Alexander and Hercules

Myths have a strange way of uniting the most disparate forces, characters and events. Religion uses this quality of myth to unite the faithful and stir up a feeling of awe in doubt laden minds while others (a large group of unclassifiable, non labeled personalities like us…) are drawn to the marvelous stories that the quality invariably yields. Here is one such from a book that I am reading, On Alexander’s Track to the Indus by Aurel Stein.

Stein says that some of Alexander’s conquests in the Swat valley were inspired by the myth of Hercules. According to him, ancient accounts mention that after Alexander had captured several key points of the valley, the local people fled the towns to a 'rock fastness' in that country called Aornos. Alexander then made known to his troops that he wanted to conquer this rock by any means because it was believed that “this is a mighty piece of rock in that part of the country and a report is current concerning it that even Herakles, the son of Zeus had found it to be impregnable.”

Naturally, given Alexander's desire to be world conqueror, he was drawn to that place on earth where even Herakles or Hercules the great met his match. However Stein tells us, factual history can never corroborate the existence of Herakles let alone trace his journey across the world. Did Herakles come as far as India? We will never know. But, the story of Alexander’s obsession with the capture of the rock definitely makes the reading of history more wonderful.