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VERSIONS OF THE ''ROMANCE'' Alexander was a legend in his own time. In a now-lost history of the king, the historical 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 , quipped "I wonder where I was at the time.") Throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages , the ''Romance'' underwent numerous expansions and revisions 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 . Farther east, a late Mongol version is also extant. The story of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qu'ran ( Sura ''The Cave'') matches the Gog And Magog episode in the ''Romance'', which has caused some controversy among Islamic scholars. Alexander was identified in Persian and Arabic-language sources as " Dhû-'l Qarnayn ", Arabic for the "Horned One", possibly a reference to the appearance of the Hercules head that appears on coins minted during his rule. Islamic accounts of the Alexander legend, particularly in Persia combined the Pseudo-Callisthenes material with indigenous Sasanid Persian ideas about Alexander. The ''Alexander Romance'' is the source of many incidents in Ferdowsi 's " Shahnama ". Some believe that, excepting certain religious texts, it is the most widely-read work of pre-modern times. ''LI ROMANS D'ALIXANDRE'': ALEXANDER IN 12TH CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE Attributed to or Aeneas . In part '' Poème épique '' and '' Roman '', Alexandre's work explores in great detail (and ambiguity) the various facets of the character, combining both the "estoire rose" and "estoire noire". This results in a lush Characterization that is absent in the previous poems. The poem also undertakes, like many medieval writings, the education of young noblemen (the "gentils chevalieres") and paints a picture of the political and social changes present at the time (the accession to power of common men and the poverty that thus strike the lower levels of nobility and the recentralization of power in 12th Century France). Alexander is shown as generous, loyal and courageous: he is a protective and giving figure, the emblem of unification of the noblemen under one active and strong voice. The exploration of the mysteries of , who is his father in the Greek and Roman tradition, and who also presided over his birth (Alexander kills him in a spite of rage)? Or was he killed because he gave his trust to men of inferior condition? The poem, by not giving a definitive answer to this question, stresses the importance of respect of religious and father figures (whether real father figures, or authority figures in the feudal system), while reminding the young nobles who are the public of the tale to associate themselves only with other nobles. Very Baroque in composition and esthetic, Alexandre de Bernay's version of the poem is the basis of Alexander's myth in the French Literature to come with many continuations depicting mainly the vengeance of the "douze pairs" or shedding a different light on the life of the conqueror. REFERENCES
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