Who really believes that Alexander the Great was really Bi-Sexual?

Question

I'm still a little "iffy" about that. Does anyone have any great literature that proofs he swung the other way?

Answer 1

It's fairly well-established that he had a male lover. It really wasn't uncommon in those days. In ancient Greece, older men often wooed a younger man. The men would teach the youths wisdom and how to conduct themselves properly in society, and they would get some play for their troubles. Read Plato's _Symposium_. It's pretty awesome. These guys all got drunk and started talking about love, and there was a speech or two claiming that the love between two men (and they don't mean chaste, platonic love) was higher than that between a man and a woman, because it was between equals.

Answer 2

It was very common back then for both genders to be bisexual, however it was more acceptable for men. It was also documented well before the film came out that he did have a male lover. Some men had a wife for procreation purposes only. So his sexuality wasn't something filmmakers just made up to shock people.

However that is not something that jr high or high school textbooks are going to cover so it's glossed over.

Answer 3

My understanding of Greek culture of the day is that if he didn't have a boy friend it would have been mentioned. They didn't have our retarded prudish ideas of sexuality. Homosexuality among the warrior and upper class of ancient Greece is pretty well documented, probably most of it due to the fact that there a lot of men around each other for long periods of time and there was very little to no stigma against homosexual acts, especially if you were doing the screwing and not the one being screwed.

Answer 4

Do some research on the subject. You will find that this was common back then. The Spartans were sent to live with a male role model and would have sexual relations with him until and sometime after he was married. The mothers believed that having a male role model made them better soldiers.

Answer 5

Fungirl10's answer sounds just a LITTLE naive...
if I see it in print or in a movie, it MUST be true...God Help us!

What would it matter? Speculation is NO basis for FACT...

Answer 6

historical accounts say as much and like random6x7 stated pretty acceptible behavoir in alot of the old warriors,greeks,romans, even samurais. not until a one god religion arose did people think much of it

Answer 7

even before the movie came out lots of books said he was so there must be some truth somewhere there.

Answer 8

I do it says that everywhere even in the movie!!!

Answer 9

no its just a rumor

Answer 10

It was common for Ancient Greeks to be bi-sexual as it wasnt as taboo as it is in modern times.

"Ancient historians have written extensively on Alexander's love affairs and sexual appetites. Diodorus Siculus writes, "Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple borders and dressed the horses in Persian harness. In addition to all this, he added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Dareius, in number not less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia. Each night these paraded about the couch of the king so that he might select the one with whom he would lie that night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed these customs rather sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed routine, not wishing to offend the Macedonians "[13]

A number of ancient sources[citation needed] have reported on Alexander's attachments to both males and females. While the object of his affection may have varied, he was admired for treating all his lovers humanely. Plutarch has argued that Alexander's love of males took an ethical approach, inspired by the teachings of his mentor, Aristotle. He gives several examples of Alexander's morality in this domain:

When Philoxenus, the leader of the seashore, wrote to Alexander that there was a youth in Ionia whose beauty has yet to be seen and asked him in a letter if he (Alexander) would like him (the boy) to be sent over, he (Alexander) responded in a strict and disgusted manner: "You are the most hideous and malign of all men, have you ever seen me involved in such dirty work that you found the urge to flatter me with such hedonistic business?"[14]

Plutarch also wrote:

When Philoxenus, the commander of his forces on the sea-board, wrote that there was with him a certain Theodorus of Tarentum, who had two youths of surpassing beauty to sell, and enquired whether Alexander would buy them, Alexander was incensed, and cried out many times to his friends, asking them what shameful thing Philoxenus had ever seen in him that he should spend his time in making such disgraceful proposals.[15]

His moral approach towards sexual relations also extended to relations with prisoners of war: "But as for the other captive women, seeing that they were surpassingly stately and beautiful, he merely said jestingly that Persian women were torments to the eyes. And displaying in rivalry with their fair looks the beauty of his own sobriety and self-control, he passed them by as though they were lifeless images for display."[16]

The above quotations would be in line with the thoughts laid about before him by Aristotle, who regarded relationships based purely on carnal relations to be shameful.

Many have discussed Alexander's sexual leanings. Curtius reports, "He scorned 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."

"No contemporary source states that Alexander and Hephaistion were lovers. However, the historian Paul Cartledge has written: "Whether Alexander's relationship with the slightly older Hephaestion was ever of the sort that once dared not speak its name is not certain, but it is likely enough that it was. At any rate, Macedonian and Greek mores would have favoured an actively sexual component rather than inhibiting or censoring it."[17] Robin Lane Fox says that "In youth, his great friend was Hephaestion, and surely the sexual element (frequent between young males, or an older and younger male, in Greek city-states) developed already then."[18] Alexander and Hephaestion remained, in Fox's words, "exceptionally deep and close friends" until Hephaestion's untimely death, after which Alexander mourned him greatly, and did not eat for days.[19]"

"Some ancient sources suggest that Alexander had possibly another favorite, Bagoas; a eunuch (a castrated youth) exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate."[23] 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 kiss the young man: "Bagoas...sat down close to 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."

The modern historian Robin Lane Fox, says that both direct and indirect evidence suggest a "sexual element, this time of pure physical desire" between the two, but as for the consummation of that passion he comments that "[l]ater gossip presumed that Bagoas was Alexander’s lover. This is uncertain."[24] Mary Renault, author of The Persian Boy, a novel about the love between Alexander and Bagoas, claims that "No historian states plainly whether they were physical lovers."[25] 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.

Historical accounts describing Alexander's love for Hephaestion and Bagoas as sexual have been contested on the grounds that they were written centuries afterwards. On the other hand, as will be seen below, a great amount of our detailed information regarding Alexander comes from much later sources. It should be noted that the concept of homosexuality as understood today did not exist in Greco-Roman antiquity. If Alexander's love life was transgressive, it was not for his love of beautiful youths but for his persistent love of a man his own age."