Immagine di Mito. Images of a Legend

In history and literature, art, music and theatre, Alexander is a prophet of Islam, a Christian symbol, a philosopher and adventurer, the image of a Roman emperor and a Byzantine basileus.The Greek Alexander Romance by the so-called Pseudo-Callisthenes started a double chain of courtly novels and Islamic novels that took Alexander to Ethiopia, Siberia, China and Malaysia: as a crusader he freed Jerusalem, like a second Saladin he freed Aleppo; in Rome he represents the power of the Popes, in Moscow he adorns the sovereignty of the Tsars. From Egypt to the Far East, countless places tell of his passing, real or imaginary: from the great city of Alexandria to the small Eskanderia, no much more than a low hill on the road northwards from Kabul. Over the centuries, Alexander, Macedonian and Greek, etymologically "defender of mankind," speaks Syriac, Latin, Hebrew, Persian, Aramaic, Slav......