Book Review: Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Thomas M. Banchich) 

Daniel Ogden, Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality.   Exeter:  University of Exeter Press, 2011.

Daniel Ogden’s book is as much about the dynamics of the appropriation and retrojection of myths and symbols as is it is about Alexander the Great. As such, it will repay the attention of a readership far broader than the community of Alexander and Hellenistic scholars to which it is obviously directed. To its principle target, in particular to those Alexander scholars keen on employing psychoanalytic or gender-driven approaches, Ogden offers a long-overdue, though not entirely new, corrective. Regardless of their specific interest and approaches, though, most readers will profit from a preliminary look at and regular referral to Ogden’s pp. 185-188, where they will find an admirably clear overview of each of the book’s chapters and of its conclusions.