The Greek Alexander Romance

The "Alexander Romance", attributed to Callisthenes, has been one of the most influential works of late Greek literature. Written in its original version probably in the 2nd or 1st century BC, it underwent a series of rewritings up to about the 3rd century AD. and was translated, with variations, into Syriac, Ethipoic, Armenian and Pahlavi, whence it contributed stories to the Qur'an and inspired the Persian writers Firdausi and Nizami and their Turkish followers. A Latin version was the basis for the extensive Alexander tradition in medieval Europe (all languages) which is still visible to us in manuscript illustrations and cathedral sculptures, for example, which portray such adventures of Alexander as the ascent into the air in a basket borne by eagles, the meeting with the amazons, the diving bell, the interview with the Brahmins or naked philosophers, and the search for the water of life.