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The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander

Death of Alexander the Great
Death of Alexander the Great

The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander

Adrienne Mayor (Stanford University) and Antoinette Hayes (Pfizer Pharmaeuticals)

Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics: Version 1.3, May, (2011)

Abstract

Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus, Justin, and other ancient historians report that rumors of poisoning arose after the death of Alexander in Babylon in 323 BC. Alexander’s close friends suspected a legendary poison gathered from the River Styx in Arcadia, so corrosive that only the hoof of a horse could contain it. It’s impossible to know the real cause of Alexander’s death, but a recent toxicological discovery may help explain why some ancient observers believed that Alexander was murdered with Styx poison. We propose that the river harbored a killer bacterium that can occur on limestone rock deposits. This paper elaborates on our Poster presentation, Toxicological History Room, XII International Congress of Toxicology, Barcelona, 19-23 July 2010, and Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, Washington DC, March 2011.



According to several ancient historians, rumors of poisoning circulated after the death of Alexander, at age 32, in Babylon in 323 BC (Bosworth 1971 and 2010; Lane Fox 2004). Some close friends suspected a legendary poison gathered from the Styx waterfall near Nonacris in Arcadia (north central Peloponnese, Greece), a substance reputed to be so corrosive it could only be contained in the hoof of a horse. Many ancient and modern writers have speculated on the true cause of Alexander’s death, which remains an unsolved mystery

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