Wa Alexander son of Zeus
Answers
This impression that Alexander was the son of a god actually predates his birth. The future king of Asia was really only half-Macedonian - a fact that would cause many in King Philip’s inner circle to oppose his son’s ascension to the throne. While his “father” was pure Macedonian, his mother, Olympias, was of royal blood from the province of Epirus, southwest of Macedon. Epirus was an old feudal kingdom, and like many of its neighboring kingdoms, the imperial family traced its ancestry to one of the Olympian gods - a temple to Zeus was located in its capital city. The family of Olympias, the Molossians, maintained that they were related to Achilles, who, according to Homer’s Iliad, was the tragic hero of the Trojan War. Her ancestors were descended from Molassas, the son of Andromache and Neoptolemus - a son of Achilles - who had slain King Priam of Troy at the Altar of Zeus Herkeios. This claim made Alexander to be a descendant of heroes, something his mother never discouraged.
Before Alexander started to march towards Asia, Queen Olympias revealed him the reality of his birth. According to a legend, the night before her wedding, Olympias was sleeping in her room when a sudden thunder awakened her. Immediately, a lightning bolt got into her bedchamber and got inside her womb. As per her description, this was God Zeus who impregnated her with Alexander.
Whether what Olympias said is true or is just a fragmentation of her imagination, it is interesting to note that in his later years, Alexander was convinced that he had a divine parentage and he was indeed the son of the God Zeus which he propagated widely in order to win people’s trust and faith.