Alexander and the Dwarf. World Rulership as a Question of Format

Abstract

›Temporal Communities‹ in pre-modern exemplary poetry do not originate solely from communities of transmission (such as manuscript anthologies or printed collectanea). They also arise from format changes occurring during the transfer between different genres and media. The possibility of reducing or enlarging thought patterns down to the nucleus of a character's name or up to the epic world model enables them to persist in a wide range of formal and situational contexts. One example of this scalability and of the multiple temporalities of their use is the apocryphal episode of Alexander the Great's encounter with the dwarf king Anteloie. Through references to names or agonal configurations, the episode appears at times biographically and chronologically amplified, at times epically and poetically compressed, all while providing parable-like insights into the arcana imperii negotiating the relation between expansive majesty and the nanotechnique of political prudence.