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

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

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

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

5. 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)

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

7. 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’

8. 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)

9. …Some earlier visions of Roxane
Sodoma (1521), The Wedding of Alexander and Roxane
Peter Paul Rubens ( ),
The Crowning of
Roxane by Alexander
Alessandro Varotari ( ), Roxane and Alexander IV

10. 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

11. 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!)

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

13. Hephaistion
Oliver Stone’s vision of Hephaistion

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

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

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