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==Alexander the Great== {{See also|Gates of Alexander}} <!--[[File:Derbent wall.jpg|thumb|upright|The Caspian Gates in Derbent, Russia, often identified with the Gates of Alexander]]--> [[File:Abraham Cresques Atlas de cartes-GogiMagog-crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Land of "Gog i Magog", its king mounted on a horse, followed by a procession (''lower half''); Alexander's Gate, showing Alexander, Antichrist, and mechanical trumpeters (''upper left'').{{sfn|Westrem|1998|pp=61–62}}{{sfn|Massing|1991|pages=31, 32 n60}}{{r|siebold-catalan}}{{right|—''[[Catalan Atlas]]'' (1375), Paris, [[Bibliothèque Nationale]].}}]] The 1st-century Jewish historian [[Josephus]] equated Magog with the [[Scythians]] in ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', but he never mentioned Gog.<ref name="Barry" /> In [[The Jewish War|another work]], Josephus recounts that the [[Alans]] (whom he calls a Scythian tribe) were given passage by the [[Hyrcania]]n king, a warder of an [[Gates of Alexander|iron gate]] built by Alexander.{{efn|1=Josephus, ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D1%3Awhiston%20chapter%3D6%3Awhiston%20section%3D1 1.123] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D18%3Awhiston+chapter%3D4%3Awhiston+section%3D4 18.97]; ''[[The Jewish War]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0148%3Abook%3D7%3Awhiston%20chapter%3D7%3Awhiston%20section%3D4 7.244–51]}}<ref name="Barry">*{{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/2846760| issn = 0038-7134| volume = 8| issue = 2| pages = 264–270| last1 = Barry| first1 = Phillips| last2 = Anderson| first2 = A. R.| title = Review of Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Inclosed Nations| journal = Speculum| date = 1933| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/2846760| jstor = 2846760| url-access = subscription}}</ref> By the time of Josephus, Alexander was already a Jewish folk hero.<ref name="Barry" /> However, the earliest fusion of Alexander's gate and the apocalyptic nations of Gog and Magog is a product of late antiquity, in what is known as the ''[[Syriac Legend of Alexander]]''.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|p=17|loc="The episode of Alexander's building a wall against Gog and Magog, however, is not found in the oldest Greek, Latin, Armenian and Syriac versions of the ''Romance''. Though the Alexander Romance was decisive for the spreading of the new and supernatural image of Alexander the king in East and West, the barrier episode has not its origin in this text. The fusion of the motif of Alexander's barrier with the Biblical tradition of the apocalyptic peoples Gog and Magog appears in fact for the first time in the so called ''Syriac Alexander Legend''. This text is a short appendix attached to the Syriac manuscripts of the ''Alexander Romance''."}} ===Precursor texts in Syriac=== In the Syriac ''Alexander Legend'' dating to 629–630, Gog ({{langx|syr|ܓܘܓ|}}, gwg) and Magog ({{langx|syr|ܡܓܘܓ}}ܵ, mgwg) appear as kings of [[Huns|Hunnish]] nations.{{efn|Also called ''Christian Legend concerning Alexander'', ed. tr. by E. A. Wallis Budge. It has a long full-title, which in shorthand reads "An exploit of Alexander.. how.. he made a gate of iron, and shut it [against] the Huns".}}{{sfn|Budge|1889|loc='''II''', p. 150}} Written by a Christian based in Mesopotamia, the ''Legend'' is considered the first work to connect the Gates with the idea that Gog and Magog are destined to play a role in the apocalypse.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|p=17}} The legend claims that Alexander carved prophecies on the face of the Gate, marking a date for when these Huns, consisting of 24 nations, will breach the Gate and subjugate the greater part of the world.{{efn|The first invasion, prophesied to occur 826 years after Alexander predicted, has been worked out to fall on 1 October 514; the second invasion on A.D. 629 ({{Harvnb|Boyle|1979|p=124}}).}}{{sfn|Budge|1889|loc='''II''', pp. 153–54}}{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|pp=17–21}} The ''[[Pseudo-Methodius]]'', written originally in Syriac, is considered the source of the Gog and Magog tale incorporated into Western versions of the Alexander Romance.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|p=30}}{{sfn|Stoneman|1991|p=29}} The earlier-dated Syriac ''Alexander Legend'' contains a somewhat different treatment of the Gog and Magog material, which passed into the lost Arabic version,{{sfn|Boyle|1979|p=123}} or the Ethiopic and later Oriental versions of the Alexander romance.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|p=32}}{{efn|The Ethiopic version derives from the lost Arabic version ({{harvnb|Boyle|1979|p=133}}).}} The ''Pseudo-Methodius'' (7th century<ref>{{cite book|last=Griffith|first=Sidney Harrison|title=The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jn-tiP0b-PYC&pg=PA34|year=2008|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=9780691130156|page=34}}</ref>) is the first source in the Christian tradition for a new element: two mountains moving together to narrow the corridor, which was then sealed with a gate against Gog and Magog. This idea is also in the Quran {{nowrap|(609–632 CE<ref>{{cite book |title=Chronology of Prophetic Events |author=Fazlur Rehman Shaikh |date=2001 |page=50 |publisher=Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd.}}</ref><ref name=LivRlgP338>''Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths'', Mary Pat Fisher, 1997, page 338, I.B. Tauris Publishers.</ref>),}} and found its way in the Western Alexander Romance.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|p=21}} ===Alexander Romances=== This Gog and Magog legend is not found in earlier versions of the [[Alexander Romance]] of Pseudo-Callisthenes, whose oldest manuscript dates to the 3rd century,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The oldest manuscript is recension α. The material is not found in the oldest Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Syriac versions.{{sfn|Van Donzel|Schmidt|2010|pp=17, 21}}}} but an [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolation]] into recensions around the 8th century.{{efn|Recension ε}}{{sfn|Stoneman |1991|pages=28–32}} In the latest and longest Greek version{{efn|Recension γ}} are described the Unclean Nations, which include the Goth and Magoth as their kings, and whose people engage in the habit of eating worms, dogs, human [[cadaver]]s and fetuses.{{sfn|Stoneman|1991|pp=185–187}} They were allied to Belsyrians ([[Bebryces|Bebrykes]],{{sfn|Anderson|1932|p=35}} of [[Bithynia]] in modern-day North [[Turkey]]), and sealed beyond the "Breasts of the North"<!--Μαζοί Βορρά{{sfn|Anderson|1932|p=37}}-->, a pair of mountains fifty days' march away towards the north.{{efn|Alexander's prayer caused the mountains to move nearer, making the pass narrower, facilitating his building his gate. This is the aforementioned element first seen in pseudo-Methodius.}}{{sfn|Stoneman|1991|pp=185–187}} Gog and Magog appear in somewhat later Old French versions of the romance.{{efn|Gog and Magog being absent in the ''[[Alexandreis]]'' (1080) of [[Walter of Châtillon]].}}{{sfn|Westrem|1998|p=57}} In the verse ''[[Roman d'Alexandre]]'', Branch III, of {{ill|Lambert le Tort|fr|Lambert le Tort}} (c. 1170), Gog and Magog ("Gos et Margos", "Got et Margot") were vassals to [[Porus the Elder|Porus]], king of India, providing an auxiliary force of 400,000 men.{{efn|Note the change in loyalties. According to the Greek version, Gog and Magog served the Belsyrians, whom Alexander fought them ''after'' completing his campaign against Porus.}} Routed by Alexander, they escaped through a [[Defile (geography)|defile]] in the mountains of [[Tus, Iran|Tus]] (or Turs),{{efn|"Tus" in Iran, near the Caspian south shore, known as [[Susia]] to the Greeks, is a city in the itinerary of the historical Alexander. Meyer does not make this identification, and suspects a corruption of ''mons Caspius'' etc.}} and were sealed by the wall erected there, to last until the advent of the Antichrist.{{efn|Branch III, [[laisse]]s 124–128.}}{{sfn|Armstrong|1937|loc=VI, p. 41}}<!--{{sfn|Fritze|1998|p=130}}-->{{sfn|Meyer|1886|loc=summary of §11 (Michel ed., pp. 295–313), pp. 169–170; appendix II on Gog and Magog episode, pp. 386–389; on third branch, pp. 213, 214}} Branch IV of the poetic cycle tells that the task of guarding Gog and Magog, as well as the rule of Syria and Persia was assigned to [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]], one of Alexander's successors.{{sfn|Meyer|1886|p=207}} [[Image:Thomas-de-Kent-Bnf-fr24364-fol60v_-_gog-et-magog-mangent-gents.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Gog and Magog consuming humans.<br />{{right|—[[Thomas de Kent]]'s ''Roman de toute chevalerie'', Paris manuscript, 14th century}}]] Gog and Magog also appear in [[Thomas de Kent]]'s ''Roman de toute chevalerie'' (c. 1180), where they are portrayed as cave-dwellers who consume human flesh. A condensed account occurs in a derivative work, the Middle English ''[[King Alisaunder]]'' (vv. 5938–6287).{{sfn|Anderson|1932|p=88}}{{r|harf-lancner}}{{r|akbari}} In the 13th-century French ''[[Roman d'Alexandre en prose]]'', Alexander has an encounter with cannibals who have taken over the role of Gog and Magog.{{r|warren}} This is a case of imperfect transmission, since the ''prose Alexander'''s source, the Latin work by Archpriest [[Leo of Naples]] known as ''Historia de Preliis'', does mention "Gogh et Macgogh", at least in some manuscripts.{{sfn|Michael|1982|p=133}} The Gog and Magog are not only human flesh-eaters, but illustrated as men "a notably beaked nose" in examples such as the "[[Sawley map]]", an important example of ''[[mappa mundi]]''.{{sfnp|Westrem|1998|p=61}} Gog and Magog caricaturised as figures with hooked noses on a miniature depicting their attack of the Holy City, found in a manuscript of the ''Apocalypse'' in Anglo-Norman.{{efn|Toulouse manuscript 815, folio 49v.<!--Meyer ed., plate-->}}<ref name="meyer-apocalypse"/>
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