Assassinations
Sir,—David Yallop may be interested to learn that Alexander the Great was murdered. He had discovered that the “Iliad” was the work of a magpie, and was about to reveal the truth when eliminated by the Athenian commander who saw it as a Macedonian threat to Greek literature. Homer was a ship’s clerk on Crete whose tame magpie memorised the songs of the bards. At night Homer would copy down what the bird related, throwing in a few sea-shanties for good measure. When Alexander was found in his bed, he was holding an annotated first edition of the “Iliad” which he had saved from the library at Persepolis before it burned down. The probable cause of death was poison. Mr Yallop may contact me for further details. The Hellenistic Lodge has long since been disbanded.—Yours, etc., J. J. BENEFIELD. June 12, 1984.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840614.2.136.1
Bibliographic details
Press, 14 June 1984, Page 20
Word Count
143Assassinations Press, 14 June 1984, Page 20
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in