Papers of BAS

Humanities and Social Sciences

Vol. 8, 2021, No. 2

The basilisk:
An episode from the Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni*
Vanya Lozanova-Stancheva

Abstract. The paper aims to analyse the episode about the fight of Alexander the
Great with the sinister, poisoning the air with his breath and eyes basilisk in the medieval
tradition about the Romance of Alexander, respectively the Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni
(Rezension J3).
However, the tracing of the literary tradition in the Latin West unequivocally
suggests the functioning of at least three basic variants of the mythic-and-literary
narrative, which presupposes the multiplication of the sources and its transmission.
Variations in the story of Alexander and the basilisk sometimes indicate a distancing
and alienation from the paradigm of the Rezension J3.
If the oldest α-Rezension of the Pseudo-Callisthenes’ literary core dates no later
than AD 200, we are most likely faced with a later interpolation of a text that functioned
independently of it, but dating back to an earlier epoch, not later than the middle of the
4th century, and probably before that. This would hypothetically outline the chronological
boundaries and possible transmissions of the episode with the meeting of Alexander the
Great and the basilisk as an integral part of the landscape of the Otherworld on the
way to the “land of the blessed” and the end of the world passing through the “land of
twilight”, where miracles can happen and fantastic monsters meet.
Keywords: Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni, Rezension J3, Archipresbyter Leo,
basilisk, Itinerarium Alexandri

Thou shalt tread on the asp and basilisk:

and thou shalt trample on the lion and dragon...
Psalm 91:13

In the middle of the 3rd c. BC in Alexandria, Egypt, with the first koine
Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as The Translation of the Seventy

* The author would like to thank the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic
of Bulgaria for its support under the National Scientific Programme “Cultural and Historical
Heritage, National Memory and Social Development”, approved by a Decision of the Council
of Ministers No. 577 of 17 August 2018.

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or Septuagint, from the darkness of ancient Hellenic mythology appears the
mysterious figure of the basilisk (Psalm 91:13 and Isaiah 59:5; cf. Jeremias
8:17), “the King of Snakes” (or regulus in Latin). Translators see in it the
most appropriate Hellenic correspondence for the Hebraic name for a highly
venomous or monstrous serpent (?) tziph’oni/siph’oni (Murison 1905, 115-130).
Classical Hellenic literature is too discreet about the basilisk, which might be
explained by its possible mysterial nature.
A few centuries later, approximately around AD 200, again in Alexandria
reappeared the oldest version of The Romance of Alexander (Rezension α), around
which was generated a sustainable tradition of various revisions and translations.
In one of the later versions of The Romance of Alexander, the medieval Historia de
preliis Alexandri Magni (Rezension J3), appeared an unusual episode about the
collision of Alexander the Great with the sinister basilisk, poisoning the air with
his breath and his gaze (Fig. 1). This episode was almost unknown to the other
versions of Historia de preliis, and it was also absent in the main, oldest core of
The Romance of Alexander.

Fig. 1. Alexander fighting a crowned dragon: Peniarth 481D, Folio 90r, a late 15th-century
illuminated manuscript of the Historia de preliis, a unknown Flemish illuminator,
The National Library of Wales (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_
fighting_a_crowned_dragon.jpg (24.06.2021)

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 The extensive interpolation included at the beginning of Chapter 106 of
Rezension J3 of Historia de preliis (Pfister 1912a, 264-265; Steffens 1975) is part of
the detailed description of Alexander’s fantastic journey into the Otherworld,
filled with many wonders and monsters: anomalous plants, magical waters,
dragons, snakes and lions are an integral part of the gloomy landscape of the
Otherworld, through which passes the way to “the land of the blessed” and the
end of the world (Fig. 2). Having marched for 170 days, Alexander and his army
reached a high mountain, the top of which seemed to reach the sky. It looked
like a wall, so no climb was possible. There were only two passages that cut
through the mountain: one to the north and the other to the east. The king
believed that this division of the mountain was not the result of human hands,
but of the inundation caused by the Flood. He suggested taking the road to the
east and so they walked for eight days through this narrow gap.
Then they met a terrible stinking basilisk, which poisoned all the air not
only with his breath but also with his gaze; as far as he could reach, he poisoned
the air. The Macedonians and Persians who passed by him fell dead from his
sight. When the soldiers learned of this danger, they did not want to continue.
What follows is an anecdotal episode about Alexander’s ingenuity, through
which he defeated the terrifying basilisk by means of a huge mirror made from
the outer surface of the shields of his warriors. When the monster looked at it,
his gaze reflected and killed him (Pfister 2012а, 264-265; Pfister 1978, 163-164).

Fig. 2. Alexander and his men facing amazing beasts and monsters across a river: Peniarth
481D, Folio 68v, a late 15th-century illuminated manuscript of the Historia de preliis,
a unknown Flemish illuminator, The National Library of Wales (https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/File:Alexander_and_his_men_facing_amazing_beasts.jpg (24.06.2021)

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 What are the possible primary sources and transmission mechanisms of this
amazingly fantastic interpolation?

1. The Romance of Alexander is a unique composite work (composed of

historical stories, “letters”, folklore traditions and diverse anecdotal material)
with a phenomenal existence, which has functioned for centuries in the medieval
literary tradition. The additional sources clinging to the primary literary core
raise many questions and issues. The original core of the text dates back to the
Greek text of Pseudo-Callisthenes Historia Alexandri Magni (Ausfeld 1907; cf.
Meusel (ed.) 1864, 703-816). It is considered to be the source of the first Latin
translation of Res gestae Alexandri Magni in three books (birth, deeds, death),
made before AD 340 by an unknown author identified with Julius Valerius
(Kuebler 1888). An anonymous author sometime between the 8th and 9th
centuries, known today as the Zacher Epitome after its publisher and commentator
Julius Zacher, epitomized this translation (Zacher (Hrsg.) 1867; Ross 1956, 127-
132), and was included by Vincent of Beauvais († ca. 1264) into his encyclopaedic
work Speculum historialе (The Mirror of History).
Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni is one of the later medieval versions of The
Romance of Alexander, ascending to the Latin translation of Archipresbyter Leo
of Naples (made between 951 and 968/9) of a Byzantine manuscript found by
him in Constantinople as it becomes clear from the Prologue to the text (Pfister
1941, 273-281; see Pfister 1913, 5-8), preserved entirely only in the manuscript
of The Bamberg State Library (Cod. Bamb. E III. 14), as well as partially in a
Munich (Cod. Lat. Monac. 23489, s. xii-xiii) and in a Parisian (BN Nouv. Acq.
Lat. 310, s. xii) manuscripts. The Prologue contains unique information about
the personality of Archipresbyter Leo and about the process of translation
thereof titled Nativitas et Victoria Alexandri Magni. Leo served at the court of
the Duke of Naples John III (928-968), who was famous for his passion to
collecting ancient manuscripts. As one of his main agents in this endeavour,
Leo was sent to Constantinople with the special task of searching for Greek and
Latin manuscripts. When he returned, he translated some of them, including
the text of Nativitas et Victoria Alexandri Magni. The translation of Archipresbyter
Leo did not enjoy much attention from his contemporaries, which is evident in
the scarce number of transcripts, but the three interpolated receptions J1, J2, J3
(Ausfield 1907; Steffens 1975) have become the main transmission for the spread
of the medieval tradition of The Romance of Alexander, with a huge influence on
his contemporary, and on the subsequent medieval literature of the Latin West
(Fig. 3).
Historia de preliis (J3) follwed quite accurately version J1, however it also added
some new material. The starting point for its dating is the influence of this version
on the Latin text of Gesta Herewardi: compiled ca. 1150, the poem was dedicated
to an English hero who had led his people against the Norman expansion in the
second half of the 11th c. (Hamilton 1927, 113-146; Cary 1956, 52).
Another work based on J3, was the work of Quilichinus of Spoleto
Alexandreis (Kirsch (ed.) 1971). In 1236 (Pfister 1976, 23-26; Merkelbach 1954,
VIIa-VIIIa; Steffens 1975), he reworked this edition into a long epic poem in
elegiac couplets in Latin, which is also a kind of terminus ante quem of compiling

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of J3 (Pfister 1912a, 249-301, see 287). The poem was presented mainly in the
manuscript from Zwickau (1434) with some additions to the details from the
Darmstadt manuscript from the 15th c. (Pfister 1976, 23-26; Merkelbach 1954,
VIIa-VIIIa; Pfister 1941, 273-281; see Pfister 1913; Steffens 1975). Soon the work
was translated into Italian by the younger Dante’s contemporary, Domenico
Scolari (Istoria di Alessandro Magno, 1355), and into Middle German by an
unknown Bavarian poet (1397). The Rezension J3 was very popular and had a
strong influence on the late medieval literary tradition and especially on the
Italian literary tradition of The Romance of Alexander (Cary 1956, 52; Morosini
2011, 329-364). The interest in it was dictated by the growing preference for the
incredible and fantastic adventures of Alexander at the expense of reducing or
shortening the historical facts.
A brief overview of the literary influence of version J3 of Historia de preliis
broadly outlines the boundaries of the functioning of the main version of the

Fig. 3. J1 - J2 - J3- Rezensions of the Latin translation of Leo the Archipriest

Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni
Leone - Leo the Archipriest, Historia de preliis Alexandri Magni; J1 - J2 - J3 - Rezensions; Ba - Bamberg,
Staatsbibliothek, Hist. 3; M - München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 23489; P - Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale, Nouv. acq. lat. 310; L - London, Lambeth Palace 342; Frutolfо - Chronicon universale by
Frutolf von Michelsberg, 1099; Hartlieb - German translation by Johannes Hartlieb (15 c.)

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episode with Alexander and the basilisk as an integral image of “the land of
twilight”, in which the king himself resolves the crisis situation, using a mirror
or the mirror surface of the shields of his warriors. According to Fr. Pfister
(Pfister 1912а, 264-265), the episode with the basilisk and the mirror or the
mirror surface of the shields of his warriors entered Latin Europe through
version J3. However, the tracing of the literary tradition in the Latin West
unequivocally suggests the functioning of at least two more variants of the
mythic-and-literary version, which presupposes the multiplication of the sources
and its transmissions.
2. Medieval variants of the motif. A structural element in the first, the
“classic” version of the mythological account of Alexander the Great’s clash with
the basilisk is the mirror as the main and only means of overcoming the destructive
power of the monster. In this version, Alexander himself finds a solution to the
critical situation thanks to his ingenuity and wisdom. A complicated version
of the same variant involves the intervention of Alexander’s teacher, Aristotle
(as in Pseudo-Aristotle’s Secretum Secretorum: Williams 2003), of an anonymous
philosopher or a wise old man/men. This paradigmatic framework more
succinctly and with strongly moralizing strategies follows the narrative of the
anecdote (Cap. 139) in Gesta Romanorum (Oesterley (Hrsg.) 1872). Alexander’s
clash with the poisonous basilisk is recorded in the story of the siege of a city by
the Macedonian king (identified as Tyre: Pfister 1912а, 2551).
In the history of retransmission and interpretation of the episode,
the medieval Arabic treatise, translated into Latin as De causis proprietatum
elementorum (On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements), probably compiled in
the 9th or 10th c., occupies a special place. The author claims that he is Aristotle,
however as early as in the beginning of the 19th c., there is no doubt this was
work of an Arabic author who was notionally named Pseudo-Aristotle. This was
translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in 1187, shortly prior to his death
(Peters 1968). It was he that was supposed to have named Aristotle as the author
of this treatise. From the 13th century onwards, it became one of the three main
sources on geology, together with that Meteorologica attributed to Aristotle and
Avicenna’s De mineralibus. When scholars started to understand during the
Renaissance that De proprietatibus elementorum had not been written by Aristotle,
the treatise was removed from academic use (Peters 1968).
Pseudoaristotelian treatises De causis proprietatum elementorum and
Meteorologica, as well as Avicenna’s De mineralibus strongly influenced Albertus
Magnus (ca. 1200 - 15 November 1280), German Dominican bishop and
philosopher. The exposition of the basilisk episode was in fact a paraphrase of
Albert, who perceived De causis proprietatum elementorum (Albertus Magnus, De
causis proprietatum elementorum, 9.585-653; Borgnet, Borgnet (еds.) 1890, 643;
Teske (ed.) 2010; see Vodraska 1969) to be an original work of Aristotle and
made an in-depth commentary on it with quite detailed and almost verbatim
paraphrases of the text. In his comment compiled between 1251 and 1254,

1
Cf. chapters 26 and 27 in J1, which tells the story of the siege of the town of Tyre.

116
according to the editor of the Latin text Paul Hossfeld (Albert the Great 1980,
49-104), he had introduced quite a distorted version of the episode with the
meeting of Alexander with the basilisk. The story places Philip II of Macedon
into the centre of events rather than Alexander, and Socrates rather than
Aristotle.
In a stand-alone paradigm, outside of the context of The Romance of
Alexander, the same motif appears in Commentary A to the treatise of Pseudo-
Albert the Great De secretis mulierum (De secretis mulierum 1580; Lemay 1992,
55). Secreta mulierum or De secretis mulierum (Of the Secrets of Women) is a natural
philosophical treatise from the late 13th - early 14th century, attributed to Albert
the Great (Val. Lat. 4456, f. 5r; Utrecht 723, f. 51; Munich CLM 222917, f. 23v;
Munich CLM 22300, f. 62; see Thorndike 1923, 880). It was written in Latin
and used to circulate in a number of manuscripts, of which are known at least
105 Latin copies. According to the commentator, a lizard or a basilisk can be
poisoned or killed when a mirror is placed in front of it, as it reflects the venom
that is released from its body and it returns to it. The mirror paradigm would
usually emphasize on the monster’s destructive forces and the morale that there
is no such thing as invincible evil.
Similarly, Malleus maleficarum (Hexenhammer or Hammer of the Witches), an
Inquisitionary treatise on the witches dated 15th c., compiled by two Dominican
monks, Heinrich Kramer (lat. Henricus Institor) and Jacob Sprenger in 1486
and published the next year, discusses on the basilisk, explaining how it can kill
a man and how a man can destroy the basilisk using mirrors (Kramer, Sprenger
1971, 18; Broedel, 2003). It is important that the author explicitly mentions the
commentary on Psalm 51:8 as the source of these notions, although it would have
been much more logical to have used the commentary on Psalm 90 (91):13 (Tπ<
Bσπßδα καß βασιλßσκον TπιβÞσf καß καταπατÞσεις λÝοντα καß δρÜκοντα...).
Variations in the story of Alexander and the basilisk sometimes suggest
remoteness and abstraction from the paradigm of Rezension J3. Two texts
authored by Pseudo-Aristotle, De lapidibus (Rose 1875, 321-455; 364-365; 390;
Ruska 1912, 195) and De proprietatibus elementorum (Hertz 1905, 119 ff., cf. 192),
contained similar stories where appears the figure of a philosopher (Aristotle or
Socrates). In the version of De lapidibus, Aristotle tells the story, in which however
Alexander finds (without his help) means to destroy the snakes by means of a
mirror surface, which snakes, looking in it, die of terror (Thorndike 1922, 229-
258, see 244-245; Thorndike 1923, 262).
Another line is followed by a group of medieval authors who, instead of
a mirror, introduce a huge glass vessel (a glass barrel) (similar to the one with
which Alexander descends to the bottom of the sea) as a means of overcoming
the deadly impact of basilisks (Fig. 4). Such an episode was included by Brunetto
Latini (ca. 1220-1294) into Li livres dou tresor (The Book of the Treasure: Brunetto
Latini 1948; Brunetto Latini 1993, I, 140, p. 109) and Pietro d’Abano (1257-1316)
in his treatise De venenis eorumque remediis.
Between 1260 and 1266, Brunetto Latini was exiled in France and during
his stay there he wrote in French his Li livres dou trеsor (The Book of the Treasure),
and this work of his is considered the first encyclopaedia written in any modern
European language. Starting from 1268, his work was already circulating in

117
 Fig. 4. Alexander’s underwater adventure in a huge glass barrel, BL Royal MS 15
E vi, ca. 1445 (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.
ASP?size=big&IllID=38953 (24.06.2021)

an Italian translation (Il Tesoro), attributed to a Bono Giamboni, whose name

appeared in an unfinished Venetian manuscript from the 14th c. Tesoro is a
compendium of abundant classical material ascending to the Late Antiquty and
the Early Middle Ages, which is organized in three books. The basilisk episode
appears in Book I dedicated to some practical knowledge such as Biblical and
secular history, geography, astronomy and bestiary.
The first part of Brunetto Latini’s description of the basilisk repeats in a
shortened way the description of the basilisk given by Pliny the Elder (Plinius,
Historia naturalis, 8.33), followed almost verbatim by both the ancient and medieval
natural philosophic treatises and by the medieval bestiaries (Fig. 5). However,
its exposition includes a distorted version of the episode describing what had
happened to Alexander. The Macedonian king had found a large quantity of
basilisks between two mountains when he was passing there with his men and
many of them died whenever the monsters looked at them. Neither Alexander
nor his men could figure out why so many of them would die in such a mysterious
way. However later they made a large vessel of glass. When the men were in there

118
 Fig. 5. Basilisk, Bestiary: British Library manuscript Harley 4751 f. 59,
ca. 1225-1250 (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.
ASP?size=big&IllID=28734 (24.06.2021)

they could see the basilisks, but the basilisks could not see the men. That was the
strategy that helped the men to save themselves from the monstrous creatures.
However, the main version followed by most part of the medieval authors would
suggest one monster only (Goldstaub, Wendriner 1892).
In his treatise De venenis eorumque remediis Pietro d’Abano (ca. 1257-1316)
repeats the story citing Pseudo-Aristotelian’s De causis proprietatum elementorum
as a source of his, but instead of the steel mirror he introduces a glass barrel,
from which the dragons could be watched safely (Petri de Abano 1565?, Cap. 2
De remediis, p. 20), as it is in the description given by Brunetto Latini. This
“invention” would quite probably have been influenced by the similar apparatus,
which was used by Alexander to submerge under water to contemplate nature
and behaviour of fish. However, in my opinion, this motif might find its
explanation in the context of the basilisk’s alchemical being that had penetrated
into Latin Europe largely owed to the translations made of the Arabic treatises
ascending in turn to some Greek manuscripts. Such suggestions are evident
in the Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian treatises, translated into Latin from the 10th
century onwards.

119
 The medieval literary tradition of the episode shows variability and
significant deviations from the version of J3, which suggests the functioning of
alternative transmissions of the mythology, on the basis of which was constructed
the episode with the meeting of Alexander and the basilisk in “the land of
twilight”, i.e., beyond the Inhabited World.
3. Itinerarium Alexandri. If the episode with the basilisk is analysed in
a broader context as an integral symbolic element in the landscape of the
Otherworld (Dλλον κόσμον), its roots might be traced far back in time, to the
Late Antiquity at least. The description of Alexander’s travel to “the land of the
blessed” and to the end of the world is alien to the oldest versions of The Romance
as it appeared in Cod. Paris 1711 or A (Mueller (ed.) 1846), as well as in the earlier
α- and β-Rezensions of the main text. It is also absent in the oldest group of
versions belonging to the translation made by Julius Valerius, as well as in the
Latin translation by Archipresbyter Leo (Pfister 1911, 460). This motif appears
only in the early medieval ε-Rezension of Pseudo-Callisthenes in chapters 23-44
according to the numbering of C. Mueller, which was dated by the experts as
the end of the 6th c. (Bergson 1965, X; Trumpf (ed.) 1974; Merkelbach, Trumpf
1972, 96, 135, 206). The interpolated narrative (composed of many different and
unrelated episodes) describes the march undertaken by Alexander the Great after
conquering the entire inhabited world and deciding to head to the “Otherworld”
to reach the end of the world. During his journey across Beyond, he encountered
incredible monsters that put him in difficult situations that he would overcome by
his wisdom and ingenuity. Some versions would contain the description (Ch. 37
§12) of “the land of twilight”, “into which the sun was scarcely able to penetrate”.
It was precisely there that Alexander and his soldiers would come across those
horrible monsters, the basilisk being mentioned amongst them.
A very detailed description of a journey across the Beyond, to the end of
the world, through the land of twilight, appears in a text that had functioned
independently from The Romance, viz. The Life of Saint Macarius of Rome, a servant
of God who was found to be near Paradise, by Theophilus, Sergius and Hyginus (The
Life of Saint Macarius) (Vita Sancti Macarii Romani, servi Dei, qui inventus est juxta
paradisum, auctoribus Theophilo, Sergio, et Hygino: Migne (ed.) 1849, 415-426; cf.
Vassiliev (ed.) 1893, 137-165; Lozanova 2020, 173-188), which however reflects a
number of elements and motifs from the tradition of The Romance of Alexander. The
Life of Saint Macarius of Rome was dated by A. Vassiliev approximately to the 6th
or the beginning of the 7th c., but in its core it undoubtedly ascends to an earlier
epoch. The paradigmatic framework of the narrative follows a long journey of
three monks to the east. They decided to reach the end of the world, imitating
Alexander’s expedition, which is quite similar to The Romance. An integral motif
uniting the two works is the narration about the Arch of Alexander during the
Transition to the world of the Beyond (ch. 8), preceded by the description of the
sinister monsters, whom the king meets during his journey to the “gloomy valley”
or “the land of twilight” in the narrow pass between two steep mountains.
The Latin version of The Life of Saint Macarius is known from two manuscripts.
One of them, which was published in 1615 in Vitae Patrum by Heribert Rosweyde
(Rosweyde 1615; Migne (ed.) 1849, 415-426), was not very different from the
first of the two Greek texts published by A. Vassiliev (Vassiliev 1893, 137-165),

120
although it is a much later translation. The earliest preserved Greek manuscript
(Vat. Gr. 824; Trump 1970, 23-26) was dated to be as late as 11th c., although its
sources might be attributed to a much earlier period.
Since the times of F. Pfister (Pfister 1912b, 572; Pfister 1959, 20-21) there
has been no doubt that the episode with the Arch of Alexander and the journey
Beyond in The Life of Saint Macarius ascend to the tradition of The Romance
of Alexander. The development of the mythological motif and its enrichment
with details was further complicated as the time passed by, mainly between 4th
and 6th/7th c., which does not mean that the later interpolated elements did
not ascend to some earlier original sources unrelated to the tradition, however
integrated during the Early Middle Ages in The Romance of Alexander.
The motif about the Transition (Διαβά) between the two worlds, which
Alexander marked with some noteworthy monuments, among which dominated
the figure of the Arch with an inscription, may also be found in several
thematically similar manuscripts dated as early as at least the middle of the
4th c. Those had functioned as stand-alone narratives in the context of the genre
itineraria, which included some compilations of real and/or imaginary journeys
where the starting point, the distance and the destination of the route were
indicated. While pilgrimage was typical of Christianity from the very beginning
thereof, the 4th century marked some intensification of the journeys to the Holy
Lands focusing more particularly on some sacred toposes such as Jerusalem,
Constantinople and Rome. This reflects in generating a number of itineraria
back in those times describing routes and significant (i.e., sacred) toposes along
those routes. This is the case of two Latin texts published as Expositio totius mundi
et gentium (Description of the World and Its Peoples), compiled by an unknown
author (Mittag 2006, 338-351) and Liber iunioris philosophi in quo continetur totius
orbis descriptio (The Book of the Younger Philosopher in which a description of the whole
world is contained: Klotz 1910, 606-616; Pfister 1911, 458-471), dated in the middle
of the 4th c., whose original sources, according to the convincing arguments of
Alfred Klotz (Klotz 1910, 606-616; cf. Klotz 1906, 97-127; Wölffin 1904, 573-578)
maybe ascend to some Greek examples.
Closely related to them is a Greek text published (based on two manuscripts
known at the time) by Alfred Klotz, preserved today in 5 known manuscripts - 4
Greek (British Museum Ms. Add. 36753, f. 219–220 = B, dated 1198; Cod. Dresd.
52, f. 31-32 = D from the 13th c., but destroyed during World War Two; Cod.
Vat. Graec. 1114, f. 174-175 in the Vatican Library, dated as the end of the 13th -
early 14th c.; and Cod. Gr. 252, f. 66-69 in the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library in
Saint Petersburg dated in 1661) and one Georgian. The text entitled >Ïδοιπορία
Bπ{ <ÅδSμ το‡ παραδείσου Dχρι τ™ν >Ñωμαίων is considered the original
source of the two Latin versions, deviating from it in a number of details. The
narrative follows the topography of the world from east to west, beginning with
the Paradise, on the way to which the mystical place of the Transition between
the two worlds appears, marked by the compiler as Διαβά. The predominant
versions of the episode specify that on his return from the Otherworld, the
king erected an Arch with an inscription warning of the troubles awaiting the
imprudent (uninitiated), continued to the land of the blessed and took the
wrong direction (Lozanova 2020, 173-188).

121
 In his analysis of this part of Alexander the Great’s expedition in the
Rezension γ of Pseudo-Callisthenes, in chapters 23-44 after the numbering of
C. Mueller, I. Friedländer (Friedländer 1910, 161-246; cf. Friedländer 1913) notes
that from Chapter 29 begins the interpolation of a different source, the prototype
of which can be found in >Ïδοιπορία or in a possible similar Greek periplus with
a more detailed description of the path Beyond the inhabited world, dating back
to the time before the middle of the 4th century. If the oldest α-Rezension of the
Pseudo-Callisthenes’ literary core of The Romance of Alexander, which has survived
until today, is dated around the year of 200, we are most likely faced with a later
interpolation of a text that functioned independently of it, but ascends to an
earlier epoch, not later than the middle of the 4th century, and probably before
that. This would hypothetically outline the chronological boundaries and possible
transmissions of the episode with the meeting of Alexander the Great and the
basilisk as an integral part of the landscape of the Otherworld on the way to “the
land of the blessed” and the end of the world passing through “the land of twilight”,
where miracles can happen and fantastic monsters can be met.

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Prof. Vanya Lozanova-Stancheva, DSc, PhD

Institute for Balkan Studies with Centre of Thracology
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
13 Moskovska Str.
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Email: lozanova_vanya@yahoo.com

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