When I’m struggling religiously (usually because of my assorted chronic ailments) I think of an anecdote related by Arrian of Nicomedia in his Anabasis of Alexander.
Arrian writes that Alexander the Great, after receiving a terrible wound on the battlefield, became so ill that he was forced to remain bed-ridden. However, “he was carried out on a couch to perform the sacrifices custom prescribed for each day; after making the offerings he lay down in the men’s apartments till dark.” (VII.25.2)
And I think, fuck. If this man – mortally wounded, inconceivably far from home, and engaged in leading probably one of the greatest military campaigns known to history – could find time in his day to honor his Gods, why, there’s no reason I can’t too.
And I get up and make my prayers and offerings.
The House of Vines 
Well said. Thank you for reminding us.
Thank you Alexander – your greatness was not limited to the battlefield and conquests. Your piety is marked in History’s Tome.
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It really was. In my second favorite story about him one of his tutors scolded the young Alexander because he made lavish incense offerings to the Gods, which the man considered profligate. So Alexander goes on, and conquers most of Europe and Asia, at which point he sends his tutor a large quantity of incense with a note saying now he could stop being so stingy with his offerings.
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Reblogged this on Gangleri's Grove and commented:
Good thoughts here on piety, on Alexander the Great, and on getting off your ass and accepting no personal excuse for not doing what it is, in the end, our privilege to do.
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