Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/245

 KEMORSE OF ALEXANDER i 213 prophets comforted him by the assurance that his murderous im- pulse had arisen, not from his own natural mind, but from a maddening perversion intentionally brought on by the god Dionysus, to avenge the omission of a sacrifice due to him on the day of the banquet, but withheld.i Lastly, the Greek sophist or philosopher, Anaxarchus of Abdera, revived Alexandei"'s spirits by well-timed flattery, treating his sensibility as nothing better than generous weakness ; reminding him that in his exalt- ed position of conqueror and Gi*eat King, he was entitled to prescribe what was right and just, instead of submitting himself to laws dictated from without.- Kallisthenes the philosopher was also summoned, along with Anaxarchus, to the king's presence, for the same purpose of offering consolatory reflec- tions. But he is said to have adopted a tone of discourse alto- gether different, and to have given offence rather than satisfac- tion to Alexander. To such remedial influences, and probably still more to the absolute necessity for action, Alexander's remorse at length yielded. Like the other emotions of his fiery soul, it was violent and overpowering while it lasted. But it cannot be shown to have left any durable trace on his character, nor any effects justifying the unbounded admiration of Aman ; who has little but blame to bestow on the murdered Kleitus, while he ex- presses the strongest sympathy for the mental suffering of the murderer. After ten days,^ Alexander again put his army in motion, to complete the subjugation of Sogdiana. He found no enemy capable of meeting him in pitched battle ; yet Spitamenes, with 1 Arrian, iv. 9, 6. Alexander iinagined himself to have incurred the displeasure of Dionysus by having sacked and destroyed the city of Thebes, the supposed birth-place and favorite locality of that god (Plu- tarch, Alex. 13). The maddening delusion brought upon men by the wrath of Dionj'sns is awfully depicted in the Baccha of Euripides. Under the influence of that delusion, Agave, mother of Pentheus, tears her son in pieces and bears a-.vay his head in triumph, not knowing what is in her hands. Compare also Eurip. Hippolyt. 440-1412. ' Curtius, viii. 2, 13 — "decern diebus ad confirmandum pudorem apud Maracanda consumptis," etc.
 * Arrian, iv. 9, 10; Plutarch, Alex. 52.