Newcastle University

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In a surviving fragment of Ephippus’ ‘lost’ pamphlet, this contemporary of Alexander the Great alleges that the King liked to cross-dress as Artemis, the Greek archer-goddess of the hunt. Illustrated by evidence from the British Museum’s collections, Tony Spawforth examines this claim, drawing fascinating conclusions about Alexander’s kingship at the end of his reign and the ‘controlled misreading’ of his use of imagery by hostile contemporaries.

By fire and sword Alexander the Great created the largest land empire on the planet. He was, and remains, a figure of great controversy. In the surviving fragment of a lost pamphlet, the Greek writer Ephippus, a contemporary of Alexander, alleged that the king liked to cross-dress as Artemis, the Greek archer-goddess of the hunt. In this illustrated lecture Tony Spawforth examines this claim, drawing fascinating conclusions about Alexander’s kingship in Asia at the end of his reign and the ‘controlled misreading’ of his public image by hostile Greek contemporaries.

Tony Spawforth was appointed Professor of Ancient History at Newcastle University in 2000. Previous positions include Assistant Director of the British School at Athens (1978–1981) and membership of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1995–1996). He has published several books including, most recently, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition (Oxford University Press, 2012, co-edited with S Hornblower and E Eidinow) and Greece and the Augustan Cultural Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2012).  A fuller account of the research on Alexander the Great on which this lecture is based can be found in the e-journal Histos hosted by Newcastle University: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/histos/documents/2012A09SpawforthThePamphleteerEphippus.pdf