CHAPTER III.

ALEXANDER VISITS THE TEMPLE OF AMMON.

After these transactions, Alexander was seized by an ardent desire

to visit Ammon[360] in Libya, partly in order to consult the god,

because the oracle of Ammon was said to be exact in its information,

and Perseus and Heracles were said to have consulted it, the former

when he was despatched by Polydectes[361] against the Gorgons, and

the latter, when he visited Antaeus[362] in Libya and Busiris[363] in

Egypt. Alexander was also partly urged by a desire of emulating Perseus

and Heracles, from both of whom he traced his descent.[364] He also

deduced his pedigree from Ammon, just as the legends traced that of

Heracles and Perseus to Zeus. Accordingly he made the expedition to

Ammon with the design of learning his own origin more certainly, or at

least that he might be able to say that he had learned it. According

to Aristobulus, he advanced along the seashore to Paraetonium through

a country which was a desert, but not destitute of water, a distance

of about 1,600 stades.[365] Thence he turned into the interior, where

the oracle of Ammon was located. The route is desert, and most of it is

sand and destitute of water. But there was a copious supply of rain for

Alexander, a thing which was attributed to the influence of the deity;

as was also the following occurrence. Whenever a south wind blows

in that district, it heaps up the sand upon the route far and wide,

rendering the tracks of the road invisible, so that it is impossible

to discover where one ought to direct one’s course in the sand, just

as if one were at sea; for there are no landmarks along the road,

neither mountain anywhere, nor tree, nor permanent hill standing erect,

by which travellers might be able to form a conjecture of the right

course, as sailors do by the stars.[366] Consequently, Alexander’s

army lost the way, and even the guides were in doubt about the course

to take. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, says that two serpents went in front

of the army, uttering a voice, and Alexander ordered the guides to

follow them, trusting in the divine portent. He says too that they

showed the way to the oracle and back again. But Aristobulus, whose

account is generally admitted as correct, says that two ravens flew in

front of the army, and that these acted as Alexander’s guides. I am

able to assert with confidence that some divine assistance was afforded

him, for probability also coincides with the supposition; but the

discrepancies in the details of the various narratives have deprived

the story of certainty.[367]