Alexander the Great: Encyclopedia II - Alexander the Great - Alexander's marriages and sexuality

Alexander the Great - Alexander's marriages and sexuality

Alexander's greatest emotional attachment is generally considered to have been to his companion, cavalry commander (chiliarchos) and probable lover, Hephaestion. They had most likely been best friends since childhood for Hephaestion too received his education at the court of Alexander's father. Hephaestion makes his appearance in history at the point when Alexander reaches Troy. There the two friends made sacrifices at the shrines of the two heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander honoring Achilles, and Hephaestion honoring Patroclus. As Aelian in his Varia Historia (12.7) claims, "He thus intimated that he was the object of Alexander's love, as Patroclus was of Achilles." Following Hephaestion's death, Alexander mourned him greatly, and did not eat for days.

Many have discussed Alexander's ambiguous sexuality. Curtius reports that, "He scorned [feminine] sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring." To encourage a relationship with a woman, King Philip and Olympias brought in a high-priced Thessalian courtesan named Callixena.

Later in life, Alexander married several princesses of former Persian territories, Roxana of Bactria, Statira, daughter of Darius III, and Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. He fathered two children, Alexander IV of Macedon, born by Roxana shortly after his death in 323 BC, and (Heracles), born by his concubine Barsine (the daughter of satrap Artabazus of Phrygia) in 327 BC.

Curtius maintains that Alexander also took as a lover "Bagoas, a eunuch exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate," (VI.5.23). Bagoas is the only one who is actually named as the eromenos — the beloved — of Alexander. Their relationship seems to have been well known among the troops, as Plutarch recounts an episode (also mentioned by Dicaearchus) during some festivities on the way back from India) in which his men clamor for him to openly kiss the young man: "Bagoas [...] sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms round him and kissed him. "At this point in time, the troops present were all survivors of the crossing of the desert. Bagoas must have endeared himself to them by his courage and fortitude during that harrowing episode. Whatever Alexander's relationship with Bagoas, it was no impediment to relations with his queen: six months after Alexander's death Roxana gave birth to his son and heir, Alexander IV. Besides Bagoas, Curtius mentions yet another possible lover of Alexander, Euxenippus, "whose youthful grace filled him with enthusiasm" (VII.9.19).

Allegations concerning Alexander's sexuality remain highly controversial and excites passions in some quarters. People of various national, ethnic and cultural origins regard him as their hero. Some argue that historical accounts describing Alexander's love for Hephaestion and Bagoas as sexual were written centuries after the fact, and thus it can never be established what the historical relationship between Alexander and his male companions were. Others argue that the same can be said about much of our information regarding Alexander. Such debates, however, are generally considered anachronistic by scholars of the period, who point out that the concept of homosexuality as understood today did not exist in Greco-Roman antiquity. Sexual attraction between males was occasionaly seen as a normal and universal part of human nature since it was believed that men were attracted to beauty, an attribute of the young, regardless of gender. If Alexander's love life was transgressive, it was not for his love of beautiful youths but for his probable involvement with a man his own age, in a time when the standard model of male love was pederastic. See Pederasty in ancient Greece for more information.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Alexander's marriages and sexuality", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki