Alexander Summary and Analysis

Plutarch opens his life of Alexander with an explanation that it is not his intention to try to document all of the events of his life, as these are covered by other writers, but to paint an outline of the man. "My design is not to write histories, but lives," he writes, (pg. 139) providing insight to his literary intentions.

Alexander was the son of Philip, King of Macedon and conqueror of Greece, and Olympias, a Greek woman. On his father's side, Plutarch writes, he was descended from Hercules. The matter of his descent on his mother's side is a matter of much speculation, Plutarch writes, for oracles at the time supposedly interpreted a dream of Philip's as indicating that Olympias may have been impregnated by Jupiter, making Alexander a demigod. Plutarch adds that some historians claim Olympias herself propagated this rumor...