PC That was a bit of a teaser, I confess - but you got my drift absolutely right, on both sides of the blanket as it were. But then, wouldn't you say that Alexander's marriages to Parysatis and Stateira, the second and third of his multiple wives, were also consummated (though how he pulled off the trick of a double wedding night, after wedding both women at the mass marriage ceremony in Susa in 324, is anyone's guess)? As far as the women are concerned, I'd say two is a conservative count, assuming you mean the two women who bore Alexander's children - Barsine, the half-Persian widow of the mercenary captain Memnon, and Rhoxane, Alexander's first wife. Even in the case of Bagoas - a eunuch given to Alexander as (dare I say it?) a boy toy by a Persian noble who wished to win his favor - there is some room for doubt, though I would venture to say he "counts" as a male object of Alexander's sexual interest. JAMES ROMM Well, I'm not sure whom you mean by the one male - Bagoas or Hephaestion? I'm guessing the former as the evidence for a sexual relationship is firmer than in the case of Hephaestion (where there is no real evidence, but plenty of assumptions). Personally, I think any attempt to categorise Alexander in terms of modern sexual identity is grossly anachronistic, but am I not right that Alexander probably did have sex with at least one male as well as with at least two females? PAUL CARTLEDGE Jamie, one aspect of Alexander's life that still arouses huge controversy is what nowadays we'd call his sexuality or sexual identity. I remember that a rather conservative Greek lawyer, convinced that his ancient Greek hero must have been as red-bloodedly heterosexual as he, actually threatened to bring an injunction against Oliver Stone's movie for portraying Alexander as engaging in sex with males.
0 kommentar(er)
