Alexander Romance

See also: Alexander the Great in legend

Armenian illuminated manuscript of the 14th century
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Alexander the Great
Early rule
Conquest of the Persian Empire
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Death and legacy
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The Alexander Romance is an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great. Of uncertain authorship, it has been described as "antiquity's most successful novel".[1] The Romance describes Alexander the Great from his birth, to his succession of the throne of Macedon, his conquests including that of the Persian Empire, and finally his death. Although constructed around an historical core, the romance is mostly fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as sirens or centaurs.[2] In this context, the term Romance refers not to the meaning of the word in modern times but in the Old French sense of a novel or roman, a "lengthy prose narrative of a complex and fictional character" (although Alexander's historicity did not deter ancient authors from using this term).[3]

It was widely copied and translated, accruing various legends and fantastical elements at different stages. The original version was composed in Ancient Greek some time before 338 AD, when a Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. Some manuscripts pseudonymously attribute the texts authorship to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, and so the author is commonly called Pseudo-Callisthenes.

In premodern times, the Alexander 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 Islamicized regions of Asia and Africa, from Mali to Malaysia.[4] Some of the more notable translations were made into Coptic, Ge'ez, Middle Persian, Byzantine Greek, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Syriac, and Hebrew. Owing to the great variety of distinct works derived from the original Greek romance, the "Alexander romance" is sometimes treated as a literary genre, instead of a single work.[5]

  1. ^ Dowden 2019, p. 757.
  2. ^ Pseudo-Callisthenes; Stoneman, Richard (1991). The Greek Alexander romance. Penguin classics. London, England; New York, NY, USA: Penguin Books. pp. 11–23. ISBN 978-0-14-044560-2.
  3. ^ Djurslev, Christine Thrue (2024). "The Alexander Romance". In Ogden, Daniel (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great. Cambridge University Press. p. 452.
  4. ^ Doufikar-Aerts, Faustina (2020). "The Arabic Alexander Romance: Mirror of a Bold, Clever, and Devout Prince". In Seigneurie, Ken (ed.). A Companion to World Literature. Wiley. pp. 1–11. doi:10.1002/9781118635193.ctwl0072. ISBN 978-1-118-99318-7.
  5. ^ "Alexander romance | Ancient Greek Epic, Legends & Mythology | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-03-11.