Out of all the songs that I have heard my entire life, there is one song, written by Gerard Way, with a line that goes, "Oh how wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying" that has stuck with me. The paradox stuck out like a sore thumb, immortality was obviously synonymous to never dying and yet, it expresses a sense of regret or belated recognition of the fact that to be immortal did not simply mean to never die, but to achieve something far greater, something that stands the test of time, that goes beyond the finality of death and lives on long after the person is gone. Men try to go to great lengths to achieve some sort of immortality, after all, the fountain of youth was one that continues to captivate the imaginations of …show more content…
Upon his father's death, he was left with the task of continuing his father's mission; of expanding the Macedonian territory and creating the empire that his father had always wanted. All of this was thrust upon young Alexander's shoulders but this was a task that Alexander felt he was born for. Rumoured to be born from a union between Zeus and his mother, Alexander was in his thinking, one of the gods. And that he became, god-like in his warrior capabilities, taking over most of Asia under his rule, Alexander was able to amass an empire and build his legacy. He unified commerce and trade as well as promulgated the spread of culture between the Macedonians and the Persians, influencing Asia with Hellenic art and culture. And with this empire he has created, he pushed an ideal, named by Aristotle, in which every citizen, regardless of race, culture, religious affiliation, can co-exist within the state. He was revolutionary for his time, a time in which the Greeks couldn't even exist as one Greece, living in separate city-states; he created an empire in which he united the Macedonians and the Persians by pushing for a common language, the koinē , a precursor to the idea of having a common language to unite people of different countries, much like how English functions as the common language for today's times. All of these revolutionary contributions, the creation of a common language, unified commerce and trade, and the spread of cultures are one of the reasons why Alexander the Great is still known today, the reason why his empire is still talked about, and much of it is due to the fact that Alexander did not only build an empire, but he built it with the ideals that stand the test of time. Yes, many would counter that Alexander was brash, impulsive, and that his military victories were all due to sheer dumb luck. Many would also say that the young Alexander did not really