Origin, Meaning, And History Of Willem

Willem is the Dutch masculine variant of William, which originates in the Germanic language. This name consists of the root elements willo, meaning ‘will’ or ‘desire,’ and helm, meaning ‘helmet’ or ‘protection.’

The name connotes royalty not just through its meaning but also its usage. Willem has been the name of Dutch rulers since the 18th century, carried by Willem I, II, and III. As of 2013, it is also part of the name of Willem-Alexander, the King of the Netherlands and former chairman of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.

Alexander the Great as a God

The age-old concept of the “divine right of kings” allowed that a country’s ruler received his or her power or authority from God. However, few, if any, were delusional enough to actually believe themselves to be a god. An exception to this was Alexander the Great of Macedon. In 334 BCE at the age of twenty-two, he and his army crossed the Hellespont and embarked on a decade-long journey to conquer the Persian Empire.  As a supposed descendant of Achilles, Alexander believed his final victory over King Darius III was his destiny. By the time of his death in 323 BCE, he was convinced that he was not the son of King Philip II but, instead, was the son of the omnipotent Greek god Zeus.

This impression that Alexander was the son of a god actually predates his birth. The future king of Asia was really only half-Macedonian – a fact that would cause many in King Philip’s inner circle to oppose his son’s ascension to the throne. While his “father” was pure Macedonian, his mother, Olympias, was of royal blood from the province of Epirus, southwest of Macedon. Epirus was an old feudal kingdom, and like many of its neighboring kingdoms, the imperial family traced its ancestry to one of the Olympian gods – a temple to Zeus was located in its capital city. The family of Olympias, the Molossians, maintained that they were related to Achilles, who, according to Homer‘s Iliad, was the tragic hero of the Trojan War. Her ancestors were descended from Molossus, the son of Andromache and Neoptolemus – a son of Achilles – who had slain King Priam of Troy at the Altar of Zeus Herkeios. This claim made Alexander to be a descendant of heroes, something his mother never discouraged.

His mother pulled him aside and recounted a series of events occurring the night before her wedding. Supposedly, Olympias was asleep in her bedchamber when a clap of thunder awakened her. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning (evidently this was the god Zeus) shot into her room and struck her in her womb – miraculously without harming her – a flash of light immediately followed. Concerning this version of Alexander’s birth, the historian Plutarch wrote in his Greek Lives, “…when Alexander was setting out on his eastern campaign, Olympias accompanied him during the procession, told him in private the secret of his birth, and urged him to entertain ambitions worthy of his parentage.” (312)

King Philip, who claimed to be a descendant of Zeus’s son Heracles (Hercules in Roman mythology), also had a revelation about his son. According to Plutarch, after they were married, “Philip dreamt that he was pressing a seal on his wife’s womb, and that the emblem on the seal was the figure of a lion.” Although there are some who dismiss Philip’s dream, it was interpreted by Aristander of Telmessus as meaning that Olympias was already pregnant and that the son she carried would be both bold and lion-like. As Alexander would find out years later, the temple priests at Siwa would confirm his suspicions about his divine parentage: Zeus, not Philip, was his real father.

To Alexander the gods of Olympus were present everywhere, and their wishes were revealed to man through oracles and omens – this can be seen in his respect for the oracles at Delphi and Siwa. Alexander respected the rich history of the Greeks, sleeping with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. He believed in both the labors of his forefather Heracles and the exploits of his mother’s ancestor Achilles. He sacrificed daily and even organized festivals as he travelled through Asia. Because his victories were sanctioned by the gods, before and after each battle, he would pray and sacrifice to them.