Arrian and the Greek Alexander Romance

Abstract

This paper examines the Greek Alexander Romance from the point of view of narratology, looking at the motifs, patterns of storytelling, and ways that the Romance created the figure of Alexander. The same approach is applied to the work of Arrian, the most widely read and most reliable of the Alexander historians. What this analysis shows is that the boundaries between romance and history are less fixed than we usually suppose and that to read the history of Alexander critically means seeing how, in all genres, Alexander is a composite who grows out of the audience's desire to see in him the hero and the great man undone by his own character.