Early in the year 331 BC, on the occasion of his occupation of Egypt, Alexander journeyed to the oasis of Siwah in the Libyan desert to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammon. In this paper I propose to examine the consultation with particular attention to Alexander's plans for the future. Because of the haz-ards of the desert march, the exotic nature of the undertaking, and perhaps because little became known about it to the outside world, the affair caught the imagination of Alexander's contemporaries and of posterity, and in modem scholarship it has become the most intensely discussed episode of Alexander's career. While Darius was readying his forces for the final showdown, Alexander took six weeks out of his schedule to visit Siwah. We must think that his motives were compelling.'

We know that at Siwah Alexander was acknowledged as the god's son. Perhaps this acknowledgment did not come as a surprise. The idea of the god's paternity may have occurred to him already before, and one of his motives for the trip may have been the hope to obtain confirmation and clarification. 2 As the new Pharaoh, Alexander was, of course, ex officio son of god in Egypt (Ra and Osiris) and god (Horus), but this status had nothing to do with Ammon at