Monstres et murailles, Alexandre et bicornu, mythes et bon sens

• Main Authors: Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, François de Polignac, Georges Bohas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2000-07-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/275

Among the myths that keep cropping up at all times and in all places, the one about the builder of walls defending civilized humanity against the Other, under his most frightening aspects, has always enjoyed great popularity. From the prototype of a legendary Alexander the Great it has gone through various transformations, and has also been kept alive in many of the Islamic literatures.On three different aspects of this inexhaustible field of research, each of the authors has made a brief survey. The result shows quite a few examples of continuities, parallelisms and complex convergences, but there also appear the first signs of an erosion of the myths through the effect of a critical spirit aroused by the Western approach.