New Generation Thinkers: Alexander and the Persians

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What made him great? Celebrated as a military leader, Alexander took over an empire created by the Persians. Julia Hartley's essay looks at two examples of myth-making about Alexander: The Persian Boy, a 1972 historical novel by the English writer Mary Renault and the Shānāmeh or ‘Book of Kings’, an epic written by the medieval Persian poet Abdolghassem Ferdowsi.

Julia Hartley lectures at King's College London. She was selected in 2021 as a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which turns research into radio. You can hear her in this Free Thinking discussion Dante's Visions https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zm9b and in another episode about Epic Iran, Lost Cities and Proust https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xlzh

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
0:01.5	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:04.0	It's such a wonderful listen.
0:05.6	So nice.
0:06.5	There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.
0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:34.7	Hello, I'm Julia Hartley.
0:36.4	And in this Arts and Ideas podcast, I'll be explaining why we've
0:40.1	got it all wrong about Alexander the Great and how literature can set us straight.
0:45.8	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. On the morning of the 3rd of May 2020, a dozen American
0:53.2	mercenaries reached the shores of Venezuela
0:55.0	in a fleet of battered old fishing boats.
0:58.0	Their plan? To abduct President Maduro and capture Venezuela's main airport,
	...

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