“Those who persist in seeing Alexander as a reincarnation of Achilles, as an irrational youth on a heroic quest for fame and immortality, have been taken in by the myth-makers who shaped the Alexander legend.”
Waldemar Heckel The Conquests of Alexander the Great
Reading this passage, I can only be very grateful indeed that Waldemar Heckel has, in all likelihood, never heard of a blog and social media account called The Second Achilles.
Also, what would a de-mythologised Alexander look like?
I suppose the answer to that question largely depends on which elements of his life you regard as mythical and which as real. With that said, is it even a question worth asking? For even if you achieved 100% success in stripping away the mythical elements, the passage of time means you’d never know it. And even if you did, Alexander’s story, as presented to us by the ancient historians, is incomplete. We know many of his deeds, but certainly not all, and we have too little idea of his thought.
‘The Second Achilles’ title notwithstanding I would never want to be taken in again by the myth-makers. I definitely was early on in my Alexander career but I have moved beyond that now and am happy to have done so.
But neither would I want to sour my interest in Alexander by considering him, after a point, unknowable. Rather, I would like to read, write, and think about him while holding who I believe to be the real Alexander and the mythologised Alexander to be in tension with each other. Now, I have to admit, I haven’t yet thought this through so feel free to tell me I have it all wrong!
𝐼 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑟 𝐻𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑙 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒
The Second Achilles 
I would argue that anyone who complains about being taken in by the myth-makers is being a bit obtuse. There is a significant difference between Alexander the Great and Alexander, son of Philip. That difference exists with literally any monarch or leading figure. The leader of a nation is not a mere human being but a symbol of the nation. The only people that really knew Alexander were the people in His inner circle. Literally anyone else only could have ever been privy to Alexander the undefeated God King of the world. We are in that same boat. We can only know Alexander the God because that is all that is left of Him. Any chance of truly knowing Alexander the man ended in 323 BCE. The divine hero is all that we ever could have gotten and now it is all that remains. I’m perfectly fine with that. As a Hellenic Polytheist, I don’t burn frankincense for Alexander the man. I acknowledge he is there and that he has things he could teach us but for my purposes I require getting to know Alexander the Son of Zeus-Ammon, Alexander the Neos Dionysos, Alexander the Neos Herakles, or Alexander the Second Achilles
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Alexander was a product of his time, so we have to consider that. There was nothing romantic about the 4th century BC. War and survival, plunder and death. The real Alexander is there somewhere in the mix of time in which he lived. We don’t know that because we weren’t there.
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