ARCH 0810: Alexander the Great and the Alexander Tradition October 22, 2014 PART V: Alexander the Man… What Kind of Man? Alexander’s Sexuality

Head of the East sphinx has been found New 3-D model of the Amphipolis Tomb

Paolo Veronese, The Family of Darius Before Alexander (1565-70) ? Stateira, future wife of Alexander Stateira (wife) Sisygambis (mother) Alexander Hephaistion

Olympias and Philip II represented on the Aboukir medallions Alexander and his mother Olympias, on a Hellenistic onyx cameo

Barsine • aristocratic Persian widow, in exile at Macedonian court • (allegedly) bore Alexander a son, Herakles Alexander and Barsine (Wall-painting at Pompeii) The assassination of Barsine and Herakles (15th-century French manuscript)

Thalestris, the Amazon Queen See Plutarch, Alexander ch. 46 Amazon riders (Johann Wilhelm Tischbein, 1751-1829) An Amazon depicted on a Greek red-figure vase Greek hoplite fighting an Amazon

Amazons in the news! ‘Nonsense’ writing next to Amazons on Greek vases claimed as representing ancient Steppe languages (modern Caucasus region). ‘Let the dogs go” ‘Hot flanks’

Roxane [“Little Star”] • Daughter of Oxyartes, Bactrian princess • Captured after the taking of the Sogdian Rock • Bore Alexander a son, posthumously = Alexander IV Oliver Stone’s vision of her in his Alexander (2004)

…Some earlier visions of Roxane Sodoma (1521), The Wedding of Alexander and Roxane Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The Crowning of Roxane by Alexander Alessandro Varotari (1588-1648), Roxane and Alexander IV

Mughal Indian miniature painting The Wedding of Alexander and Roxane — and not only in the western tradition Mughal Indian miniature painting The Wedding of Alexander and Roxane

Alexander’s Persian wives At the mass marriage in Susa in 324 BC, Alexander took 2 more brides: • Stateira (daughter of Darius III) [Stateira’s sister also married off to Hephaistion] • Parysatis (daughter of Artaxerxes III Ochus) Both probably murdered by Roxane, following Alexander’s death in 323 BC (from a Princess Stateira fansite on the web!)

Female Male Barsine Roxane Stateira Parysatis [Olympias] [Amazon Queen] Hephaistion Bagoas Herakles Alexander IV

Hephaistion Oliver Stone’s vision of Hephaistion

Ancient portraits of Hephaistion Bust in J.Paul Getty Museum, Malibu CA Achilles :: Patroklos Alexander :: Hephaistion Herakles Alexander Hephaistion 2nd century AD sacrophagus

Homosexuality in the Greek world Erastes (“lover”, eros = love) The older, dominant lover Eromenos (“the loved one”) The younger, subordinate lover

Bagoas • a Persian eunuch • formerly Darius’s lover • the narrator in Mary Renault’s novel The Persian Boy