Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER SLAYS NECTANEBUS. 3
lion, and he shewed himself to be distinguished in
every way.
And when Philip knew that his son Alexander Alexander's
had arrived at the age of seven years, he gave
him to the heathen sage' that he might
teach him the learning of the Greeks, and he
taught him philosophy, and letters, and the
working of magic, and the [knowledge of the]
stars, and of [their] seasons (?), and every branch
of learning which can be mentioned, and he loved
him with a deep love/ And it came to pass that
he went up with Alexander one day to the tops
of the mountains to shew him how the stars rose,
and their places in the sky, and this master, by
reason of his great love for him, embraced him
on the mountain, and said unto him, "Verily,
"thou art my son, and God knoweth that thou art
"my son, and I slept with thy mother in the house Nectanebus
"of the gods, and she conceived thee; and takeJi^seiT to
"heed that thou hold not my word lightly, for I Alexander,
"am a mighty king. I am Nectanebus, the king
"of Egypt, and [p. 16] thou art the fruit ^ of a
' Literally, "master of a house of idols".
^ The Ethiopia text mentions none of the tutors of Alexander
whose names are recorded by Plutarch and Pseudo-Callisthenes.
According to the latter authority Nectanebus, whom
Olympias still employed as a magician in the palace, pro-
mised to shew Alexander the planets in the sky at eventide,
in answer to the request of the boy who had seen him casting
the horoscope for Olympias by means of models of them.
See Miiller, p. 14.
3 Read X"1