Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/391

343 :

343

Tin:

Tan.. Emor, 6: Hilibur Ma"aa place which is iiilialiitcil only l>.v woiiuii. They -ssiy to liiiii: "If you kill us. ])('opli' will afcusc you of luunliriuL' women. If we kill you, jieople will say: Behold a kin;; who was overeonie by woinenl " This is the well known story of the Amazons, but reduced to its simplest expression. In the Pesikta the town inhabited by the women is called Kailaj;ene, derived by folk-etymiilojiy from the Aramaic hirtit (town) and the Sfq.;

Lev. R. xxvii.



siol): Alf.xaiiilir coiiif.s to

Greek



er/,

(

woman).

The Gold Bread

Alexander asked the

(il/id.):

Amazons

tor bread, and they brouijht him. on a fjolden table, a loaf of f^old bread. " I)o_vou eat gold bread?" the kini; then said. "Well, if your desire be for ordinary brea<l, could you not jret il in your

own country without the

Amazons.

querors does not accounts cs.say on

cominjr hither?" answifrod This satire on the ambition of con-

recurs

freipu'iitly

in

Jewish

lefr<'nds.

It

I'seudo-Callisthenes and in the derived from it: but is found in Plutarch's the virtuous deeds of women. Pvtlics, a rich Greek in the times of Xerxes, who forces his fellow citizens to work for him in a irold mine, is

appear

in

served liy his wife w ith t'old breaove): King Kazia (ruler of a country situated behind the "Dark" mountains) invited Alexander to ii.

8c;





Alexander the Great Alexander II., of Judea

JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA



The plainlilT declared lliat lie had hear a lawsuit. bought a piece of land and found in it a treasure; he wanted to relnrn the treasure to the original owner, since, he claimeii. he had bought the Held only. The defendant replied that he had .sold the licld with everything that it contained. Then the king inquired of one of them " Have you a son? "; of the " Have you a daughter?" "Marry them, and other, let the treasure be theirs." Alexander laughed at this judgment. "Is my decision a wrong one?" " No but in our country we inquired the king. would have put the two parties to death and con liseated ho treasure." "I)oy(ni luive niin in your country? " " Yes." " And have you animals also? " "Yes." "Then it is surely for their sake and not for yours that the min falls and the sun shines u])on you." This satirical account seems to be of Jewish origin, although il is, in part, ba.sed on a popular theme marriage as the solution of a lawsuit (compare a ('and)odiaii tale in "Kevue des Traditions I'opulaires," xv. i:i;i). The Jewish f(jrni of the fable was endiodied in the " Dicta Philosopliorum " of .bu al Wafa Mnbashshir ibn Fakih (10.');{-.54). a woik which was Iranslati'd into Spanish, Latin, English, and French (see Knust, " Millheiluiigen aus dem Eskurial," Tubingen, IHTlli. In other .rabie texts the trial tidies place before David ami Solomon (Well,

satiated; but if covered with a handful of dust (buried) it would weigh nothing. This satiri' on greed, or the ambition to acqiure wealth, seems likewise to be genuinely Jewish. This allegory, as it ap])ears in the Talmud, is reproduced in better shape in "Alexaialri Magni Iter ad Paradisum," a little work of the twelfth century, which has even preserved traces of its JcAvish origin. In this it is an old Jew, of the name of Papas, who lectures the king. I'.iith forms of the legend are evidently counected with a lost original. Alexander's Ascent into the Air (Yer. 'Ab. Zarali, iii. 42c; Num. 1{. xiii.): This appears to be a reminiscence of a narrative in Psemlo Callisthenes (II. xli.).

Alexander's Descent into the Sea (Ps. R. 103; compare I'seiido-t'allisthenes. II. xxxviii.): In the Middle Ages the Jews contlned themselves to translations of the romance of Alexander from the Arabic or the Latin, particularly in the form which it had

A

received in the "Historia de Proeliis." Hebrew tmnslation of this work, made by an unknown writer after an Arabic version, was edited and i)ublislied by Israel Levi under the title "Toledot Alexander " (Life of Alexander), Paris, 188T. Another translation from a Latin text, liy Immanuel ben Jacob de Tarascou, exists only in manuscript. A recension, the origin of whi<li has not yet been clearly a.scertained. wa.s surreptiliotisly included in certain manuscripts of the Josippon( perhaps by Judah Mosconi). Another romance of Alexander, quite dilTereiit from the rest, was written by a Jew in the west of Europe before the thirteenth century; il was jiublished by Israel Levi in Steiusclmeider's "Festschrift." Some portions of the legend were known to scholars by the Hebrew translation of "Sod ha-Sodot" (Secret of Secrets) and of "Musare ha-Filosolim " (Dicta of the Philosophers), containing whole chapters touching upon the legendary life of Alexander, I!iin.iO(R.pnv licv. f'A. Juivc. Hi. Sifl i( «f : Jcic. quail. litr. Iv. (!:«: KikIht. .VizomVK Lt'lim und ^y|'rkc timl der Zwcite Tluil deji Ifuami.tffun Alfxandcrlnu'hcn^ pp. tU ct seq.^ Leipsle, 1871.



I

—

The anecdote seems 'Jl.">). brought to Europe bv a priest in liw:! ("('hronii|ue <le I'Abbaye <le St. Hubert ": Pertz, " Moniimenla Oerinanica, S<riplores." viii. .Iftil). Alexander at the Gate of Paradise; the Eye The Talmuil (Tamid. WV') concludes with this narra live: .Mexander arrived at the gale of paradise and " liililisehe Legendc'ii," p.

to

have

lieeii

lliat il be iqiencd lo him. "Only the just can enter here," came the n'ply. " I am a renowned king; present me willi something " A little ball was given to him. Me put it in a seali': and it nutweiglied all the gold and silver In his possession. In his aslonishini'iil he turned to the rabbis, who explained lo him that it was an evelmll, which could never be

asked

I.

L.

ALEXANDER I., of Judea. See Alex. der J.NN.i:i ALEXANDER II., of Judea: Born about 100 s

II.

c.



died

-17

11,

i.

He was

the eldest son of Aristo-

and soii-in law of Hyrcanus. I'pon the concjuest of Jerusjdem by Pompey in (ili, he and his ])arents. brothers, and .sisters were sent to Bomo Alexander escaped on the as prisoners of war. way, and, returning lo Judea, endeavored to throw Taking ad olT the Boman yoke by force of arms. vantage of the straits in which the Ronums just then l^ound lliemselves in having lo confront disturbances among the Arabs. Alexander took measures to restore the fori ilicat ions of Jerusalem destroyed by Pompey, though his action was opposed by the Boman garrisons in the country and by the weakling He next secured poss<'ssi(in of monarcli Hyrcanus. the fortres.ses of Alexandrion. llyrcanion, and Maeliierus. Wiien he had gathered around him a force of 10,(100 heavy infantry and L.^OO horseniin he declared open war against l{oine in the year '>! ii.c. Itabiiiiiis, w ho had just arrived in Syrians proconsul, immedialelv sint ids lieutenant .Mark Antony (the subsequently celebnited triumvir) against him. and thill followed with his main army, whose numbers were swelled by Bomani/ed Jews, led by llie half-Jew Autipatcr. Alexander endeavored in vain bulus

II.