Alexander Visits the Temple of Ammon.
After these transactions, Alexander was seized by an ardent desire to visit Ammon360 in Libya, partly in order 145to consult the god, because the oracle of Ammon was said to be exact in its information, and Perseus and Heracles were said to have consulted it, the former when he was despatched by Polydectes361 against the Gorgons, and the latter, when he visited Antaeus362 in Libya and Busiris363 in Egypt. Alexander was also partly urged by a desire of emulating Perseus and Heracles, from both of whom he traced his descent.364 He also deduced his pedigree from Ammon, just as the legends traced that of Heracles and Perseus to Zeus. Accordingly he made the expedition to Ammon with the design of learning his own origin more certainly, or at least that he might be able to say that he had learned it. According to Aristobulus, he advanced along the seashore to Paraetonium through a country which was a desert, but not destitute of water, a distance of about 1,600 stades.365 Thence he turned into the interior, where the oracle of Ammon was located. The route is desert, and most of it is sand and destitute of water. But there was a copious supply of rain for Alexander, a thing which was attributed to the influence of the ............