The Story of Alexander

by Robert Steele

Anectanabus telleth the Queen’s fate.

And Olympias said to him, “O Master, tell me the day on which my lord that I love was born, and then I shall know thy skill.” “Small skill were that,” said Anectanabus, “to tell the past; is there naught of the future you would learn?” “Yea,” said the Queen, “tell me what shall part Philip and me, for it is told me by my wise women that if he returns from battle he shall take another wife, and send me away for ever.” “Nay, not for ever,” said the Egyptian, “not for ever, nor for long shall he put thee away, for will he nill he, he must have thee for his queen.” Then Olympias wondered greatly, and she asked Anectanabus how this should be, and the wise man answered and told her, how that the great god of her country, Ammon, should give her a fair son who should help her all his life, and how that the god would protect her till her son was grown. Then was the queen right glad, and she promised Anectanabus that when these things should happen she would honour him all her life. Then the wise man rose from his seat, and after looking on the queen for a while, went from the hall to make his enchantments as at other times.

Now that night the moon was at full, when all herbs have their strongest might, so Anectanabus got him forth from the city into a wild place, where no man might see him, and there he drew up herbs for his enchantments, marking the fairest and best, and when the hour of the moon was come he plucked them out by the roots, and washed the earth from them in running water. Then he ground them together in a mortar, and wrung out the juice, and he made an image of the queen in white wax, and anointed it with the juice of the plants he had gathered, and calling on the powers of the air with is conjurations, he made a dream for the queen. So she, lying in her palace alone, saw a huge dragon enter and circle the room three times—then it came and stood before her, and, lo! it was a man, but a man in shape like to her god; and the man told her that she should have a son who should defend her in all her cares, and override all her foes. Then the queen woke from her dream, and stretched out her hands to the god she had seen, but the room was dark, so, springing from her bed, she ran to the door, but that was safely fast, and groping round she found naught in the room; and sad that her dream was false, she fell asleep again thinking of the wise Egyptian, who, mayhap, should tell her what it meant.

Early on the morrow the queen rose from her sleep, and sent her housecarles for Anectanabus in haste; then when he came she took him apart and told him all her dream. Then said he to the queen: “If thou art willing, and not afraid, I can show thee this god face to face, and thou waking; but thine eyes must be opened to see him.”

So was the queen glad, and she assigned him a room in her palace; and the next night did Anectanabus, by his art magic, change himself into a dragon such as the queen had seen in her dream, and flying through the air with his heavy wings he came into the place of the queen. Then she rose up to meet him, but the sight was so terrible to her that she covered her face with her hands; but soon she heard a voice bidding her look up, and lo! before her was the figure of her god Ammon—a strong, fair man, bearing on his head two horns. Then was she glad of her life, that she alone of all living women had seen this thing; and he spoke to her of all the things that Anectanabus had told her, and of how her son should ride through the world.

So fell she to sleep, and when she woke in the morning light there was none there, and the doors of the palace were fast, and great thanks she gave to Anectanabus for his magic, for she wist not that her god was but a show of the wise Egyptian.

But in that same night that the queen had dreamed, the Egyptian had so wrought his enchantments that in the hour of Philip’s star he too had fallen asleep, and he dreamed that a dragon had taken him up through the air, and had borne him off to his own palace, and to the room in which Olympias, his queen, lay sleeping. Then tried he to draw near her, but she felt not his touch nor heard his voice; and suddenly he was ware of a god in the room in the shape of Ammon, and the god came to the queen and laid his hand on her, and waked her, and sealed her with a gold seal. So Philip drew near, and saw that on this seal were three things graved—the head of a mighty lion, the burst of the morning sun rising over the world, and a sharp, keen blade of a sword; and he heard the god say: “Woman, thy son that I give thee shall be thy defender.” Now Philip when he woke, was so sore troubled by his dream that he called on his diviners to say to him what it should mean. Then said the chief of the magicians: “O King, this thy dream means that thy wife shall give thee a son fair and mighty. And because on the seal thou sawest a lion’s head, as the lion is the chief of all beasts, this son shall be a chief and a master among all chieftains. And since on the seal was the burst of the sunrise, so shall this son ride through the world, and everywhere shall he be exalted till he comes to the Land of the East; and the biting brand showeth that by his sword shall nations out of number be conquered and bow to him. But for the dragon that bore thee from hence to thy own land, he shall be to thee for an aid, and that right soon.” And then was the king glad in his heart.

But Anectanabus knew by his box of stones how that Philip should be sore beset on a certain day, and so, going out into a desert place, he called up to him by art magic a great bird from the sea, with broad wings, great beak, and strong claws like iron. And as it drew near him it circled him seven times, and then sunk down at his feet. Then the Egyptian took and rubbed him with the juice of the plants he had gathered, from wingtip to wingtip, and from head to tail, and then with his mightiest spells he sent him forth over land and sea. And lo! he seemed no more a sea bird, but a mighty dragon flying through the air. But far away Philip was in deadly battle, for he had been all day fighting, and now was he wearied, and a great stone had struck him, so that he reeled to the ground, and his men were at point to fly, and his foes were clamouring with joy, and their eyes were burning to slay, when the great dragon flew towards them, and men paused to see what should happen, and lo! it fell on the foemen, and first on him who had struck down Philip, and men’s swords fell on it and were shivered, and none dared to see its face, and the men of Macedon took fresh heart, and Philip sprang up shouting, “The God, the Gods for us!” and the foe were routed and their king slain, and far away the great dragon rose in the air and disappeared, no man knowing whither.

So Philip came home with much joy, honoured of men, and when he met his queen he kissed her fair, and they spoke of their dreams, and of what the god had promised them. And it fell that two wonders happened to them. For one day as they sat at meat in the hall, and folk around them great and small, a great dragon came into the palace, and men fled, save some that drew sword and turned pale, but the king cried out: “Faith, but this is the noble dragon that turned the fight for us that other even.” Then the king was glad, but the great worm came slowly up the hall till it reached the queen, and there it raised its head on her knees, and she knew it for the dragon that had come to her, and lifted its head and kissed it, and all men looked for some change; but the dragon turned and went its way out as it came in, and those outside saw nought save the Egyptian diviner standing at the gate.

And one other day, as Philip sat in his great hall, with all his nobles and chief men round him, there came a singing-bird into the hall and sang a sweet song, and circled his head, and came and sat on his knee, and there dropped an egg and flew away. Then as the king sat and looked, the egg rolled from his knee and fell to the ground, and there it broke, and a little worm came out and crawled about, but soon it died. Then a great clerk near him said: “This signifieth, O king, that thy blithe lady’s son shall walk the world and win it, and die a bitter death before he may return.” These were the wonders that happened ere the birth of Alexander.