Walter of Châtillon was a twelfth century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language.
He was educated at the Sorbonne under Etienne de Beauvais . It was likely during his college years that he wrote a number of Latin poems in the Goliardic manner that found their way into the Carmina Burana collection.
During his lifetime, however, he was more esteemed for a long Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great, the Alexandreis, sive Gesta Alexandri Magni, a long poem in hexameters, full of anachronisms; he depicts the Crucifixion of Jesus as having already taken place during the days of Alexander the Great. Most of this long poem has been forgotten by now; it is remembered chiefly for one line:
- Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim
(He who wishes to avoid Charybdis runs into Scylla.)
In addition to his poems, Walter wrote a dialogue attacking Judaism and a treatise on the Trinity.
Walter died of the bubonic plague early in the thirteenth century
