The Fiend or The Vampire ( Russian : Упырь Upyr ) is a Russian fairy tale , collected by Alexander Afanasyev as his number 363. The tale was translated and published by William Ralston Shedden-Ralston .
69-486: A young woman named Marusia goes to a feast where she meets a kind, handsome and apparently wealthy man. They fall in love with each other and Marusia agrees to marry him. She also consents to her mother's directive that she follow the boy to discover where he lives and more about him. She follows him to the church where she sees him eating a corpse. Later the fiend asks her if she saw him at the church. When Marusia denies having followed him, he tells her that her father will die
138-570: A 15th-century version by Johannes Hartlieb ), Slavonic , Romanian , Hungarian , Irish, and more. The Syriac Alexander Romance , the most important Syriac translation of the Greek Romance , as well as the much shorter and abridged version known in the Syriac Alexander Legend , composed either in ~630 shortly after Heraclius defeated the Persians or in the mid-6th century during
207-534: A car accident in 1927. Walter B. Fraser, a transplant from Georgia who managed McConnell's attraction, then bought the property and made it one of the state's most successful tourist attractions. The first archaeological digs at the Fountain of Youth were performed in 1934 by the Smithsonian Institution . These digs revealed a large number of Christianized Timucua burials. These burials eventually pointed to
276-482: A complex and fictional character" (although Alexander's historicity did not deter ancient authors from using this term). It was widely copied and translated, accruing various legends and fantastical elements at different stages. The original version was composed in Ancient Greek some time before 338 AD, when a Latin translation was made, although the exact date is unknown. Some manuscripts pseudonymously attribute
345-725: A copy of an earlier work, Paisiy Hilendarski 's Slavic-Bulgarian History (1762). The two most important Spanish versions of the Alexander Romance are: In medieval England , the Alexander Romance experienced remarkable popularity. It is even referred to in Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales , where the monk apologizes to the pilgrimage group for treating a material so well known. There are five major romances in Middle English that survive, though most only in fragments. There are also two versions from Scotland , one sometimes ascribed to
414-532: A corpse. The original name of the tale, Упырь , is the word for " vampire " in Slavic languages . Scholarship states that the tale type appears in Europe and Turkey. In Turkish variants, the heroine triumphs in the end over the dervish, while in Europe the fate of the heroine may differ between regions (a Scandinavian and Baltic version, a West Slavic and Ukrainian one). Fountain of Youth The Fountain of Youth
483-477: A dream. Alexander is born from this pregnancy, but while he is growing up he kills Nectanebo, who reveals Alexander's paternity as he dies. Alexander begins to be educated by Aristotle and competes in the Olympics . After Philip dies, Alexander begins his campaigns into Asia, although the story is written in a confused manner with respect to the order and location of the campaigns. Once he reaches Egypt, an oracle of
552-531: A general of Alexander, on where to bury him. This statement was repeated in the Armenian recension of the Alexander Romance in the 5th century. The use of the horned motif, representing the horns of Zeus Ammon to visualize Alexander stems from much earlier, originally in coinage depicting Alexander by his immediate successors Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt and more prominently the king of Thrace Lysimachus were
621-570: A good man whom she marries, however he does not like the fact that she will not go to church and eventually forces her to do so. Thus the Fiend discovers that she is alive and kills her husband and her son, but with the help of her grandmother, the water of life , and holy water she brings them back and kills the fiend. The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 363, "The Vampire" or "The Corpse-Eater", while in
690-746: A list of all the cities that Alexander founded. The Romance locates the Gates of Alexander between two mountains called the "Breasts of the North" ( Greek : Μαζοί Βορρά ). The mountains are initially 18 feet apart and the pass is rather wide, but Alexander's prayers to God causes the mountains to draw nearer, thus narrowing the pass. There he builds the Caspian Gates out of bronze, coating them with fast-sticking oil. The gates enclosed twenty-two nations and their monarchs, including Gog and Magog (therein called "Goth and Magoth"). The geographic location of these mountains
759-416: A pool that is as large as space allows. The people in the pool are youthful and naked, and after a while they leave it, and are shown fashionably dressed enjoying a courtly party, sometimes including a meal. There are countless indirect sources for the tale as well. Eternal youth is a gift frequently sought in myth and legend, and stories of things such as the philosopher's stone , universal panaceas , and
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#1732895588716828-579: A translation into Latin titled the Nativitas et historia Alexandri Magni regis , which became the basis of the far more successful and expanded version known as the Historia de Proeliis , which went through three recensions between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and made Alexander a household name throughout the Middle Ages , being translated more times in the next three centuries than any other text except for
897-450: A troupe of adventurers and sailed north, never to return. Found within the salt water mangrove swamp that covers 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) of the shoreline of North Bimini is The Healing Hole , a pool that lies at the end of a network of winding tunnels. During outgoing tides, these channels pump cool, mineral-laden fresh water into the pool. Because this well was carved out of the limestone rock by ground water thousands of years ago it
966-550: A variant of β called λ, and the now-lost δ was perhaps the most important in the transmission of the text into the non-Greek world as it was the basis of the 10th-century Latin translation produced by Leo the Archpriest . The Recensio α, also known as the Historia Alexandri Magni , is the oldest and can be dated to the 3rd century AD. It is known from one manuscript, called A. It was subjected to various revisions during
1035-437: Is a mythical spring which supposedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted around the world for thousands of years, appearing in the writings of Herodotus (5th century BC), in the Alexander Romance (3rd century AD), and in the stories of Prester John (early Crusades , 11th/12th centuries AD). Stories of similar waters also featured prominently among
1104-536: Is especially high in calcium and magnesium . Magnesium, which has been shown to improve longevity and reproductive health, is present in large quantities in the sea water. While it is not known whether any legend about healing waters was widespread among the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the Italian -born chronicler Peter Martyr attached such a story drawn from ancient and medieval European sources to his account of
1173-551: Is in the Epic of Gilgamesh . The first commentary to the Romance was a German work titled Der griechische Alexanderroman , published by Adolf Ausfeld in 1907. In 2017, a commentary of the entire Alexander Romance was published in English by Krzysztof Nawotka. The first modern English translation of the Romance was produced by E.H. Haight in 1955. The major modern English translation of
1242-482: Is rather vague, described as a 50-day march away northwards after Alexander put to flight his Belsyrian enemies (the Bebrykes , of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey ). In the α recension of the Alexander Romance , Alexander's father is an Egyptian priest named Nectanebo who sports a set of ram horns. After his death, Alexander is described as " the horned king " (βασιλέα κερασφόρον) by an oracle instructing Ptolemy,
1311-561: Is taken from the one provided by Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox 2002. Italian versions of the Alexander Romance include: The Romanian Alexander Romance , entitled the Alexandria , was derived from a Greek and Serbian variant and became the most widely-read literary text in Romania between the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. In 1833, the Romanian legend was translated into Bulgarian in
1380-621: Is travelling along with his company in search of the Land of the Blessed . On the way to the Land, Alexander becomes hungry and asks one of his cooks, Andreas, to get him some meat. Andreas gets some fish and begins to wash it in a fountain. Immediately upon being washed, the fish sprang to life and escaped into the fountain. Realizing the has discovered the Fountain of Life , Andreas tells no one else about it and drinks
1449-473: The Alexander Romance have not survived, that they existed is known; it is thought that two versions existed. The earlier came into existence between the fourth and seventh centuries and its influence is detectable in extant Georgian texts such as The Conversion of Kartli chronicles and in The Life of Kings . The second was produced sometime between the ninth to twelfth centuries, and fragments of it were kept by
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#17328955887161518-495: The Alexander Romance were very popular in Spain during and after the period of Moorish rule , and would have been known to the explorers who journeyed to America. These earlier accounts inspired the popular medieval fantasy The Travels of Sir John Mandeville , which also mentions the Fountain of Youth as located at the foot of a mountain outside Polombe (modern Kollam ) in India. Due to
1587-529: The Byzantine Empire , some of them recasting it into poetical form in Medieval Greek vernacular. Recensio α is the source of a Latin version by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius (4th century), as well as an Armenian version (5th century). The β recension was composed between 300 and 550 AD. It rephrases much material in α and also adds new material to it. Compared to α, it lacks the end of Book I and
1656-530: The Early Scots poet John Barbour , which exists only in a sixteenth-century printing; and a Middle Scots version from 1499: Middle Scots versions include: There were two translations of the Alexander Romance into Old Church Slavonic /Old Bulgarian. The Irish Alexander Romance , also known as the Imthusa Alexandair , was composed around 1100, representing the first complete vernacular version of
1725-520: The East Slavic Folktale Classification ( Russian : СУС , romanized : SUS ) it is indexed as type SUS 363, Russian : Жених-упыръ , romanized : Zhenikh-upyr , lit. 'Vampire Bridegroom'. These stories are about a girl who marries a mysterious man. During their way home, they stop by a church and the man enters it. Worried about his long absence, the woman follows him and sees him devouring
1794-581: The Gospels . Another very popular Latin version was the Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon . Before Leo, versions of the Romance were still known: an abridged 9th-century version of the much earlier Latin translation by Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius , the Zacher Epitome , achieved some popularity. In addition, in 781, Alcuin sent Charlemagne a copy of a text known as Alexander and Dindimus King of
1863-581: The Land of Darkness , search for the Water of Life , and more. Next, he proceeds to conquer India from which he writes letters to Aristotle, though he also receives an omen about his coming death in this time. He visits the temples of the sun and moon, and makes the Amazons his subjects. During his return, as he reaches Babylonia , he meets the son of Antipater (the figure ruling Macedonia in Alexander's stead during
1932-477: The Middle Ages , the Romance experienced numerous expansions and revisions exhibiting a variability unknown for more formal literary forms. Distinctively, and unlike other texts, none of the recensions (including in Greek) of the Romance can be considered canonical. Furthermore, translations were not merely so but were also typically variant versions of the text. The legendary Alexander was also widely assimilated into
2001-515: The Persian Empire , and finally his death. Although constructed around an historical core, the romance is mostly fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as sirens or centaurs . In this context, the term Romance refers not to the meaning of the word in modern times but in the Old French sense of a novel or roman , a "lengthy prose narrative of
2070-447: The Romance is that of Richard Stoneman in 1991. Significant French translations include those of Tallet-Bonvalot in 1994, and Bounoure & Serret in 2004. An Italian translation was produced by Franco in 2001. In 2010, a Polish translation was published by Krzysztof Nawotka. In 2007, Richard Stoneman published an Italian edition of the Romance in three volumes, titled Il Romanzo di Alessandro . Throughout classical antiquity and
2139-608: The Romance , such as in the Syriac Song of Alexander and in the Talmud . The original Alexander Romance contains a few statements that would develop into the fully-fledged myths of episodes in the Land of Darkness , especially in versions of the Romance in Islamicate lands. In a journey that is directed towards Polaris , the Polar constellation, he is to find the Land of the Blessed at
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2208-533: The elixir of life are common throughout Eurasia and elsewhere. An additional inspiration may have been taken from the account of the Pool of Bethesda where a paralytic man was healed in the Gospel of John . In the possibly interpolated John 5:2–4 , the pool is said to be periodically stirred by an angel, upon which the first person to step into the water would be healed of whatever afflicted them. According to legend,
2277-509: The 12th century, but ancient Indian texts do not mention Alexander. The Epic of Sundiata , an epic poem for the Mandinka people , structures the story of the hero and founder of the Mali Empire , Sundiata Keita , in a way that resembles the biography and legends of Alexander. The most important Greek recensions of the Alexander Romance are the α, β, γ and ε recensions. There is also
2346-492: The 1514 voyage of Juan Diaz de Solis in a letter to the Pope in 1516, though he did not believe the stories and was dismayed that so many others did. In the 16th century the story of the Fountain of Youth became attached to the biography of the conquistador Juan Ponce de León . As attested by his royal charter, Ponce de León was charged with discovering the land of Beniny . Although the indigenous peoples were probably describing
2415-650: The 1860s; the tourist attraction in its present form was created by Luella Day McConnell in 1904. Having abandoned her practice as a physician in Chicago and gone to the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s, she purchased the Park property in 1904 from Henry H. Williams, a British horticulturalist, with cash and diamonds, for which she became known in St. Augustine as "Diamond Lil". Around
2484-710: The Brahmans . The principal manuscript of Beowulf also contains a translation of Alexander's letter to Aristotle. Translations from Leo's Latin version and its recension would subsequently be made into all the major languages of Europe as versions of the Alexander romance became the most popular form of medieval European literature after the Bible , such as Old French (12th century), Middle Scots ( The Buik of Alexander , 13th century), Italian , Spanish (the Libro de Alexandre ), Central German ( Lamprecht 's Alexanderlied , and
2553-463: The Florida coast for the legendary fountain. The city of St. Augustine, Florida , is home to the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, a tribute to the spot where Ponce de León was supposed to have landed according to promotional literature, although there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support the claim. There were several instances of the property being used as an attraction as early as
2622-648: The Fountain of Youth was in Bimini . Herodotus mentions a fountain containing a special kind of water in the land of the Macrobians , which gives the Macrobians their exceptional longevity. The Ichthyophagid then in their turn questioned the king concerning the term of life, and diet of his people, and were told that most of them lived to be a hundred and twenty years old, while some even went beyond that age—they ate boiled flesh, and had for their drink nothing but milk. When
2691-510: The Ichthyophagi showed wonder at the number of the years, he led them to a fountain, wherein when they had washed, they found their flesh all glossy and sleek, as if they had bathed in oil- and a scent came from the spring like that of violets. The water was so weak, they said, that nothing would float in it, neither wood, nor any lighter substance, but all went to the bottom. If the account of this fountain be true, it would be their constant use of
2760-692: The Park as the location of the first Christian mission in the United States. Called the Mission Nombre de Dios , this mission was begun by Franciscan friars in 1587. Succeeding decades have seen the unearthing of items which positively identify the Park as the location of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés 's 1565 settlement of St. Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in North America. The park currently exhibits native and colonial artifacts to celebrate Ponce de León and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés,
2829-457: The Persians and so flees to the Macedonian court under the guise of the identity of a magician. In his time there, he falls in love with the wife of king Philip II of Macedon , Olympias . Olympias becomes pregnant by Nectanebo, but his paternity is kept a secret. Philip develops a suspicion of an affair between the two, but Nectanebo allays Philip's suspicions by sending a magic sea-hawk to him in
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2898-561: The Romance in a European vernacular. It includes episodes such as Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, talking trees, encounters with Dindimus, and more. Two sources the author identified for his work were Orosius and Josephus . An Ethiopic version of the Alexander Romance was first composed in the Geʽez language between the 14th and 16th centuries was produced as a translation of an intermediary 9th-century Arabic text of what ultimately goes back to
2967-698: The Spanish heard of Bimini from the Arawaks in Hispaniola , Cuba , and Puerto Rico . The Caribbean islanders described a mythical land of Beimeni or Beniny (whence Bimini ), a land of wealth and prosperity, which became conflated with the fountain legend. By the time of Ponce de Leon, the land was thought to be located northwest towards the Bahamas (called la Vieja during the Ponce expedition). The natives were probably referring to
3036-529: The Spanish in the New World. Fontaneda had spent seventeen years as an Indian captive after being shipwrecked in Florida as a boy. In his Memoir he tells of the curative waters of a lost river he calls " Jordan " and refers to de León looking for it. However, Fontaneda makes it clear he is skeptical about these stories he includes, and says he doubts de León was actually looking for the fabled stream when he came to Florida. Herrera makes that connection definite in
3105-478: The Syriac recension. The Ethiopic version also integrates motifs from the Syriac Alexander Legend within the Romance narrative. There are seven known Ethiopian Alexander Romances: There are three or four medieval Hebrew versions of the Alexander Romance : There are four texts in the tradition of the Alexander Romance in Syriac, and they have been often mistaken with one another. All four were translated in
3174-404: The aging process and to cure sickness when swallowed or bathed in. The legend became particularly prominent in the 16th century, when it became associated with the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León , the first Governor of Puerto Rico. Ponce de León was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth when he traveled to Florida in 1513. Legend has it that Native Americans told Ponce de León that
3243-569: The area occupied by the Maya . This land also became confused with the Boinca or Boyuca mentioned by Juan de Solis , although Solis's navigational data placed it in the Gulf of Honduras . It was this Boinca that originally held a legendary fountain of youth, rather than Bimini itself. Sequene , an Arawak chief from Cuba , purportedly was unable to resist the lure of Bimini and its restorative fountain. He gathered
3312-478: The earliest produce coinage of Alexander with the rams horns. The motif would be carried over into later Alexander legends, such as the Armenian translation of α and the Syriac Alexander Legend . Traditions about Alexander's search for the Fountain of Life were influenced by earlier legends about the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh and his search for immortality, such as in the Epic of Gilgamesh . Alexander
3381-530: The edge of the world which in "a region where the sun does not shine" (2.39). The Land of Darkness becomes a prominent feature in subsequent recensions of the Alexander Romance . Two books appear to be the main sources used by the author of the Alexander Romance . One was a collection of Alexander fictions involving pseudepigraphical letters between Alexander and other figures such as Aristotle and adversaries of his like Darius III , as well as dialogues with Indian philosophers among other material. The second
3450-423: The first six chapters of Book II. However, it contains the end of Book II, which is missing from α. A combination of α and some material from β was used to create the ε recension in the 8th century. Furthermore, the β and ε recensions were combined to generate the much larger γ recension later still. There are several Old and Middle French and one Anglo-Norman Alexander romances. The following list of works
3519-487: The founder of St. Augustine. Exhibits of Timucua and Spanish heritage are also on display. Alexander romance The Alexander Romance is an account of the life and exploits of Alexander the Great . Of uncertain authorship, it has been described as "antiquity's most successful novel". The Romance describes Alexander the Great from his birth, to his succession of the throne of Macedon, his conquests including that of
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#17328955887163588-620: The god Amun instructs him where to go to create the city that will become Alexandria . The march into Asia continues and Alexander conquers Tyre . He begins exchanging letters with the Persian emperor Darius III , though the story now delves into more campaigns in Greece. The Persian march resumes and eventually Alexander conquers the Persians. He marries Roxane, the daughter of Darius, and writes letters to Olympias describing all he saw and his adventures during his conquests, including his wandering through
3657-609: The influence of these tales, the Fountain of Youth legend was popular in courtly Gothic art , appearing for example on the ivory Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264) and several ivory mirror-cases, and remained popular through the European Age of Exploration . European iconography is fairly consistent, as the Cranach painting and mirror-case Fons Juventutis ( The Fountain of Youth ) from 200 years earlier demonstrate: old people, often carried, enter at left, strip, and enter
3726-503: The journeys of the latter) who was sent to poison Alexander. The conspiracy succeeds, and Alexander begins to die, though he names the rulers who will control the provinces of his empire after he is gone before ultimately succumbing to the poison. Ptolemy I Soter receives his body in the Egyptian city of Memphis where the priests order it to be sent to Alexandria, the greatest city he had built during his march. The work concludes by providing
3795-570: The land of the Maya in Yucatán , the name—and legends about Boinca's fountain of youth—became associated with the Bahamas instead. However, Ponce de León did not mention the fountain in any of his writings throughout the course of his expedition. The connection was made in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés 's Historia general y natural de las Indias of 1535, in which he wrote that Ponce de León
3864-426: The more notable translations were made into Coptic , Ge'ez , Middle Persian , Byzantine Greek , Arabic , Persian , Armenian , Syriac , and Hebrew . Owing to the great variety of distinct works derived from the original Greek romance, the "Alexander romance" is sometimes treated as a literary genre , instead of a single work. Nectanebo II , the last Pharaoh of Egypt , foresees that his kingdom will fall to
3933-418: The next day. Thereafter, he continually poses the question and with each denial he causes another of her family members to die. Finally he tells her that she herself will die. At this point Marusia asks her grandmother what to do. Her grandmother explains a way by which Marusia can come back to life after she dies (a condition of which is that she cannot enter a church afterwards). On coming back to life she meets
4002-420: The past. At a later point, Andreas manages to use the water to seduce Alexander's daughter, who is enticed by the opportunity to drink from it, which she does and becomes immortal. Alexander learns of the miracle and punishes both Andreas and his daughter greatly: for Andreas is turned into a daimōn of the sea and his daughter into a daimōn of the desert. This story was elaborated on in subsequent versions of
4071-427: The people of the Caribbean during the Age of Exploration (early 16th century); they spoke of the restorative powers of the water in the mythical land of Bimini . Based on these many legends, explorers and adventurers looked for the elusive Fountain of Youth or some other remedy to aging , generally associated with magic waters. These waters might have been a river, a spring or any other water-source said to reverse
4140-563: The reign of Justinian I , contains additional motifs not found in the earliest Greek version of the Romance , including the apocalypticization of the wall built against Gog and Magog . Subsequent Middle Eastern recensions of the Alexander legend were generated following the Syriac traditions, including versions in Arabic , Persian ( Iskandarnameh ), Ethiopic , Hebrew (in the first part of Sefer HaAggadah ), Ottoman Turkish (14th century), and Middle Mongolian (13th-14th century). Knowledge of Romance tradition entered Chinese texts by
4209-420: The religion and culture of those who wrote about him: in Christian legends, Alexander became a Christian; in Islamic legends, Alexander became a Muslim; he was an Egyptian for the Egyptian, a Persian for the Persians, and so forth. In Europe, the popularity of the Alexander Romance resurged when Leo the Archpriest discovered a Greek copy in Constantinople while he was on a diplomatic missions. He produced
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#17328955887164278-472: The romanticized version of Fontaneda's story included in his Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano . Herrera states that local caciques paid regular visits to the fountain. A frail old man could become so completely restored that he could resume "all manly exercises … take a new wife and beget more children." Herrera adds that the Spaniards had unsuccessfully searched every "river, brook, lagoon or pool" along
4347-587: The same 1889 volume by E. A. Wallis Budge , though some of them have appeared in newer editions since then. A Coptic translation of the Romance from the Greek was already being revised in the sixth century. A fragmentary manuscript, originally 220 pages long, in the Sahidic dialect was discovered in the White Monastery . It draws on older Demotic Egyptian traditions, which existed in written form perhaps as early as 275 BC. It has been edited and published by Oscar von Lemm. Several fragments of it have been collected and translated. Though Georgian versions of
4416-419: The texts authorship to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes , and so the author is commonly called Pseudo-Callisthenes. In premodern times, the Alexander Romance underwent more than 100 translations, elaborations, and derivations in dozens of languages, including almost all European vernaculars as well as in every language from the Islamicized regions of Asia and Africa, from Mali to Malaysia . Some of
4485-515: The water for himself. He also stores away some of the water into a silver vessel, hoping to use some of it to seduce Alexander's daughter. Meanwhile, Alexander eventually reaches the Land of the Blessed but is unable to enter it. At the same time, he learns of Andreas losing the fish and questions him over it. Andreas confesses about what happened with the fish, and he is whipped for it, but he denies that he drank any and does not mention that he stored some, and asks Alexander over why he should worry about
4554-426: The water from it which makes them so long-lived. A story of the "Water of Life" appears in the Eastern versions of the Alexander romance , which describes Alexander the Great and his servant crossing the Land of Darkness to find the restorative spring. The servant in that story is in turn derived from Middle Eastern legends of Al-Khidr , a sage who appears also in the Qur'an . Arabic and Aljamiado versions of
4623-439: The year 1909 she began advertising the attraction, charging admission, and selling post cards and water from a well dug in 1875 for Williams by Philip Gomez and Philip Capo. McConnell later claimed to have "discovered" on the grounds a large cross made of coquina rock, asserting it was placed there by Ponce de León himself. She continued to fabricate stories to amuse and appall the city's residents and tourists until her death in
4692-439: Was a history written by Cleitarchus (c. 300 BC), containing an already mythologized account of Alexander. Historians also suspect the use of Greek-language Egyptian sources underlying traditions about the pharaohs Nectanebo II and Sesostris . By contrast, oral tradition did not play an important role. A strikingly close parallel to Alexander's relentless quest, though one limited by the constraints of human and mortal existence,
4761-525: Was looking for the waters of Bimini to regain youthfulness. Some researchers have suggested that Oviedo's account may have been politically inspired to generate favor in the courts. A similar account appears in Francisco López de Gómara 's Historia general de las Indias of 1551. In the Memoir of Hernando d'Escalante Fontaneda in 1575, the author places the restorative waters in Florida and mentions de León looking for them there; his account influenced Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas ' unreliable history of
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