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Early rule Conquest of the Persian Empire Expedition into India Death and legacy Cultural impact | ||
The vast conquests of theMacedonian kingAlexander the Great quickly inspired the formation and diffusion of legendary material about his deity, journeys, and tales. These appeared shortly after his death, and some may have already begun forming during his lifetime. Common themes and symbols among legends about Alexander include theGates of Alexander, theHorns of Alexander, and theGordian Knot.
In the third century AD, an anonymous author writing in the name of Alexander's court historianCallisthenes (commonly referred to as Pseudo-Callisthenes) authored the GreekAlexander Romance. This work gave rise to a genre of literature chronicling the myths and adventures of Alexander, which evolved through over a hundred versions during premodern times and was translated into nearly every language across European and Islamic civilizations.
King Philip II had a dream in which he took awax seal and sealed up the womb of his wife. The seal bore the image of a lion. The seerAristander interpreted this to mean thatOlympias was pregnant, since men do not seal up what is empty, and that she would bring forth a son who would be bold and lion-like.[1]
After Philip took Potidaea in 356 BC, he received word that his horse had just won at the Olympic games, and thatParmenion had defeated the Illyrians. Then he got word of the birth of Alexander. The seers told him that a son whose birth coincided with three victories would always be victorious.[2] When the young Alexander tamed the steedBucephalus, his father noted that Macedonia would not be large enough for him.[2]
When Alexander went to Egypt, he was given the title ofPharaoh and the epithet "Son ofRa" (the Egyptian sun deity). In 331 BC in Egypt, he would visit the oracle of theSiwa Oasis (also known as the Oasis of Amun-Ra). It was at that point, legend holds, that Alexander began to refer toZeus Ammon as his true father. Returning to Memphis after the oracle visit, he was informed that the prophetess of the Apollonian oracle, theErythraean Sibyl, had also confirmed his divine paternity as the son of Zeus.[3]
Many Alexander legends are found in the writings of the Greek historianPlutarch, such as that Alexander was born in the same day that theTemple of Artemis at Ephesus was burnt down, during which the god Artemis was too preoccupied with his birth to pay the requisite attention needed to save her burning temple. Later in life when Alexander offered to pay for the temples reconstruction, he was informed that it was not appropriate for gods to dedicate offerings to other gods. In another anecdote, it was said that the priestess of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi exclaimed to him "You are invincible o young!"
Claudius Aelianus in theCharacteristics of Animals wrote thatScythians say that there were horned donkeys, and their horns were holding water from the riverStyx. Adding that Sopater brought one of these horns to Alexander, then Alexander set up the horn as a votive offering atDelphi, with an inscription beneath it.[4]
Josephus, a first-century historian, describes theGates of Alexander (and is the first to mention them afterPliny the Elder).[5] Josephus describes these gates in the context of a barbarian group called the Scythians, for whom the boundary prevents their incursion. Elsewhere, Josephus also clarifies that theScythians were known among the Jews as Magogites, descendants of theMagog described in the Hebrew Bible. These references occur in two different works.The Jewish War states that the iron gates Alexander erected were controlled by the king ofHyrcania (on the south edge of the Caspian), and allowing passage of the gates to theAlans (whom Josephus considered a Scythic tribe) resulted in the sack ofMedia. Josephus'sAntiquities of the Jews contains two relevant passages, one giving the ancestry of Scythians as descendants of Magog son ofJapheth, and another that refers to the Caspian Gates being breached by Scythians allied toTiberius during theArmenian War.[6]
TheTalmud also has many legends relating to Alexander, For example, it mentions that theSamaritans conspired for the destruction of the temple, but Alexander prostrated himself at the feet of the high priestSimon the Just. It also mentions many other legends on Alexander, such as: The Ten Questions of Alexander to the Sages of the South, his Journey to the Regions of Darkness, the Amazons, the Gold Bread, Alexander at the Gate of Paradise, his Ascent into the Air, and Descent into the Sea.[7][8]
The Talmud also records a story that describes Alexander seeking theFountain of Life, which also has versions appear in theAlexander Romance and in the SyriacSong of Alexander. In the version as it appears in the Talmud, Alexander washes a fish in a spring which immediately jumps to life upon being washed. Realizing that he has discovered the Fountain, he washes his own face in it, though the significance of this is not explained in the story. The Talmudic version differs from the other versions, insofar as only in the Talmud does Alexander succeed in accessing the Fountain, and in this story, Alexander is the one to discover it as opposed to one of his servants.[9]
 | This sectionappears to contradict itself on whether Alexander ascended into the sky or descended into the ocean. Please see thetalk page for more information.(November 2024) |
Wishing to see the world, Alexander was thought to have descended into the depths of the ocean in a sort ofdiving bell, which would let him see the world from above. To do this he harnessed two largegriffins between which he was seated. He would hold meat skewers above their heads to entice them to keep flying further up.
Around 1260,Bertold von Regensburg preached, that like Alexander believed that "he could take down the highest stars from the sky by hand, so you too would like to go up in the air if you could." But the story showed where such a climb would lead, and proved that the great Alexander "was one of the greatest fools the world has ever seen."[10]
Rice andBoardman have both argued that the figure on the Anglo-SaxonAlfred Jewel intended to represent this scene in order to represent the notion of one coming to knowledge through sight. Boardman has also argued that the Anglo-SaxonFuller Brooch carries a similar theme.[11]
In medievalThessalonica, the largest city in the region ofMacedonia, a popular legend arose among the inhabitants of the city connecting Alexander with the sculptures of a Roman-era portico of the city known asLas Incantadas ("the enchanted ones"), which had been erected long after his death. According to the legend, a Thracian king once visited Alexander, and his queen fell in love with him. They arranged to meet at night next to the portico, but the king learnt of this, and had his magician bewitch the portico so that everyone who passed near would be petrified. Alexander was notified not to go by his tutorAristotle, but the queen and her attendants were not as lucky, and they turned all into sculptures. The king and his magician arrived later to see their work, and they were petrified too.[12]
In theBulgarian folk songs collection published byDimitar and Konstantin Miladinov in 1861, under the chapter Legends, the first legend is about Tsar Aleksandar seeking the Immortal Water. The tale is recorded in what seems to be an Ohrid-Struga dialect. In the legend, Alexander finds the immortal water behind after walking three days in darkness, behind two mountains that open and close. He leaves the bottle with immortal water to his sister, who breaks it by accident. Alexander chases his sister to the sea, where she escapes and turns into a dolphin.[13]
With the GreekAlexander Romance and its translation into numerous languages includingArmenian, Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopic, and more, an entire genre of literature was dedicated to the exploits of Alexander in both Christian and Muslim realms. Alexander was also the onemost frequently identified withDhu al-Qarnayn (Arabic: ذو القرنين; lit. "The Two-Horned One"),[14][15][16] a figure that appears in SurahAl-Kahf in theQuran, the holy text of Islam, which greatly expanded the attention paid to him in the traditions of the Muslim world.
Arabic was introduced as the court language of the caliphate during theUmayyad Caliphate around the year 700. One of the first texts translated into Arabic was theRasāʾil Arisṭāṭālīsa ilāʾl-Iskandar (The Letters of Aristotle to Alexander or theEpistolary Romance), which consist of a letter of apocryphal letters meant to confirm Alexander's reputation as a wise ruler. It was composed during the reign ofHisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) from Greek sources like theEpistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem. Part of this text became a constituent of theKitāb Sirr al-Asrār (Book of Secret of Secrets) byYahya ibn al-Batriq (d. 815), a Pseudo-Aristoteliean treatise which became immensely popular and was translated directly from the Arabic into many other (including European) languages. Both Alexander and Aristotle became important figures in Islamic wisdom literature, such as in the chapter dedicated to Alexander in the 9th-centuryĀdāb al-Falāsifa (Sayings of the Philosophers) written in the name of the famous Christian translator and physicianHunayn ibn Ishaq. Other texts in this tradition from the tenth century onward includedṢiwān al-Ḥikma (Chest of Wisdom) ofAbu Sulayman Sijistani, theal-Ḥikma al-Khālida (Everlasting Wisdom) ofMiskawayh, and theal-Kalim al-Rūḥānīya fīʾl-Ḥikam al-Yūnānīya (Spiritual Sayings about Greek Maxims) ofIbn Hindu.[17]
TheAlexander Romance literature would enter into the Arabic world through itsSyriac language recension (version), known as theSyriac Alexander Legend. It would become the main source for Arabic-language historians who wanted to discuss the role of Alexander in pre-Islamic history. For example, theKitāb al-Akhbār al-Ṭiwal (Book of Comprehensive History) ofAbu Hanifa Dinawari (d. 896), itself based on an older version in Pseudo-Aṣma‛ī'sNihāyat al-Arab (Ultimate Aim), includes a short history of the kingdom of Alexander in this tradition. Other examples include theTārīkh (Historiae) of al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 897), theal-Rusul waʾl-Mulūk (History of the Prophets and Kings, or simplyAnnales) of al-Tabbari (d. 923), theMurūj al-Dhahab (Meadows of Gold) ofal-Masudi (d. 956), and theNaẓm al-Jawhar (String of Pearls) ofEutychius of Alexandria.[18]
The earliest full-length ArabicAlexander Romance was theQissat al-Iskandar of ʿUmara ibn Zayd, composed in the late 8th or early 9th century. The other prominent Arabic versions would be theQissat Dhulqarnayn (9th century), a secondQissat Dhulqarnayn in theAra'is al-Majalis fi Qisas al-Anbiya' (Book of Prophets) ofal-Tha'labi (11th century), theHadith Dhulqarnayn (15th century), theSīrat al-Iskandar (15th century), theSirat al-Malek Eskandar Dhu’ l-Qarneyn, and theTārīkh al-Iskandar al-Makdūni (History of Alexander of Macedon) (17th century).[19]
Pre-Islamic Persian tradition of Alexander is overwhelmingly negative, as in theBook of Arda Viraf and theBundahishn. In these texts, Alexander is the enemy ofIran and of true religion. For example, the former text at one point says: "Then the accursed, wicked Evil Spirit deluded the accursed (gizistag) Alexander the Roman, who lived in Egypt, in order to cause the people to have doubt about this religion." Early Islamic representations of Alexander retain some vestige of such views, as Alexander is occasionally called agizistag in the Shahnameh.[20]Theodor Nöldeke has also inferred the existence of a now-lostMiddle Persian recension of theAlexander Romance, which he believed was translated intoSyriac as theSyriac Alexander Romance, but more recent scholarship has cast doubt on the existence of such an intermediary.[20]
Islamic-era Persian accounts of the Alexander legend, known as theIskandarnameh, combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes and Syriac material about Alexander, some of which is found in the Qur'an, withSasanian Persian ideas about Alexander the Great. This is an ironic outcome considering Zoroastrian Persia's hostility to the national enemy who finished theAchaemenid Empire, but was also directly responsible for centuries of Persian domination byHellenistic "foreign rulers".[21] However, he is sometimes not depicted as a warrior and conqueror, but as a seeker of truth who eventually finds theAb-i Hayat (Water of Life).[22] Persian sources on the Alexander legend devised a mythical genealogy for him whereby his mother was a concubine ofDarius II, making him the half-brother of the last Achaemenid king,Darius III. By the 12th century such important writers asNezami Ganjavi were making him the subject of theirepic poems. TheRomance and theSyriac Legend are also the sources of incidents inFerdowsi'sShahnameh.[23] In theShahnameh, the Persian epic,Kai Bahman's elder son Dara(b) is killed in battle withAlexander the Great, that is, Dara/Darab is identified asDarius III and which then makes Bahman a figure of the 4th century BC. In another tradition, Alexander is the son of Dara/Darab and his wife Nahid, who is described to be the daughter of "Filfus ofRûm" i.e. "Philip the Greek" (cf.Philip II of Macedon).[24][25]
Alexander the Great was claimed as the ancestor of theHunza rulers.[26]
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In the third-century AD, a quantity of legendary and historical material about Alexander the Great coalesced into the production of a text known as theAlexander Romance. The text is pseudonymously attributed toCallisthenes, a court historian of Alexander the Great. For this reason, its author is usually referred to as Pseudo-Callisthenes.
In premodern times, theAlexander Romance underwent more than 100 translations, elaborations, and derivations in 25 languages, including almost all European vernaculars as well as in every language from the Islamicised regions of Asia and Africa, fromMali toMalaysia.[27]
In Europe, theAlexander Romance was forgotten untilLeo the Archpriest discovered a Greek copy inConstantinople while he was on a diplomatic missions. He produced a translation into Latin titled theNativitas et victoria Alexandri Magni regis, which became the basis of the far more successful and expanded version known as theHistoria de Proeliis, which went through three recensions between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and made Alexander a household name throughout theMiddle Ages.[28] Another very popular Latin version was theAlexandreis ofWalter of Châtillon.[29]
Translations would subsequently be made into all the major languages ofEurope as versions of the Alexander romance became the most popular form of medieval European literature after theBible,[30] such asOld French (12th century),[31]Middle Scots (The Buik of Alexander, 13th century),[32]Italian,[33]Spanish (theLibro de Alexandre),Central German (Lamprecht'sAlexanderlied, and a 15th-century version byJohannes Hartlieb),Slavonic,[34]Hungarian,Romanian,Irish, and more.[30][35]
TheSyriac Alexander Legend, composed either in ~630 shortly afterHeraclius defeated the Persians[36] or in the mid-6th century during the reign ofJustinian I,[37] contains additional motifs not found in the earliest Greek version of theRomance, including the apocalypticization of the wall built againstGog and Magog.[38] SubsequentMiddle Eastern recensions of the Alexander legend were generated in the tradition of the Syriac recension, including versions inArabic,Persian (Iskandarnameh),Ethiopic, Hebrew (in the first part ofSefer HaAggadah),Ottoman Turkish[39] (14th century), andMiddle Mongolian (13th-14th century).[40]
Alexander is often identified withDhu al-Qarnayn, literally"The Two-Horned One", mentioned in theQuran,Al-Kahf 18:83–94. Similarities between the Quranic account and theSyriac Alexander Legend were also found in recent research[42] (seeAlexander in the Qur'an).[43] The Arabic tradition also elaborated the legend that Alexander the Great had been the companion ofAristotle andPlato.
Persian versions of theAlexander Romance began with depictions covering three sections ofFerdowsi'sShahnameh (Book of Kings). The first full length Persian recension of theRomance appeared in an anonymous work entitled theIskandarnameh, likely dating to the eleventh century.Nizami Ganjavi would then compose his ownIskandarnameh under significant influence from the representations of Ferdowsi's chronicle. The next major Persian version was theAyina-i Iskandari (Alexandrine Mirror) of the poetAmir Khusrau, who began first by surveying the earlier works of Ferdowsi and Nizami before proceeding into his own portrait. The final major Persian version was theKherad-name-ye Eskandari (Alexandrian Book of Wisdom) ofJâmi composed in the 15th century,[44] though numerous other versions would also continue to be written.[45]
TheMalayHikayat Iskandar Zulkarnain was written about Alexander the Great as Dhul-Qarnayn and the ancestry of several Southeast Asian royal families is traced from Iskandar Zulkarnain, through RajaRajendra Chola (Raja Suran, Raja Chola) in theMalay Annals, such as theSumatraMinangkabau royalty.[46][47]
Western epics based on theAlexander Romance include:
TheShahnama also contains parts from the Syriac sources discussed in the first chapter of this book: the SyriacAlexander Romance (such as the dragon slaying and the journey to Chin), episodes from theSyriac Legend andPoem (such as Gog and Magog, and the Water of Life) and the philosophers' laments over Alexander's tomb.
The episode of Alexander's building a wall against Gog and Magog, however, is not found in the oldest Greek, Latin, Armenian and Syriac versions of theRomance. Though the Alexander Romance was decisive for the spreading of the new and supernatural image of Alexander the king in East and West, the barrier episode has not its origin in this text. The fusion of the motif of Alexander's barrier with the Biblical tradition of the apocalyptic peoples Gog and Magog appears in fact for the first time in the so calledSyriac Alexander Legend. This text is a short appendix attached to the Syriac manuscripts of theAlexander Romance.
The essence of his theory is that parallels can be found in the Quranic verses on Dhu'l-qarnayn (18:82-9) and the Christian Syriac Alexander Legend. The hypothesis requires a revision, because Noldeke's dating of Jacob of Sarug'sHomily and theChristian Syriac Alexander Legend is no longer valid; therefore, it does not need to be rejected, but it has to be viewed from another perspective. See my exposé inAlexander Magnus Arabicus (see note 7), chapter 3.3 and note 57.
