Dinocrates and Mount Athos

The architect Dinocrates, whose megalomaniac ambitions matched those of Alexander the Great himself, was frustrated by minor officials in his attempts to make an appointment with Alexander to promote his projects. Taking matters into his own hands, Dinocrates, who was young and beautiful with an impressive muscular physique, decided to cast himself in the role of the demigod Hercules and he paraded up and down in the nude, with no more than a lion skin cast over his shoulders, in the square outside the conference hall where Alexander  was meeting with his top officials. His appearance caused considerable excitement and he was soon summoned inside to meet Alexander. This gave Dinocrates the chance to promote his plan to carve part of Mount Athos into a giant sculpture of a reclining Alexander holding a bowl containing a lake in one hand and a city in the other hand. Above, Alexander the Great as sculpted into Mount Athos according to the plan promoted by Dinocrates. A painting by the French artist Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes.  At right, Dinocrates as he appeared at his meeting with Alexander the Great, with Dinocrates himself representing Alexander as he was to appear in his colossal sculpture and carrying in his hands the bowl, containing the small lake, and the small city which were to rest in the hands of Alexander on Mount Athos. Drawing by the Italian artist Francesco di Giorgio Martini.