Alexander the great was gay?

[joj]

I am wondering if Alexander the great was gay or Persian culture is feminine?

 

[joromoac]

Alexander the Great was not Persian. He was from Macedonia (Hellenic culture).

 

[ramsgate18]

erotic.....

 

[Jason]

Probably.

There really isn't a term for gay in Ancient Greek. However Greek society seemed to accept sex between men, and Greek vase paintings have plenty of explicit scenes. Alexander did marry (Roxana) but the love of his life appears to be Hephaestion. Aristotle (who knew both well - he was Alexander's tutor - described them as "one soul in two bodies". There's a story told by Arrian where Alexander and Hephaestion visit the tomb of Patroclus (at Troy) and compare themselves with Achilles and Patroclus. From Homer it's pretty clear that Achilles and Patroclus were gay.

What we do have is a story of a very close relationship between two men. Within Greek culture and Greek language it is simply described as friendship. Hebrew culture gives a parallel example of friendship between two men in the case of King David and Jonathan.

 

[Perados]

Why is this at the fiction forum?
In greece, it was common that older greek men had one or two young boys they fucked... and like jason explained very well, there are various stories about Alexander's sexuality

 

[joj]

Probably.

There really isn't a term for gay in Ancient Greek. However Greek society seemed to accept sex between men, and Greek vase paintings have plenty of explicit scenes. Alexander did marry (Roxana) but the love of his life appears to be Hephaestion. Aristotle (who knew both well - he was Alexander's tutor - described them as "one soul in two bodies". There's a story told by Arrian where Alexander and Hephaestion visit the tomb of Patroclus (at Troy) and compare themselves with Achilles and Patroclus. From Homer it's pretty clear that Achilles and Patroclus were gay.

What we do have is a story of a very close relationship between two men. Within Greek culture and Greek language it is simply described as friendship. Hebrew culture gives a parallel example of friendship between two men in the case of King David and Jonathan.

Please have a look on this novel,, this was shown in the latest movie of Alexander the great as well
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Persian_Boy.html?id=U2vJ0KS7ITsC&hl=en

 

[Jason]

Please have a look on this novel,, this was shown in the latest movie of Alexander the great as well
https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Persian_Boy.html?id=U2vJ0KS7ITsC&hl=en

Yes I've read Mary Renault, this book and one or two others also. A good yarn!

As Perados says, there was a tradition of Greek older men fucking younger men.

Greek society seems to have approved of the actions of the older. The younger was laughed at. The two were not equal; fucking established a superior and inferior. However, what Alexander and Hephaestion (or Achilles and Patroclus) were getting up to seems to be something different. Hephaestion is described as taller than Alexander, and Alexander calls him his equal. They are of pretty much the same age. Almost certainly they slept together (we know for sure that Spartan soldiers slept together for warmth) and presumably one thing led to another - but not to fucking. They regarded one another as friends. In the Ancient Greek world friends sleep together, cuddle, get boners, wank together - but this wasn't gay because our concept of gayness really didn't exist.

 

[joj]

Yes I've read Mary Renault, this book and one or two others also. A good yarn!

As Perados says, there was a tradition of Greek older men fucking younger men.

Greek society seems to have approved of the actions of the older. The younger was laughed at. The two were not equal; fucking established a superior and inferior. However, what Alexander and Hephaestion (or Achilles and Patroclus) were getting up to seems to be something different. Hephaestion is described as taller than Alexander, and Alexander calls him his equal. They are of pretty much the same age. Almost certainly they slept together (we know for sure that Spartan soldiers slept together for warmth) and presumably one thing led to another - but not to fucking. They regarded one another as friends. In the Ancient Greek world friends sleep together, cuddle, get boners, wank together - but this wasn't gay because our concept of gayness really didn't exist.

Watch this clip,, you'll understand what I am talking about!
Persian bottom in Texas! - xHamster.com

 

[Jason]

Watch this clip,, you'll understand what I am talking about!
Persian bottom in Texas! - xHamster.com

This is a deleted video.

The outstanding study of Greek homosexuality is a book (by that name) by Kenneth Dover, an exceptionally distinguished classical scholar. Dover argues that the Greeks regarded homosexuality as natural and normal, even as expected - and they did not make the binary divide between homosexual and heterosexual.

The Greek example is particularly interesting because we can see a society which had different ideas to our own. Sexual practices included anal sex, but there's a lot of evidence for femoral sex (rare in modern porn) as well as for mutual masturbation, and these may well have been much more common than anal. It occurs to me that there's little evidence for oral sex.

 

[malakos]

He probably wasn't homosexual. Sexual flexibility was a cultural value in the Greco-Roman world.

 

[Jason]

He probably wasn't homosexual. Sexual flexibility was a cultural value in the Greco-Roman world.

Yes, I think you are right. Sexual flexibility as a cultural value is a useful concept.

Alexander and Hephaestion embody the cultural values of the day.