The modern mythology of the left-handedness of Alexander the Great

Abstract

The prevalent modern suggestion that Alexander the Great was left-handed probably derives from Michael Barsley's (1966) book, Left-handed man is a right-handed word, perhaps by mutation from as earlier story cited by Wile in 1934 from a 17th century Rabbirical exegesis, which said that Alexander discovered a country where all the inhabitants were left-handed. That itself may derive in part from the medieval Hebrew Book of Jossippon, which mentions Alexander talking of the superiority of the left hand and of how “kings stemming from the tribe of kings are left-handed”.

I am very grateful to Jocelyn Penny Small for her interest and advice at various stages during the preparation of this manuscript, to Dr Willem Smelik for his helpful suggestions, and to Professor Wout van Bekkum for alerting me to the comment in The Book of Josippon, and for providing me with a translation.

Notes

¹This book seems to have had a complicated publishing history. My own hardback copy, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in New York in 1977, has the full title on the cover of Sinister People: The looking glass world of the left-hander: An in-depth study of the origins and consequences of being left-handed. However, there would seem to be a second version of the book, also published in 1977 but by Barnes and Noble, entitled Lefties: The origins and consequences of being left-handed. Interestingly, Rutledge and Donley (1992) cite the two versions, without dates, as separate books.

²The publishing history of Barsley's books is equally as complicated as that of Fincher's. In the UK there are two books: The left-handed book: An investigation into the sinister history of left-handedness, published in 1966, and Left-handed man in a right-handed world published in 1970. The 1966 book was published in the US in 1967 by Wilshire (Hollywood, CA) as Some of my best friends are left-handed people: An investigation into the history of left-handedness, although the typography makes it appear that the title is really Left-handed People, and it is often cited as such. A variant of Left-handed people, also published by Wilshire, and without any proper dating, declares that it was “originally published as The other hand”. There is also a book published in the US entitled Left-handed people, which according to www.alibris.com is dated 1976 or 1977—whether or not this is the same as the 1967 book is not clear, but becomes important because both Fincher and Lindsay refer to a 1976 edition of Left-handed people, which might perhaps contain material from the 1970 book.

³Since writing the first draft of this manuscript, I have discovered that the original 1966 edition of de Kay's The left-handed book includes Alexander the Great at the beginning of the list of dedicatees who it later states “are all left-handed” (no page numbers). This therefore seems to be an earlier and separate citation from those that can be tracked back to Barsley, and perhaps indicates a second source for the modern belief. Unfortunately De Kay provides no references or citations of any sort and, as with Barsley, the reference may be erroneously derived from Wile (1934).