Editing Alexander the Great (section)

=== Sexuality ===

Alexander's sexuality has been the subject of speculation and controversy in modern times.{{sfn|Ogden|2009|p=204}} The Roman era writer [[Athenaeus]] says, based on the scholar [[Dicaearchus]], who was Alexander's contemporary, that the king "was quite excessively keen on boys", and that Alexander kissed the [[eunuch]] [[Bagoas (courtier)|Bagoas]] in public.<ref>{{cite book |title=Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents |url=https://archive.org/details/homosexualitygre00hubb|url-access=limited |editor=Thomas K. Hubbard |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-520-23430-7 |publisher=University of California Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/homosexualitygre00hubb/page/n97 79]}}</ref> This episode is also told by Plutarch, probably based on the same source. Historian [[William Woodthorpe Tarn]] rejected the stories of Bagoas as fabricated in ancient times to defame Alexander, mainly referring to the [[Quintus Curtius Rufus|Rufus]]'s fairly fictionalized biography of Alexander that criticized the Macedonian's "degeneration" in embracing foreign Persian customs<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tougher |first=Sean |date=2008 |title=The Renault Bagoas: The Treatemnet of Alexander the Great's Eunuch in Mary Renault's ''The Persian Boy'' |url=https://fass.open.ac.uk/sites/fass.open.ac.uk/files/files/new-voices-journal/issue3/Tougher.pdf |journal=New Voices in Classical Reception Studies |issue=3 |pages=77–89}}</ref> However, in 1958 Badian countered Tarn's arguments, though his concern was the issue of the reliability of sources for Alexander rather than the figure of the eunuch himself.{{sfn|Tougher|2008}} None of Alexander's contemporaries, however, are known to have explicitly described Alexander's relationship with Hephaestion as sexual, though the pair was often compared to [[Achilles and Patroclus]], who are often interpreted as a couple. Aelian writes of Alexander's visit to [[Troy]] where "Alexander garlanded the tomb of Achilles, and Hephaestion that of [[Patroclus]], the latter hinting that he was a beloved of Alexander, in just the same way as Patroclus was of Achilles."<ref name="AelXII7" /> At the same time, ancient writers did not conclusively identify them as lovers.<ref>{{Citation |last=Palagia |first=Olga |title=Hephaestion's Pyre and the Royal Hunt of Alexander |date=2000-09-07 |work=Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction |pages=167–206 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152873.003.0006 |access-date=2025-03-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152873.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-815287-3}}</ref> Some modern historians (e.g., [[Robin Lane Fox]]) believe not only that Alexander's youthful relationship with Hephaestion was sexual, but also that their sexual contacts may have continued into adulthood, which went against the social norms of at least some Greek cities, such as Athens,<ref>{{cite book |author=Marilyn Skinner |title=Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (Ancient Cultures) |edition=2nd |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4443-4986-3 |page=190 |year=2013}}</ref>{{sfn|Sacks|1995|p=16}} though some modern researchers have tentatively proposed that Macedonia (or at least the Macedonian court) may have been more tolerant of homosexuality between adults.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Hubbard|editor-first=Thomas |title=A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities |date=2014 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-4051-9572-0 |page=143 |chapter=Chapter 8: Peer Homosexuality |author=Thomas Hubbard}}</ref>

[[File:Alexander and Hephaestion.jpg|thumb|Alexander and his general [[Hephaestion]], at the [[Getty Villa]]|left]]

[[Peter Green (historian)|Peter Green]] argues that there is little evidence in ancient sources that Alexander had much sexual interest in women; he did not produce an heir until the very end of his life.{{sfn|Green|2007|pp=15–16}} However, Ogden calculates that Alexander, who impregnated his partners three times in eight years, had fathered more children than his father at the same age.{{sfn|Ogden|2009|p=208|ps=...&nbsp;three attested pregnancies in eight years produces an attested impregnation rate of one every 2.7&nbsp;years, which is actually superior to that of his father.}} Two of these pregnancies—Stateira's and Barsine's—are of dubious legitimacy.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Nature of Alexander]] |author=[[Mary Renault]] |quote=No record at all exists of such a woman [ie, Barsine] accompanying his march; nor of any claim by her, or her powerful kin, that she had borne him offspring. Yet twelve years after his death a boy was produced, seventeen years old, born therefore five years after Damascus, her alleged son "brought up in Pergamon"; a claimant and shortlived pawn in the succession wars, chosen probably for a physical resemblance to Alexander. That he actually did marry another Barsine must have helped both to launch and preserve the story; but no source reports any notice whatever taken by him of a child who, Roxane's being posthumous, would have been during his lifetime his only son, by a near-royal mother. In a man who named cities after his horse and dog, this strains credulity. |page=110 |year=1979 |publisher=Pantheon |isbn=978-0-394-73825-3}}</ref>

According to Diodorus Siculus, Alexander accumulated a harem in the style of Persian kings, but he used it rather sparingly, "not wishing to offend the Macedonians",<ref name="DSXVII77" /> showing great self-control in "pleasures of the body".<ref name="AVII28" /> Nevertheless, Plutarch described how Alexander was infatuated by Roxana while complimenting him on not forcing himself on her.<ref>{{cite web |year=1936 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Fortuna_Alexandri*/2.html |author=Plutarch |title=Moralia |id=I, 11 |publisher=University of Chicago |ref=none |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> Green suggested that, in the context of the period, Alexander formed quite strong friendships with women, including [[Ada of Caria]], who adopted him, and even Darius's mother [[Sisygambis]], who supposedly died from grief upon hearing of Alexander's death.{{sfn|Green|2007|pp=15–16}}