Turkmen people (Türkmenistan) have a similar story on Alexander the great. After part where goatherd screams to the hollow takes a different route. After a year when goatherd visits the hollow (it is a well - guýy in Turkmen story), reeds have grown out of it. Then goatherd makes flute from the Reed. When he plays it, flute sound starts to tell people Alexander the Great has horns.
thank you for the two tales, yours and your hosts’
I am left wondering if there is any overlap with the strange error in translation that left Michaelangelo to sculpt Moses with two devilish horns.
The popular theory is that the bible meant to refer to rays of light or some other figure of speech, but perhaps there are other reasons to represent a great leader as having horns?
That's really interesting. The legends in Ethiopia are all about a character called Dhu al-Qarnein, 'father of the two horns" who is usually taken to be Alexander, perhaps because there are coins that show him with two horns. The Qur'an has Dhu al-Qarnein building an iron wall between the people of Gog and Magog, whoever they were - some claim the Scythians. According to Wiki, when the Bible was translated by St Jerome he struggled with the Hebrew word 'qeren' which means horn. That would be related to qarn (horn) in Arabic - hence qarnein, two-horned! I reckon it all goes back to early humans dancing around in caves wearing animal head-dresses to get in touch with spirits. At Star Carr near Scarborough, archaeologists found 21 antler head-dresses dating back 11,000 years some of which are now in the British Museum.
Turkmen people (Türkmenistan) have a similar story on Alexander the great. After part where goatherd screams to the hollow takes a different route. After a year when goatherd visits the hollow (it is a well - guýy in Turkmen story), reeds have grown out of it. Then goatherd makes flute from the Reed. When he plays it, flute sound starts to tell people Alexander the Great has horns.
Haha! That’s a lovely version of it.
thank you for the two tales, yours and your hosts’
I am left wondering if there is any overlap with the strange error in translation that left Michaelangelo to sculpt Moses with two devilish horns.
The popular theory is that the bible meant to refer to rays of light or some other figure of speech, but perhaps there are other reasons to represent a great leader as having horns?
That's really interesting. The legends in Ethiopia are all about a character called Dhu al-Qarnein, 'father of the two horns" who is usually taken to be Alexander, perhaps because there are coins that show him with two horns. The Qur'an has Dhu al-Qarnein building an iron wall between the people of Gog and Magog, whoever they were - some claim the Scythians. According to Wiki, when the Bible was translated by St Jerome he struggled with the Hebrew word 'qeren' which means horn. That would be related to qarn (horn) in Arabic - hence qarnein, two-horned! I reckon it all goes back to early humans dancing around in caves wearing animal head-dresses to get in touch with spirits. At Star Carr near Scarborough, archaeologists found 21 antler head-dresses dating back 11,000 years some of which are now in the British Museum.