Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.s1.66

c11.s1.66

A close parallel exists in the mediæval story of Alexander and the flower maidens (Mannhardt, II., p. 1) “presumably founded on a legend current in ancient Greece” and doubtless originally of Oriental origin (Philpot ‘The Sacred Tree’, p. 60). “The story goes that in a certain wood, when spring came, numbers of enormous flower buds appeared out of the ground, from each of which, as it opened, there leapt forth a beautiful maiden. Their robes were a part of their growth, and in colour they were just like their flowers, red and white (in the Indian story they are the flowers). . . . When . . . the flowers withered . . . the beautiful creatures died. . . . Alexander and his knights, coming upon this magical wood, mated with the flower maidens and for more than three months lived in perfect happiness, till . . . one by one the nymphs died, and the king and his companions had sorrowfully to resume their travels” (Philpot, loc. cit.).