Alexander the Great's accomplishments and legacy have been preserved and depicted in many ways. Alexander has figured in works of both high culture and popular culture from his own era to the modern day. Some of these are highly fictionalized accounts, such as the Alexander Romance.

Cities

Around twenty towns or outposts were founded by Alexander the Great. Some of the main cities are: Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria Ariana, Afghanistan Alexandria in the Caucasus, Afghanistan Alexandria on the Oxus, Afghanistan Alexandria Arachosians, Afghanistan Alexandria on the Indus, Pakistan Alexandria Bucephalous, Pakistan Alexandria Eschate (The Furthest), Tajikistan Charax Spasinu (Alexandria), Iran İskenderun (Alexandretta), Turkey Kandahar (Alexandropolis), Afghanistan Iskandariya (Alexandria), Iraq Alexandropolis Maedica, first city founded by Alexander the Great

The Italian city of Alessandria is not named for Alexander the Great but for Pope Alexander III. However, the Medieval choice of this name was likely influenced by the example of the above cities. Alexandroupolis in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace is not named for Alexander the Great but for Alexander I. However, Alexandreia, Greece and Megas Alexandros, Pella in modern Greek Macedonia are named after Alexander the Great.

As city planner

Ancient and Medieval literature

In Persian literature Alexander is mentioned in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz Nāmag as gizistag aleksandar ī hrōmāyīg, literally "Alexander the accursed, the Roman",Worthington (2004), p. 298Religious persecution under Alexander the Great Livius.org due to his conquest of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the burning of its ceremonial capital Persepolis, which was holding the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism in its Royal Archives. The book Arda Wiraz Nāmag was written in the late period of Sassanid Persian Empire, when the rivalry with the Romans was intense.

The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, one of the oldest books written in New Persian, has a chapter about Alexander. It is a book of epic poetry written around 1000 AD, and is believed to have played an important role in the survival of the Persian language in the face of Arabic influence. It starts with a mythical history of Iran and then gives a story of Alexander, followed by a brief mention of the Arsacids. The accounts after that, still in epic poetry, portray historical figures. Alexander is described as a child of a Persian king, Daraaye Darab (the last in the list of kings in the book whose names do not match historical kings), and a daughter of Philip, a king. However, due to problems in the relationship between the Persian king and Philip's daughter, she is sent back to Rome. Alexander is born to her afterwards, but Philip claims him as his own son and keeps the true identity of the child secret.

His name is recorded as both Iskandar () and Sikandar () in Classical Persian literature.

He is known as Eskandar-e Maqdūnī ( "Alexander the Macedonian") in modern Iranian Persian.

In the Qur'an

Alexander in the Qur'an often is identified in Islamic traditions as Dhul-Qarnayn, Arabic for the "Two-Horned One", possibly a reference to the appearance of a horn-headed figure that appears minted during his rule and later imitated in ancient Middle Eastern coinage. Accounts of Dhul-Qarnayn in the Qur'an, and so may refer to Alexander. Noteworthy is the fact that his favorite horse was named Bucephalus, which means "ram's head", alluding to the shape of a horned ram at its forehead.

In the Bible Alexander is discussed in the first Book of the Maccabees, a deuterocanonical text. The Book starts by recounting Alexander's conquest of Judea.

Other references He is known as al-Iskandar al-Makduni al-Yunani ("Alexander the Macedonian Greek") in Arabic, אלכסנדר מוקדון, Alexander Mokdon in Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in Aramaic (the two-horned one, apparently due to an image on coins minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon), الاسكندر الاكبر, al-Iskandar al-Akbar ("Alexander the Great") in Arabic, سکندر اعظم, Skandar in Pashto.

Alexander is one of the two principals in most versions of the Diogenes and Alexander anecdote.

Literature

Dante talks well about him in the Convivio and De Monarchia; the position of Alexander in the Divine Comedy, though, is more uncertain, for though there is a reference to an Alexander being punished in the Circle of the Violent (Canto XII), it is not explicit as to whether this is in fact Alexander the Great himself. Alexander, however, is notably absent from Dante's depiction of virtuous pagans (Canto IV). Alexandre le Grand, tragedy in five acts by Jean Racine, first staged 1665. In the late 1830s, Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote three major poems on Alexander, beginning with in 1835, which was followed by 1836 and in 1837 , the latter being one of her Subjects for Pictures. She had earlier included her poem in The Troubadour; Catalogue of Pictures, and Historical Sketches, 1825. In 1868 Tchaikovsky contemplated writing an opera featuring Alexander the Great, taking place in Greece and Babylon and centering on the relations between Hebrews and Greeks. The plot would have featured a Jewish woman falling in love with Alexander and for his sake leaving her Jewish lover, who eventually becomes a prophet. However, though surviving Tchaikovsky letters include details of this planned opera, its plot and characters, he finally abandoned this plan and chose instead for an opera with a Russian background.David Brown, "Tchaikovsky: A Biographical and Critical Study", Victor Gollancz, London, 1992, Vol. 1, Ch. 5, P. 136 Rudyard Kipling's story "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) provides some glimpses of Alexander's legacy. Made into a movie of the same title in 1975, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Dutch writer Louis Couperus' Iskander. De roman van Alexander den Groote (1920) is a historical novel about Alexander after his invasion of Asia. Largely based on the Alexander historians Quintus Curtius Rufus, Arrian, and Plutarch, the novel thematises Alexander's psychological condition during the last years of his life. Lord Dunsany's play Alexander (1925)Schweitzer, Darrell. Pathways to Elfland : the writings of Lord Dunsany. Philadelphia, PA : Owlswick Press, 1989. (pgs. 53-55) is a dramatization of Alexander's life, with fantastic elements. In this work Alexander encounters the god Apollo and the Queen of the Amazons. Alexander appears in "A Trooper of the Thessalians" (1926),Michael Cox and Jack Adrian, The Oxford Book of Historical Stories. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1994. (pg. 429). a short story by Arthur D. Howden Smith. In 1949, Terence Rattigan's play Adventure Story (1949), based on Alexander the Great, premiered in London. Robert Payne published a novel in 1954 about Alexander's life, Alexander the God (not to be confused with the Druon novel, below).Review: Alexander the God by Robert Payne. Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1954. Retrieved April 11 2020. In 1958, Maurice Druon wrote a novel about Alexander, Alexandre le Grand (1958). It was translated into English as Alexander the God (1960) by Humphrey Hare.Hauben, Hans. "DIVINE MISSION AND HUMAN DESTINY: MAURICE DRUON'S ALEXANDER ROMANCE FIFTY YEARS LATER." Ancient Society 39 (2009): 261-81. Accessed April 11, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44079927. From 1969 to 1981, Mary Renault wrote a historical fiction trilogy on the life of Alexander: Fire from Heaven (1969)(about his early life), The Persian Boy (1972)(about his conquest of Persia, his expedition to India, and his death, seen from the viewpoint of Bagoas, a Persian eunuch and Alexander's eromenos), and Funeral Games (1981)(about the events following his death). Alexander also appears briefly in Renault's novel The Mask of Apollo (1966), and is alluded to directly in The Last of the Wine (1956) and indirectly in The Praise Singer (1978). In addition to the fiction, Renault also wrote a non-fiction biography, The Nature of Alexander (1975).Mendelsohn, Daniel. "Moral conqueror: Mary Renault in the grip of Alexander the Great." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 5774, 29 Nov. 2013, pp. 17+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A674625647/AONE Accessed 14 July 2025. Science fiction writer Poul Anderson wrote an alternate history story, "Eutopia" (1967), featuring a timeline where Alexander the Great lived to an old age and established a stable empire that endured to modern times as an enlightened, peaceful and advanced Greek-speaking world culture.David Pringle, The Ultimate Guide To Science Fiction .New York: Pharos Books: St.Martins Press, 1990. (p.238). Similar "Alexandrian timelines" also appear in several other alternate histories by various writers. Ivan Efremov wrote a historical novel Thais of Athens (1972) about the life of hetaira Thaïs, as she follows Alexander in his campaigns. Alexander and Thaïs have a love relationship in the novel. French writer Roger Peyrefitte wrote a trilogy about Alexander the great which is regarded as a masterpiece of erudition: La Jeunesse d'Alexandre (1992), Les Conquêtes d'Alexandre (1979) and Alexandre le Grand (1981).Müller, S. (2011). DER DOPPELTE ALEXANDER DER GROSSE? [THE DOUBLE ALEXANDER THE GREAT?] Amaltea.Revista De Mitocrítica, 3, 115-138. In Alan Moore's Watchmen, one of the main characters, Ozymandias, goes into detail about how he followed in Alexander the Great's footsteps in order to achieve enlightenment.Brand, Scott. "A Gordian Knot: Classical Elements in Watchmen." Fantastika and the Greek and Roman Worlds= Foundation. The International Review of Science Fiction 43.118 (2014): 19-31. A trilogy of novels about Alexander was written in Italian by Valerio Massimo Manfredi and subsequently published in an English translation, entitled Child of a Dream (1998), The Sands of Ammon (1998) and The Ends of the Earth (1998).Everson, Jane E. "Storie di Alessandro Magno nella tradizione volgare: Medioevo, Rinascimento e tempi moderni." Rassegna europea di letteratura italiana: 41, 1, 2013 (2013): 31-58. David Gemmell's Dark Prince (1991) features Alexander as the chosen vessel for a world-destroying demon king. .PRINCE, DARK, and ALEKSANDER RZYMAN. "DAVID GEMMELL'S INTERTEXTUAL TREATMENT OF THE ANCIENT GREEK." In the Mirror of the Past: Of Fantasy and History (2014): 21. Judith Tarr's historical fantasy novel Lord of the Two Lands (1993) is about the relationship between Alexander and an Egyptian priestess."Tarr, Judith" in Stableford, Brian M. The A to Z of Fantasy Literature.Lanham (Md.) : Scarecrow Press, 2009. (p. 397) Steven Pressfield's 2004 book The Virtues of War is told from the first-person perspective of Alexander. Pressfield's novel The Afghan Campaign (2006) is told from the point of view of a soldier in Alexander's army. Alexander makes several brief appearances in the novel. In Fate/Zero, the light novel authored by Gen Urobuchi, Alexander (going by the name Iskandar) appears as the Servant Rider, and is referred to as the King of Conquerors.Thomas, Tracey. "The fate of Artoria: contextually exploring gender, character, and conflict in Fate/Zero." Arthurian Legend in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries 35 (2022). In Nicholas Nicastro's 2004 historical novel Empire of Ashes, Alexander's career is described from the perspective of a skeptical Athenian soldier/historian who must debunk Alexander's official divinity to save himself from a charge of sacrilege. In the novel by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1726) in part III, chapter VII, Gulliver sees and talks to the ghost of Alexander.Fuchs, Dieter. "Diogenes the Cynic, Alexander the Great, and Menippean Satire in Gulliver's Travels." Antike und Abendland 54 (2008).