Alexander the Great

:For other Alexanders, see Alexander (disambiguation).

Alexander's legend

Alexander was a legend in his own time. His court historian Callisthenes portrayed the sea in Cilicia as drawing back from him in proskynesis. Writing after Alexander's death, another participant, Onesicritus, went so far as to invent a tryst between Alexander and Thalestris, queen of the mythical Amazons. (When Onesicritus read this passage to his patron, Alexander's general and later King Lysimachus, Lysimachus quipped "I wonder where I was at the time.")

Related Topics:
Cilicia - Proskynesis - Onesicritus - Tryst - Thalestris - Amazons - Lysimachus

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In the first centuries after Alexander's death, probably in Alexandria, a quantity of the more legendary material coalesced into a text known as the Alexander Romance, later falsely ascribed to the historian Callisthenes and therefore known as Pseudo-Callisthenes. This text underwent numerous expansions and revisions throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, exhibiting a plasticity unseen in "higher" literary forms. Latin and Syriac translations were made in Late Antiquity. From these, versions were developed in all the major languages of Europe and the Middle East, including Armenian, Georgian, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Serbian, Slavonic, Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, Italian, and French. The "Romance" is regarded by most Western scholars as the source of the account of Alexander given in the Koran (Sura The Cave). It is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi's "Shahnama". A Mongol version is also extant.

Related Topics:
Alexandria - Alexander Romance - Middle Ages - Syriac - Europe - Middle East - Armenian - Georgian - Persian - Arabic - Turkish - Hebrew - Serbian - Slavonic - Romanian - Hungarian - German - English - Italian - French - Account of Alexander given in the Koran - Sura - Ferdowsi - Shahnama - Mongol

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Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it is the most widely-read work of pre-modern times.

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Alexander's legend in non-Western sources

Alexander was often identified in Persian and Arabic-language sources as Dhul-Qarnayn, Arabic for the "Two-Horned One", possibly a reference to the appearance of a horn-headed figure that appears on coins minted during his rule and later imitated in ancient Middle Eastern coinage. Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend, particularly in the Qur'an and in Persian legends, combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes legendary, pseudo-religious material about Alexander. The same legends from the Pseudo-Callisthenes were combined in Persia with Sasanid Persian ideas about Alexander in the Iskandarnamah.

Related Topics:
Dhul-Qarnayn - Islamic - Qur'an - Pseudo-Callisthenes - Sasanid - Persian - Iskandarnamah

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