Seleucus, his signet ring and his diadem

Abstract

A significant link obtains between the myth of Seleucus’ birth, as told by Appian Syriakē 56.284-5 and Justin 15.4.2-9, and the myth of his retrieval of Alexander’s diadem, as told by Appian Syriakē 56.287-57.292 and Arrian Anabasis 7.22. In the former, Apollo visits Seleucus’ mother to sire him and leaves a signet ring with her, which she is to give to Seleucus and which he is destined to lose in the place in which he will rule; he loses it in the region of the Euphrates near Babylon. In the latter, Seleucus accidentally dons Alexander’s diadem in the course of rescuing it from the same river, and so destines himself for kingship. Bacchylides’ Dithyramb 17 offers a model for the link, in that Theseus plunges into the sea to retrieve a ring cast into it by Minos, but returns from the waters wearing a crown bestowed upon him by Amphitrite. Along the way, further contextualisations are offered for the two Seleucus stories