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Alexander is born

by Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

The new Egypt king is born
And then the moment to be born arrived for Alexander the Great and Nectanebus was more than ever on his guard. He couldn’t let anything to chance. As a lot of today people still thinks and as all the ancient people firmly believed, the first moment a man sees the light decide of his future; moreover also the position that all the stars and the planets have at this moment is important: To sum it up everything depends from the date and the hour of the birth. Nectanebus was right to be on his guard: It was necessary that all was propitious for this special baby, and, as the legend tell us, studying everything Nectanebus succeeded to influence and protect Alexander the Great’s birth
When Olympia began her labor, Nectanebus came to her side and studied the stars. The crucial moment came, but still their placements were not the good ones and the magician vigorously ordered the queen to restrain herself and wait. It must not have been easy or amusing, but for the sake of the baby Olympia plucked up her courage and held up until when, from the light that he saw in the sky, Nectanebus understood that the magic moment had come. Then he cried “Courage my lady: now, now give birth to the master of the world”. Olympia obeyed and falling on the ground the baby was born. He was small and naked, but all the earth was shaken as for a strong earthquake, and at that very moment the lightning hit the palace and the roaring of the thunder deafened the country; Zeus Ammon hailed his son: Alexander the Great was born.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
E.A. WALLIS BUDGE, Egyptian Magi, Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk, 1975, first published in 1899