoretical framework engendered by Elizabeth Carney’s research, this book explores the complex web of personal relations, inside and outside the oikos (family), governing Alexander’s world, which sits at the core of the inquiry into the human side of the events shedding light light on the personal dimension of history. Inspired by Carney’s seminal work on Ancient Macedonia, the volume moves beyond the traditionally rationalist and positivist approaches towards Hellenistic antiquity, into a new area of humanistic scholarship, by considering the dynastic bloodlines as well as the affective relations. The volume offers a discussion of the intra and extra familial network ruling the Mediterranean world at the time of Philip and Alexander. Building on present scholarship on relations and values in Hellenistic Monarchies, the book contributes to a deeper historical understanding of the mutual dialogue between the socio-cultural and political approaches to Hellenistic history.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Ed Anson

Part I The Restricted Oikos
I.1. Familial affection
1. Sheila Ager (University of Waterloo): Mothers and Daughters in the Early Hellenistic
Dynasties.
2. Monica D’Agostini (Università Cattolica di Milano): Alexander’s brothers and sisters.
Blood in the Hellenistic Palace.
3. Sulochana Asirvatham (Montclair State University): Rethinking Alexander’s Wet-
Nurse.
I.2. Animals
4. Elizabeth Baynham (University of Newcastle): Animals and the Macedonian Court.
5. Daniel Ogden (University of Exeter): The theft of Bucephalas.
I.3. Friendship and Mentorship within the Oikos
6. Joseph Roisman (Colby College): Alexander's Friendships: A Proposal
7. William Greenwalt (Santa Clara University): Callisthenes the Prig
8. Frances Pownall (University of Alberta): Sophists and Flatterers: Greek Intellectuals
at Alexander’s Court
Synthetic Remarks on the Restricted Oikos, Frances Pownall

Part II The Extended Oikos
II.1. Friendship beyond the Oikos
9. Tim Howe (St. Olaf College): Friendship is Golden: Harpalos, Athens and Alexander’s
‘Persian’ Relationships
10. Pat Wheatley (University of Otago): Demetrius and Mithridates Ctistes
11. Edward Anson (University of Arkansas at Little Rock): The Father of the Army:
Alexander and the Epigoni
12. Olga Palagia (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens): Alexander and the
Athenians: Deification and Portraiture
II.2. Marriages
13. Waldemar Heckel (Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary):
Women in Justin
14. Sabine Müller (Philipps University Marburg): Barsine, Antigona, and the
Macedonian war
15. Guiseppe Squillace (Universit