The body of Alexander was coated or submerged in honey to preserve it.
Was Alexander the Great’s body preserved in honey?
Claim
Explanation
Some academic and pop historical sources report that Alexander the Great’s body was embalmed in honey. But is there any evidence that the conqueror’s corpse was preserved in this way?
The Embalming of Alexander
Ancient sources state that Alexander’s body was mummified in Babylon a considerable time after he died, although they claim that putrefaction had not yet set in. While the body of Alexander was being transported back to Macedon by Perdiccas for burial, it was stolen by Ptolemy I and taken to Memphis. Ptolemy eventually moved the body to Alexandria where it was entombed in the Soma, a monumental mausoleum (Curtius, Histories of Alexander, 10.10.13):
“And so the Egyptians and Chaldeans who were ordered to care for the body after their manner, at first, as if he were still breathing, did not dare to lay their hands upon him; then, after praying that it might be right and lawful for mortals to handle a god, they emptied the body of entrails, the golden coffin was filled with perfumes, and the emblem of his rank was placed upon the king’s head.”
The historical sources which describe Alexander’s coffin report that his body was preserved with perfumes and medicinal substances, as would be expected. However, they do not list any particular ingredients. The lack of detail makes it difficult to assess the contents of his coffin. Incense and myrrh were almost certainly included, being known for their sweet scent and medicinal value (Diodorus, Historical Library, 18.26.3):
“First they prepared a coffin of the proper size for the body, made of hammered gold, and the space about the body they filled with spices such as could make the body sweet smelling and incorruptible. Upon this chest there had been placed a cover of gold, matching it to a nicety, and fitting about its upper rim. Over this was laid a magnificent purple robe embroidered with gold, beside which they placed the arms of the deceased”
Honey was a similarly widely used cosmetic and medicinal ingredient, so it’s possible that many authors did not think it was exceptional enough to mention.
His body was evidently still intact in the 1st Century BCE, as the emperor Augustus reportedly had Alexander’s sarcophagus opened so that he could view his mummy. Suetonius (Life of Augustus 18.1) reports that Augustus placed flowers and a golden crown in the tomb as a sign of respect. Cassius Dio (Roman History, 51.16) includes the somewhat dubious claim that Augustus touched the mummy and accidentally broke off a piece of Alexander’s nose. However, these accounts don’t indicate whether any residue of honey was still present. Strabo (Geography, 17.1) claims that Ptolemy X had previously replaced the original gold sarcophagus with glass or alabaster, so the contents may no longer have been intact by the lifetime of Augustus. The tomb of Alexander has since been lost, making it impossible to confirm by testing his remains.
Sweet Romance
The earliest direct references to Alexander’s embalming in honey are found in Roman literature. In the late 1st Century CE, the poet Statius (Silvae, 3.2) described Alexander’s body as lying “steeped in Hybla’s nectar” in Alexandria. However, the most widely cited source for the story about honey is the Alexander Romance, a collection of originally unrelated texts pertaining to the life and exploits of Alexander the Great that were translated throughout the ancient and medieval world. The so-called Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes had begun to circulate in the Hellenistic period, perhaps as early as the 3rd century BCE, named as such because some Medieval authors mistakenly attributed it to Alexander’s court historian Callisthenes. The Romance contains a combination of historical fact, legend and fantasy elements drawn from its various literary traditions.
“Then Alexander the king, the son of Ammon, the son of Olympias, commanded Chronos, the chief of the workers in metal to make a leaden coffin, and to fill it with honey, and myrrh, and oil of roses, and he said, “Lay ye my body therein that it may be kept from corruption.” (Budge 1933, p. 211-212)
Both the Ethiopic Alexander Romance and the Armenian Alexander Romance also describe Alexander being preserved in a mixture of honey and other medicinals. The various versions describe figures like Perdiccas, Ptolemy or Philemon as carrying out the funeral preparations. The claim is also made in the Liber de Morte Alexandri Testamentoque Eius, a Hellenistic text which purports to record the last will and testament of Alexander. Some manuscripts include aloe, myrrh, rose oil or perfumes in these ingredients. These claims are plausible but the late date and semi-fictitious nature of the Romance makes their accuracy uncertain.
Preserving the dead
The use of honey and/or beeswax to preserve the dead has precedents in Greek, Persian, Egyptian and Babylonian history. Ancient Egyptian embalming fluids contained ingredients such as beeswax, bitumen and resins. The linen bandages used to wrap ancient Egyptian mummies were occasionally coated in beeswax. (Price et al 2016 p. 268; David 2008 p. 85) Honey was also used to preserve meat in ancient Egypt, such as hams and birds. (Ikram and Dodson 1998, p. 129)
Xenophon (Hellenica, 5.3.19) claimed that the Spartan king Agesipolis, who died while campaigning against the Chalcidian League, was stored in honey and brought back to Sparta for burial. Other Classical authors made similar claims about Spartan kings being preserved in honey or beeswax (Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus, 40.3) (Cornelius Nepos, Illustrious Lives, 17.8.7). Some such accounts are obviously spurious, such as the claim that the Spartan king Cleomenes I jarred his friend Archonides’ head in honey (Aelian, Historical Miscellany, 12.8). Nevertheless, the concept appears to have been well known in Classical Greece.
Herodotus (Histories, 1.198.1) claimed that the Babylonians were customarily buried in honey. He made similar claims about Persian burials (Histories, 1.140) and Scythian royal burials (Histories, 4.71) making use of beeswax to preserve bodies. Herodotus may have recorded a genuine Babylonian practice which was later used to preserve Alexander. It’s also possible that, based on faulty testimony by Herodotus and others, Roman authors mistakenly assumed that Alexander’s Babylonian embalming used honey.
Conclusion
There is no contemporary evidence for the claim that Alexander was embalmed in honey, but several later sources mention the use of honey as one ingredient among many to help preserve his corpse. The medicinal and mortuary uses of honey were well known in antiquity, making it possible that Alexander’s body may have been embalmed using it. Because there is insufficient evidence to confirm or debunk this claim, we have rated it as “Unproven”.
References
- Richard Stoneman, Krzysztof Nawotka & Agnieszka Wojciechowska, The Alexander Romance: History and Literature (2018)
- Campbell Price, Roger Forshaw, Andrew Chamberlain and Paul T. Nicholson with Robert Morkot and Joyce Tyldesley, Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt (2016)
- Rosalie David, Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science (2008)
- Ethel Crane, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting (1999)
- Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt (1998)
- E. A. Wallis Budge, The Alexander Book in Ethiopia (1933)