Patterns of Religious Content and Narrative Arrangement in Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander

Abstract

Abstract This study examines three patterns of religious content in Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander: (a) ritual reports, (b) religious material culture, and (c) omens. Although ritual reports and omens mainly mark turning points of the expedition and certain qualities of Alexander’s character, the passages pertaining to religious material culture also transfer our focal point of interest to the author’s religious beliefs and his literary and cultural tastes. Most importantly, Arrian uses ritual reports and omens in compliance with (a) the dynamic portrait he wished to delineate for Alexander and (b) his opinion about Alexander’s relationship with religion on three different levels (alleged divine origins, stories about the divine favor Alexander enjoyed, and his rivalry with Dionysus and Heracles). A comparative reading of these three religious patterns reveals how Arrian, as a narrator, achieved a creative compromise between his own assessment of Alexander and the historical material he drew from his sources.