256 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



an independent and masterful intellect, even in that early 

 day above the Pagan superstitions of the time, might 

 with ingenuity and boldness bend the sanctions of 

 religion to his own ends without destroying them. The 

 first one is an incident recorded of Alexander's cam- 

 paign in Asia Minor in 334 B. C. His fleet was an- 

 chored in the harbor of Miletus, and opposite it lay the 

 fleet of the Persians. Alexander had no desire to disturb 

 this situation, for he meant his army, not the navy, 

 to do the work in view. One day an eagle, Jove's 

 bird, was seen sitting on the shore behind the Mace- 

 donian ships, and Parmenion, chief of staff, found in 

 this fact convincing indication by the gods that victory 

 was with the ships. Alexander pointed out that the 

 eagle had perched on the land, not on the ships, giving 

 thereby the evident intimation that it was only through 

 the victory of the troops on land that the fleet could have 

 value. As Alexander was commander-in-chief, this was 

 evidently the orthodox interpretation. 



Two years later Alexander was one day laying out 

 on its site the plan of his foreordained city of Alex- 

 andria, in Egypt, and was marking the course of the 

 proposed streets by sprinkling lines of flour in the lack 

 of chalk-dust. 'While the king," says Plutarch, "was 

 congratulating himself on his plan, on a sudden a count- 

 less number of birds of various sorts flew over from 

 the land and the lake in clouds, and settling on the spot 

 in clouds devoured in a short time all the flour, so that 

 Alexander was much disturbed in mind at the omen 

 involved, till the augurs restored his confidence, telling 

 him the city . . . was destined to be rich in its resources, 

 and a feeder of nations of men." 



The straight face with which Plutarch 94 recites these 



