Was Alexander the Great Greek?

Mosaic 3rd c. BC.
Via Wikimedia Commons

When we visited northern Greece (Thessaloniki, Pella and Vergina) last summer, our tour guide Pattu was extremely sensitive to discussion of Alexander the Great. My husband raised the topic of the north's status in antiquity, since the ancient sources do not consider it fully Greek and Aristotle found their failure to live in city-states or poleis a major shortcoming. Pattu had a bit of a cow. Her rebuttal to his argument was Alexander the Great: "He was definitely Greek," she insisted.

Pattu is probably not happy at the raising of a statue that honors Alexander in Skopje, capital of the modern nation of Macedonia. It ups the ante in the long-running dispute between the two countries over the use of the name 'Macedonia,' which is also a regional name for northern Greece. The statue is euphemistically called "Warrior on a Horse," but from the face it is clearly a portrait of Alexander. You can read about it (and see the statue) at the Washington Post website and at Google News.

Update: Some residents of Skopje find the renovation of downtown, of which the statue is a part, inappropriately grandiose. Pin It