Alexander with Phillip at the Caves of Pella:
“I’m sure you remember Achilles and the tales of Troy?”
“He’s my favorite”
“Why?”
“Because he loved Patroclus, and avenged his death. Because he lived without fear and slew Hector.”
“Some say he was a hot headed fool who fought only for himself and not for the Greeks.”
“But he was a hero...the greatest at Troy”
“And his fate?”
“That he must die young, but with great glory.”
“Did he have a choice?”
“Oh yes... he could have a long life, but there would be no glory.”
“You dream of glory Alexander... your mother encourages you. There’s no glory without suffering, and this, she will not allow. She makes you weak. The gods have never made it easy for man... All greatness comes from loss. Even you the Gods will one day judge harshly.”
“When I’m king like you one day father?”
“Don’t rush the day! You risk all!... A King isn’t born Alexander, he’s made. By steel and by suffering. A king must know how to love those whom he has no love for, & how to treat them as equals, as well. It’s lonely, ask Heracles, ask any of them. Fate is cruel. No man or woman can be too powerful or too beautiful without disaster befalling. They laugh when you rise too high, and crush everything you’ve built with the wind. What glory they give in the end they take away. They make of us slaves. The truth is in our hearts. And none will tell you this but your father: men hate the gods. The only reason we worship any of them is because we fear worse.”
“I’ll remember, and one day I’ll be on walls like these.”
Ptolemy in remembrance:
“All his life, he fought to free himself of fear, and by this, and this alone, he was made free. The freest man I’ve ever known... His failure, towered over other men’s successes... The glory and the memory of man will always belong to the ones who followed their great visions. The greatest of these is the one we now call ‘Megas Alexandros’: The Greatest Alexander of them all.”
🦉
“...it is ironic that it is so but the man who has brought this peace must be aware of it as well... that man stands out far too much. His survival in the court will be... difficult. The stronger that any light shines, the darker the shadows around him grow.”
A Dark Knight Rising
