Nine historical figures considered particularly worthy of reverence. First compiled in fourteenth-century French romance, they included three pagans – Alexander the Great, Hector of Troy, and Julius Caesar – three Jews – Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus – and three Christians – Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Arthur.
Their names are evoked to suggest the transience of worldly life and the power of death, which claims even the mighty and glorious. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Arthur has a dream in which he sees Fortune’s wheel with the other eight worthies upon it, and a place reserved for him.
Source
Alliterative Morte Arthure | c. 1400