Alexandreis is a medieval Latin epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...

 by Walter of Châtillon

Walter of Chatillon

Walter of Châtillon was a 12th-century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language. He studied under Stephen of Beauvais and at the University of Paris. It was probably during his student years that he wrote a number of Latin poems in the Goliardic manner that found their way...

, a 12th-century French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 writer and theologian

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

. A version of the Alexander romance

Alexander Romance

Alexander romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in Greek, dating to the 3rd century. Several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, but the historical figure died...

, it gives an account of the life of Alexander the Great, based on Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Roman historian, writing probably during the reign of the Emperor Claudius or Vespasian. His only surviving work, Historiae Alexandri Magni, is a biography of Alexander the Great in Latin in ten books, of which the first two are lost, and the remaining eight are...

' Historia Alexandri Magni. The poem was popular and influential in Walter's own times, even being translated into Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

 prose as the Alexanderssaga; Matthew of Vendôme

Matthew of Vendôme

Matthew of Vendôme was a French poet of the twelfth century, writing in Latin. He was a pupil of Bernard Silvestris, at Tours, as he himself writes. He is known for his Ars Versificatoria, a theoretical work on versification.According to E. R. Curtius,.....

 and Alan of Lille borrowed from it and Henry of Settimello

Henry of Settimello

Henry of Settimello was a late 12th century Italian poet. He was the author of De diversitate fortunae et philosophiae consolatione , a Latin poem in elegiac couplets...

 imitated it, but it is now seldom read. One line is sometimes quoted:

Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim (Wanting to avoid Charybdis

Charybdis

Charybdis or Kharybdis was a sea monster, later rationalised as a whirlpool and considered a shipping hazard in the Strait of Messina.-The mythological background:...

, he runs into Scylla

Scylla

In Greek mythology, Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite its counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice...

.)

External links

• Latin text of the Alexandreis at the Bibliotheca Augustana
• Newer edition of 'The Alexandreis' (edited and translated by David Townsend, Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2006)