The end of Alexander the Great scene ACT IV from the opera Alexander the Great by Panos Karousos

The end of Alexander the Great

The army transfers the god-like hero, sick to his deathbed.  His destiny unknown, Alexander the Great will die in the biblical Paradise, between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, under the gaze of the father god.

Chorus: Despair!

(Roxana enters, crying)

Sisygambis: What’s happening?

Roxana: A thunderbolt stroked the top of the ziggurat, and a star pierced the darkness that the earthquake created.  Then an eagle rose and up in the heavens disappeared.

Sisygambis: What did the god say?

Army: Belus[1], the Great.

Sisygambis: To take him there? To the temple?

Roxana & Sisygambis: To take him there?

Seleucus: The god said for him to remain here, and he also gave an omen!

Sisygambis: What omen?

Peucestas: A Capricorn with horns came from the west and killed Aries.  And from his head four horns grew carrying the great cross!

Sisygambis: Oh, my child Alexander, you are departing.  Blessed of Marduk[2]; Enkidu[3] awaits for you like another Gilgamesh.

Roxana: Oh, Alexander, you will not live to see your child.

Sisygambis: The cosmos will never give birth again to a king like him.

Roxana: Your child is calling you from my womb.

Roxana & Sisygambis & Army: Savor of the people, liberator, oh!

Soldiers: Let us see our king, let us say farewell, let us…

Alexander: Peucestas.

Peucestas: My king.

Alexander: The royal ring, take the royal seal.

Peucestas: …thank you… The Macedonians want to see you Alexander.

Alexander: Let them come in…

(The soldiers parade silently with their armaments in hand to kneel for the last time in front of the one whom they adored as a god.  Alexander the Great, looks at them, raises lightly his hand, and bids farewell)

Soldiers: Oh!

Sisygambis: Oh! Like another Olympias, I mourn Alexander.  More than Darius, I love you, my child Alexander! (Wailing loudly, she collapses at the edge of the bed of Alexander the Great)

Roxana & Sisygambis & Army: The gods wait for you in Olympus, but you will return one day as a judge of the souls!

Alexander: Here is the source of the sun, the water of immortality…

Ptolemy: To whom do you bestow the kingdom, Alexander?

Alexander: To the best… to Krateros… Great Olympias, my mother, I am dying! Greeks, in a Great Greece I am dying!

Roxana & Sisygambis & Army: Alexander, hero, divine, eternal, immortal!

Funeral Procession of Alexander the Great

[1] Translator’s note: Belus was the son of Poseidon and Libya; also claimed to be the originator of Egypt.

[2] Translator’s note: the patron god of Babylon

[3] Translator’s note: in the Epic of Gilgamesh Enkidu is the wild-man who through a great fight becomes Gilgamesh’s best friend.