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259 than their king, Philip II, sent an armed corps over the Straits of Hellespont (today’s Dardanelles) to secure the loyalty of the Greek settlements. In 334 B.c.E. his successor, Alexander (“the Great’), heading an army 15,000 strong, crossed into Asia at the same place and launched a major war against the Persians. Alexander’s astounding victories and the resulting subjuga- tion of the Ancient East to Western (Greek) domination have been told and retold by historians—starting with some who had accompanied Alexander—and need no repetition here. What does need to be described are the personal reasons for Alexander’s foray into Asia and Africa. For, apart from all geopolitical or economic reasons for the Greek-Persian great war, there was Alexander’s own personal quest: there had been persistent rumors in the Macedonian court that not King Philip but a god—an Egyptian god—was Alexander’s true father, having come to the queen, Olympias, disguised as a man. With a Greek pantheon that derived from across the Mediterranean Sea and headed (like the Sumerian twelve) by twelve Olympians, and with tales of the gods (“myths”) that emulated the Near Eastern tales of the gods, the appearance of one such god in the Macedonian court was not deemed an impossibility. With court shenanigans that involved a young Egyptian mistress of the king and marital strife that included divorce and murders, the “rumors” were believed—first and foremost by Alexander himself. A visit by Alexander to the oracle in Delphi to find out whether he was indeed the son of a god and therefore immor- tal only intensified the mystery; he was advised to seek an answer at an Egyptian sacred site. It was thus that as soon as the Persians were beaten in the first battle, Alexander, rather than pursuing them, left his main army and rushed to the oasis of Siwa in Egypt. There the priests assured him that he indeed was a demigod, the son of the ram-god Amon. In cel- ebration, Alexander issued silver coins showing him with ram’s horns (Fig. 121). But what about the immortality? While the course of the resumed warfare and Alexander’s conquests have been The End of Days