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details. Hello

1:12

everyone! Welcome to

1:15

the History of Persia. I'm

1:18

Trevor Cully, and this

1:20

is episode 122, Alexander in Love. I

1:27

am once again asking you to send

1:29

your questions for the episode 125 AMA. You

1:34

can ask me anything about

1:36

me, podcasting, history, etc.

1:39

but I really want your

1:41

questions about Alexander and the

1:44

Akkaminids, as this phase of

1:46

history is coming to a close. Message

1:49

me on social

1:52

media, historyofperjapodcast.com, hopfulmedia.com,

1:55

or email

1:57

historyofperjapodcastatgmail.com. Anyway,

2:02

last time we talked

2:04

about Alexander the Great's

2:06

plans in 323 BCE

2:08

for another campaign of

2:10

conquest. Curtius claimed

2:12

that he would target Carthage. Diodorus

2:16

said Carthage and Sicily.

2:19

Livy said he would conquer Rome too.

2:23

I explained why none of

2:26

those targets actually made much

2:28

sense, and how Arian's explanation

2:30

of a planned invasion of

2:32

Eastern Arabia is the most

2:34

likely option. Then I

2:36

left off on the cliffhanger that

2:38

regardless of the truth, Alexander's plans

2:40

for continued expansion would never see

2:43

the light of day. However,

2:46

I will not be continuing that

2:48

story today. Instead, I

2:50

want to talk about King Alexander's

2:53

family life. Both because

2:55

it is infamous and chaotic, and

2:57

because I just like to try

2:59

and do an episode on the

3:01

families of the kings who

3:04

live long enough to have one. Given

3:07

that we're in the only real break in

3:09

the narrative action that I can find, this

3:12

is as good a place as any.

3:16

So, let's rewind

3:19

all the way back to

3:21

Alexander's adolescence in his father's

3:23

Macedonian court. Obviously,

3:26

there is the father himself, King

3:28

Philip II. However,

3:31

I dedicated the entirety of episode 105

3:33

to Philip and his reign, so

3:37

I don't really think we need to dwell

3:39

on him in this episode. Instead,

3:42

we will start with Alexander's mother.

3:45

The enigmatic and powerful

3:47

Olympias of Molassia. Olympias

3:50

probably was not her original

3:52

name. In fact, we

3:55

don't even know exactly what

3:57

that would have been. She

3:59

was married to... to Philip in order to

4:01

form an alliance between her father, King

4:04

Oribos of Melasia and

4:06

Philip, in 358 BCE.

4:11

She then took the name Olympias

4:14

to honor her husband's Olympic victory

4:16

in 356 while she was

4:19

pregnant with Alexander. Olympias

4:22

was noted in many ancient

4:24

sources for her jealousy and

4:26

personal desire for power, beyond

4:29

just being Philip's wife, often

4:32

leading to estrangement between Olympias

4:34

and the King. In

4:37

Episode 105, there were several incidents

4:40

in Alexander's youth where Olympias pushed

4:42

hard to get her son more

4:44

power and ensure that Alexander, rather

4:47

than one of Philip's other sons,

4:50

would inherit the throne. On

4:52

one hand, she did succeed. On

4:55

the other, most ancient accounts

4:58

also doubt that Philip ever

5:00

really considered somebody else for

5:02

the job, so

5:04

Olympias was running unnecessary interference

5:06

against her husband's own kingdom.

5:10

The Queen constantly reinforced to

5:12

her son that he was

5:14

the descendant of two mythical

5:16

heroes, Heracles, supposed

5:18

ancestor of the Agiad

5:20

kings in Macedon, and

5:23

Achilles, supposedly one

5:25

of Olympias's own ancestors.

5:29

She insisted that this would

5:31

give Alexander the foundation to

5:34

do great things. Olympias's

5:37

son obviously took this to heart,

5:40

maybe a little too much,

5:42

by retroactively declaring that Olympias

5:44

had actually slept with the

5:46

god Zeus rather

5:48

than Philip to conceive Alexander. That

5:52

said, she endorsed that

5:54

story. Still,

5:56

Olympias stayed behind in

5:59

Macedon. while Alexander conquered

6:01

the Persian Empire. They

6:04

exchanged letters regularly, but Alex made

6:06

a point to keep her at

6:09

arm's length from actual political power.

6:12

That did not stop his

6:14

mother from trying to direct

6:16

domestic affairs herself, especially while

6:18

Antipater, the official regent, was

6:21

off in the south, defeating

6:23

the Spartan Uprising. So

6:25

this caused no shortage of strain

6:27

between the regent and the queen,

6:30

with both asking Alexander to

6:32

intercede on their behalf, and

6:35

Alexander mostly leaving them

6:38

to bicker about Macedonian

6:40

affairs themselves until 330,

6:43

when Olympias left Macedon to

6:45

rule directly in their vassal

6:47

kingdom of Epirus. Acting

6:51

as regent for her young cousin

6:53

after her brother, the Epirote

6:55

king died while campaigning in southern

6:57

Italy as part of an alliance

7:00

with a Greek city-state called

7:02

Taurus. All of

7:05

this, of course, with her son's

7:07

consent, but Alex

7:09

mostly seems to have been relieved

7:11

that his mother and regent would

7:13

stop fighting one another. Olympias

7:16

has a reputation for being

7:19

conniving and scheming. This

7:22

often plays into her background

7:24

as a semi-barbarian royal from

7:26

the far north of the

7:28

Greek world, who participated in

7:30

mystery cults and worshipped a

7:32

strange goddess associated with snakes.

7:36

This goddess was very likely

7:38

a local variant of Aphrodite

7:40

and or Ishtar, somewhere on

7:42

the Ishtar continuum of goddesses

7:44

that comes up every now

7:47

and then on this show.

7:50

Snakes were a routine part of

7:52

the iconography in that particular strain

7:55

of ancient religion. However,

7:57

aside from being one of

7:59

a dozen candidates for ordering

8:02

Philip's assassination, most

8:04

of Olympias's reputation was

8:06

earned later in life.

8:10

This is normally the part of the

8:12

episode where I do a brief run

8:14

through of the king's aunts, uncles, and

8:17

cousins, and I will

8:19

do some of that,

8:21

but Alexander's extended family

8:23

is absolutely massive.

8:27

Part of this is surely just

8:29

the result of better documentation for

8:32

the Macedonian royals at this time

8:34

than most points in the

8:37

Achaemenid family's history. However,

8:39

it's also a bit different from

8:42

Achaemenid history, in

8:44

that those extended family members

8:46

are usually relevant to the

8:48

main narrative later on, and

8:50

those relationships provide context for

8:53

their actions. That's

8:55

just not the case here. Most

8:59

of Alexander's stepmothers, aunts, uncles,

9:01

and cousins either drop off

9:03

the map when Alexander comes

9:05

to power, and

9:07

most histories leave Macedonian

9:09

affairs behind. Or

9:12

they remain relevant in Macedon,

9:14

but not in the history

9:16

of Persia. For

9:18

instance, it's not even clear whether

9:21

or not Philip II's first

9:23

wife, and thus one of

9:25

several stepmothers to Alexander, Aldata,

9:29

was even alive by the time

9:31

Alexander came to power, but

9:34

her daughter is at least interesting.

9:37

Cunane, daughter of

9:39

Aldata and Philip and half-sister

9:41

to Alexander the Great, was

9:44

initially married to Amentos IV.

9:48

Alexander's cousin, who was deposed by Philip

9:50

as an infant and allowed to grow

9:53

up under Philip's care, until

9:55

Alexander came to power, at

9:57

which point Amentos was executed

10:00

as a threat to Alexandrian authority.

10:03

Kunane would not remarry, but she

10:05

would seek out other, unconventional

10:08

avenues to power. She

10:11

became a military commander in Macedon

10:14

with her own regiment of soldiers

10:16

on the home front, and

10:19

not in a performative capacity

10:21

or just

10:23

as a strategic coordinator. Kunane

10:26

trained to fight with her men

10:29

from the front every bit as

10:31

much as her more famous half-brother,

10:34

even as she raised Eurydice, her

10:36

sole child by the late Amentus

10:39

IV. Just

10:42

log Kunane and

10:44

Eurydice in the backs of your

10:46

minds for the time being. Alexander

10:49

the Great did have one full

10:52

sister as well, and I apologize

10:54

for the names, but get used

10:56

to it. This

10:59

sister was Cleopatra. She

11:01

was married to… Alexander.

11:05

The First. Of Epiros.

11:08

She briefly assumed power after her husband

11:10

died in Italy in 334, until Olympios

11:12

arrived to

11:16

rule as regent, while

11:18

Cleopatra took over the duties of

11:20

a sort of High Priestess in

11:23

Melasia. We don't

11:25

know much about her time in

11:27

power over Epirus, aside from an

11:29

inscription from Cyrene in Libya, referencing

11:32

that she ordered a massive shipment

11:35

of grain and sold the rest

11:37

off to Corinth. Plutarch

11:39

also references how Alexander the Great sent

11:42

her a letter joking about how Cleopatra

11:44

was getting the most out of her

11:46

position while her husband was in Italy

11:49

by having an affair

11:51

with a handsome younger man. Also,

11:54

the boy Olympios and Cleopatra

11:56

were ruling in place of

11:58

was a distant cousin

12:01

named Ayakides, who

12:03

obviously was just a child at

12:06

this point, but will do a

12:08

little bit later on. Two

12:11

of Philip II's other

12:13

wives, Phila and Medha, are

12:17

historical non-entities, largely

12:19

recorded as just names in

12:21

the list. Nikkei

12:23

Sepolis, Philip's third

12:26

wife before Olympias, is basically

12:28

the same, but Nikkei

12:31

Sepolis' daughter Thessaloniki

12:34

is at least a bit

12:36

interesting. I don't quite

12:38

know why Nikkei Sepolis has the

12:40

word for city in her name,

12:43

but she was Thessalian, so

12:45

naming her daughter Victory of

12:47

Thessaly sort of makes sense.

12:51

The city of the same name does

12:53

not exist at this point in history,

12:56

or more accurately it's going by

12:58

a different name, but it

13:00

was eventually renamed in her

13:02

honor. Thessaloniki

13:05

was much younger than her famed

13:07

brother, just six or seven years

13:09

old when Alexander set out to

13:12

invade the Persian Empire. Alexander

13:15

notably did not arrange a

13:17

marriage for her at any

13:19

point, or direct Olympias

13:21

and Antipater to do so, possibly

13:24

in an attempt to limit the number

13:26

of people who could claim descent from

13:28

Philip II. According

13:31

to legends about Alexander the Great

13:33

that sprung up over the centuries,

13:36

Thessaloniki did not die, but

13:39

actually became a mermaid after

13:41

her brother's death because Alexander

13:43

had used her hair to

13:46

concoct a potion of immortality.

13:49

I will cover that in a

13:51

bonus episode at some point because

13:53

the Alexander romance is wild. Another

13:57

of Philip's wives, Philina is

14:01

even more of a historical

14:03

footnote than Nikesopolis, though

14:06

Philina's son, Eridaius,

14:09

is more important. Eridaius

14:12

was actually older than

14:14

Alexander, but he had

14:16

some kind of psychological

14:19

disability? It

14:22

wasn't extreme in any way. Eridaius

14:25

was able to participate in

14:27

Macedonian high society, but it

14:29

was enough that his father

14:32

decided that Eridaius wasn't fit

14:34

to succeed the throne, giving

14:37

that role to Alexander instead.

14:40

When Philip II tried

14:42

to arrange a marriage

14:44

pact between Eridaius and

14:46

the satrap king Pixodares

14:48

of Caria, Alexander

14:50

the Great intervened to make

14:52

sure that Eridaius wouldn't marry

14:55

and have a child before

14:57

Alexander himself could secure power.

15:00

So again, whatever disability

15:02

Eridaius struggled with, Alexander

15:05

and Philip didn't think it would

15:07

disrupt his ability to marry and

15:09

reproduce. It also

15:12

doesn't seem to have disrupted

15:14

Eridaius's ability to serve as

15:16

a military officer of some

15:18

sort. We don't

15:20

actually know where Alexander's most

15:22

prominent half-sibling was for most

15:24

of the Persian conquest, but

15:28

at this point, by the

15:30

time Alexander was planning his

15:32

next campaign, Eridaius had been summoned

15:34

to join his brother in Babylon.

15:37

Philip's final wife, Cleopatra

15:40

Eurydiki, not to be confused

15:42

with Cleopatra or

15:44

Eurydiki, featured prominently

15:47

in episode 105 because

15:49

that marriage sparked Olympias's

15:51

concern that Philip would

15:53

disenfranchise Alexander. Of

15:56

course, that did not happen, but it

15:58

also didn't stop Olympias. from

16:00

arranging Cleopatra Eurydice's

16:02

assassination, along with

16:04

her young son and infant daughter

16:07

when Alexander took the throne. That

16:11

brings us to Alexander's

16:13

romantic partners and possible

16:15

partners. Which we

16:17

will get into right after a quick

16:20

break. When

16:42

I was applying to grad school,

16:44

in just one visit to a

16:46

prospective department, my roommate and I

16:49

kept track of all the languages

16:51

we had been told we needed

16:53

to learn to study ancient Persia.

16:55

The final tally came to 27

16:58

relevant languages. As somebody

17:00

overwhelmed by Greek, Latin, and

17:02

the need to pick up

17:04

French and German, that was

17:06

a bit terrifying. Reading mostly

17:08

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17:10

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17:12

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17:15

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17:30

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17:37

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17:48

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17:50

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17:53

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17:57

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18:46

As I've noted several times, Alexander's

18:49

first wife was Roxane,

18:52

daughter of the Sogdian

18:54

warlord Aksiartes, and

18:56

really, we've already mentioned just about

18:59

everything there is to say on

19:02

the subject of Roxane at this point.

19:05

So just to recap, the

19:07

Lord of all Asia first encountered

19:09

his future bride when the Macedonian

19:12

army captured the fortress known only

19:14

as the Sogdian Rock. There,

19:16

Roxane and her sisters were hiding

19:19

out while their father

19:21

rebelled against the king. When

19:23

his daughters fell into Macedonian

19:26

hands, Aksiartes promptly surrendered, only

19:28

to be surprised when Alexander

19:30

proposed a marriage alliance in

19:33

the form of said Roxane.

19:36

This is usually portrayed as

19:38

astonishing to everyone except

19:40

Alexander himself. There

19:43

was little perceived value or

19:45

legitimacy to be gained in a

19:47

marriage pact to the middling

19:49

Sogdian nobility. The only

19:52

explanations are that Alexander genuinely

19:54

either found Roxane so physically

19:56

attractive that he had to

19:58

have her, or so

20:01

intriguing that he wanted to spend

20:03

all of his time with her. Or,

20:07

Sogdian resistance was significantly more formidable

20:09

than any of the sources would

20:11

actually have us believe, and this

20:14

marriage pact was necessary for settling

20:16

the conquest of that region. Regardless

20:19

of the truth, Roxana and

20:22

Alexander were promptly married after

20:24

the Sogdian revolt was fully

20:26

defeated. The new

20:28

imperial queen and her father

20:30

went on to travel with the

20:32

army all through the Indian campaign

20:34

and the crossing of the Gedrosian

20:36

desert. But she and

20:38

Alexander did not successfully conceive a

20:40

child until early 323 BCE, meaning

20:45

that she was pregnant while

20:47

Alexander prepared to invade Arabia.

20:50

A few months before Roxana became

20:52

pregnant, Alexander was also married to

20:54

two more women as

20:56

part of the massive wedding ceremony

20:59

at Susa, this time

21:01

to the expected candidates from

21:03

the Achaemenid dynasty, sealing his

21:05

legitimacy as ruler of the

21:07

former Persian Empire. First,

21:10

he married Statera the Younger, daughter

21:12

of his rival Darius III. Statera

21:16

had been in a sort of limbo

21:18

for years, first as a hostage after

21:20

being captured with most of her family

21:22

following the Battle of Issus. Then,

21:25

waiting around Iqbatina and Susa

21:27

while Alexander conquered the Eastern

21:30

Empire. The king had

21:32

always treated Statera cordially,

21:35

but he had never expressed much interest

21:37

in her as a marriage prospect prior

21:39

to their wedding, when the

21:41

political and social pressure of

21:43

consolidating his rule finally forced

21:46

him to make that match official. Alexander

21:49

also married Statera

21:51

the Younger, daughter of his

21:53

rival Darius III. Statera

21:56

had been in a sort of limbo

21:59

for years. first as a hostage

22:01

after being captured with most of her

22:03

family following the Battle of Issus, then

22:06

waiting around Iqbatina and Susa

22:08

while Alexander conquered the Eastern

22:11

Empire. The king had

22:13

always treated Statera cordially, but

22:16

he had never expressed much interest in

22:18

her as a marriage prospect prior to

22:20

their wedding, when the

22:22

political and social pressure of consolidating

22:25

his rule finally forced him

22:27

to make that match official. Alexander

22:31

also married Parasatus the Swahilt,

22:33

ironically making him husband to

22:36

both a Statera and a

22:38

Parasatus, setting up the ultimate

22:40

potential harem politics rematch in

22:42

Persian history. We

22:44

really don't know much about Parasatus

22:47

except that she was a daughter

22:49

of Artaxerxes III, and

22:51

that her marriage to Alexander would have

22:54

secured his place as heir to that

22:56

side of the Achaemenid family as well.

23:00

Given the dubious nature of

23:02

Darius III's succession in the

23:04

first place, and the fact

23:06

that Statera was born before

23:09

her father became king, this

23:11

would have been an especially

23:13

important political union with Parasatus

23:16

II, securing both the Porphyra

23:18

Geniture and Primogeniture camps in

23:20

Achaemenid succession politics through both

23:22

of Alexander's new wives. However,

23:26

that is probably not

23:29

the full extent of

23:31

Alexander's sexual liaisons. Of

23:34

course, Alexander spent the first 29 years

23:37

of his life unmarried, a

23:40

relatively long time for a

23:42

crown prince turned warrior king,

23:45

especially with his father's vast

23:47

harem as a precedent. However,

23:50

this doesn't necessarily mean that

23:52

Alexander was totally inexperienced before

23:55

he met Roxane. There

23:58

are three women that feature in stories

24:00

of Alexandrian premarital sex.

24:04

Plutarch and the Roman romantic

24:06

biographer Ilean both claim that

24:08

Alexander had brief affairs, or

24:10

at least encounters, with women

24:12

when he was still a

24:14

prince. Plutarch just

24:17

briefly references that Alexander slept

24:19

with a musician, probably

24:21

an enslaved woman from the

24:23

household of another Macedonian noble.

24:26

Ilean claims that Prince Alexander

24:29

carried on a brief affair

24:31

with an older noblewoman named

24:33

Campaspé from the city of

24:35

Larissa, who initiated their

24:37

short relationship. Then

24:40

we have Barcine, daughter

24:43

of Satrap Artibazos II

24:45

of Hellespontine Phrygia and

24:47

later of Bactria, during

24:50

his exile in the Macedonian

24:52

court. Philip II

24:55

initially tried to arrange a

24:57

marriage between Barcine and Alexander

24:59

before her family returned to

25:01

the Persian Empire, and

25:03

she married her uncle, Mentor of

25:06

Rhodes, who eventually went on to

25:08

be a naval thorn in Alexander's

25:10

side during the conquest of Anatolia.

25:13

Like Parasatus and Statera, Barcine

25:16

was captured after the Battle

25:18

of Issus. However,

25:22

unlike all of the other Persian

25:24

noblewomen captured in that raid, there

25:27

was a persistent rumor in

25:29

antiquity that Alexander went on

25:31

to have sex with Barcine

25:33

while he campaigned through the

25:35

Levant. The sources don't

25:37

really comment on whether or not

25:39

that would have been a consensual,

25:42

relighting and old flame sort of

25:44

relationship, or not. Claiming

25:47

Barcine as a spoil of war,

25:49

so to speak. However,

25:52

most modern historians doubt that it

25:54

happened at all, and the whole

25:56

affair is likely a rumor propagated

25:58

by the Roman Empire. Barcine

26:00

herself in later years. I

26:04

mentioned this in the last

26:06

episode, but Barcine supposedly already

26:08

had a son named Heracles

26:10

living in the Anatolian city of

26:12

Pergamon when she was married to

26:14

Néarcus at Susa. She

26:17

would later claim that Heracles

26:19

was the illegitimate son of

26:21

Alexander. However, this

26:23

son was also about 16 years

26:26

old at the time, meaning that

26:28

he would have been born 4 years

26:31

before Alexander set foot in

26:33

Asia, let alone captured

26:35

Barcine. These

26:37

stories and theories of the Lord

26:40

of all Asia's sexuality are also

26:42

not limited to women. Alexander

26:45

is occasionally portrayed as having

26:47

a relationship with the young

26:49

Persian eunuch Bagowus, who

26:52

had been a court functionary under

26:54

Darius III and fell

26:56

into Alexander's orbit once the

26:59

Macedonians seized Babylon. In

27:01

some interpretations Bagowus was also

27:03

a lover of Darius before

27:06

meeting Alexander. However,

27:09

as intriguing as some of

27:11

the fictional stories written about

27:13

Bagowus can be, including his

27:16

portrayal in Oliver Stone's Alexander,

27:19

there's not really much information

27:21

out there about the eunuch.

27:25

He supposedly interceded with Alexander

27:27

on behalf of Nabarzenes, the

27:29

chief Persian cavalry commander captured

27:32

by the Macedonians at the

27:34

Caspian Gate. But

27:37

more importantly, Curtius describes

27:39

Bagowus as Alexander's Eramanos,

27:43

the younger partner in

27:45

a Greek-petarastic relationship. Most

27:49

descriptions of Bagowus would plant him

27:51

in his mid-teens at the time

27:54

he met Alexander, and

27:56

Curtius' use of Eramanos is

27:58

the most expl- implicit indication

28:01

of Alexander having a sexual

28:04

relationship with another masculine person

28:07

in any of our main sources.

28:10

It should be noted that Baguaas

28:12

does not appear at all in

28:15

most of the major sources on

28:17

Alexander's life. If

28:19

you believe Kurtius, there was no

28:21

doubt about the tenor of their

28:24

relationship though. Most

28:26

famously, Baguaas had endeared himself to

28:28

the Macedonian soldiers while traveling with

28:31

the army all the way from

28:33

Babylon to Bactria to India, and

28:36

he performed in a dancing competition

28:38

to lift everyone's spirits while crossing

28:41

the Gedrosian desert. According

28:44

to Plutarch, Alexander declared Baguaas

28:46

the victor, and came

28:49

down from his throne to the

28:51

assembled soldiers chanting, kiss

28:53

him, kiss him, before kissing

28:55

Baguaas as a reward. Finally,

28:59

there's the controversial subject

29:01

of the moment. Thanks,

29:04

Netflix. I promised

29:06

to review that particular bit of schlock

29:08

as soon as it's no longer relevant,

29:11

and I can find it in me to start caring

29:13

about it. So

29:15

let's talk about Hephaistion. Of

29:19

course, he died in the last episode,

29:21

but no accounting of

29:23

Alexander's personal relationships could be complete

29:26

without him. I've

29:28

mentioned several times before how there

29:30

is a common and popular theory

29:32

that Alexander and Hephaistion were lovers.

29:36

One thing is beyond doubt. Hephaistion

29:40

was Alexander's closest personal

29:42

friend. They

29:44

were educated together by Aristotle and

29:47

Macedon alongside many of the most

29:49

prominent noble youths in the kingdom.

29:53

But Hephaistion, above all

29:55

others, became Alexander's personal

29:57

confidant. He was head

29:59

of the kingdom. King's personal bodyguard, a major

30:02

commander in his own right. He

30:05

was the person accompanying Alexander when

30:07

he met the Persian royal women,

30:10

and at Alexander's side through

30:12

every major event, war council,

30:14

and trial they faced in

30:16

their many conquests. He

30:19

was named Kiliarch, second in command

30:22

of the whole empire, after

30:24

returning from Gedrosia. When

30:28

Hephaestion encouraged changes in

30:30

policy, Alexander listened, a

30:33

stark contract to the many

30:35

nobles who found themselves executed

30:37

or just outright murdered for

30:39

questioning the king. He

30:42

was one of the first nobles

30:44

to voice support for Alexander's marriage

30:46

to Roxane, and Alexander

30:48

had Hephaestion marry Drupetis,

30:50

younger daughter of Darius III,

30:53

specifically so that Alexander would have

30:55

a legal family connection as an

30:58

uncle to their future children, even

31:01

though that never came to pass. Alexander's

31:05

grief at Hephaestion's death described in

31:07

Episode 120 should demonstrate their

31:11

uniquely close bond clearly enough

31:13

on its own, but

31:15

were they lovers. I

31:18

want to start by addressing the two least

31:21

controversial points. Hephaestion

31:24

was given the title

31:26

slash epithet Philalexandros

31:29

by Alexander himself. This

31:32

literally means lover of

31:34

Alexander. As much

31:37

as I'd like for that to be

31:39

case closed, the ancient

31:41

Greek word phylos meaning lover

31:43

is a bit more complicated

31:46

than just that. It

31:49

was used by some ancient

31:51

writers to describe homosexual relationships.

31:54

However it was also a pretty

31:56

common way to describe an obsession,

31:59

dedication. or simple

32:01

interest in a particular subject. The

32:05

most common version of this

32:07

was Hellenophile, meaning

32:09

lover of Greece or lover of

32:11

the Greeks, used

32:13

to describe foreigners with an interest

32:15

in Greek culture. We

32:18

still do this today with all sorts

32:20

of words for that very reason. For

32:23

instance, I'm currently summoning all

32:26

of my self-control and dignity not

32:29

to make a jost about what

32:31

a lover of podcasts would be.

32:35

Which version was meant

32:37

by Hephaestion Phil Alexandros?

32:40

We don't know. It could have

32:42

been both. The other

32:45

uncontroversial point is that both

32:47

the sources and Alexander as

32:50

described by them routinely

32:52

compare Alexander and Hephaestion

32:55

to Achilles and Patroclus

32:57

in the Greek epic the Iliad.

33:01

You'll find very few scholars,

33:03

either historians or Homericists

33:05

today, who deny the

33:07

sexual element of Achilles

33:09

and Patroclus's relationship in

33:12

the Greek epic cycle. Basically

33:15

none who aren't blatantly homophobic

33:17

in general. Admittedly,

33:19

this isn't made obvious in the

33:22

Iliad as we know it today,

33:25

but the Iliad was just one

33:27

part of a larger tradition in

33:29

antiquity and this was

33:32

the very common interpretation back then

33:34

when people knew all of the

33:36

stories as a baseline of popular

33:38

culture. Was

33:40

Alexander invoking that aspect

33:43

of Achilles and Patroclus

33:45

in his comparisons to

33:47

Hephaestion? I think

33:49

so, but it is not clear-cut. Onto

33:53

the more heavily debated

33:55

aspect of things, there

33:57

are several more explicit

33:59

references to Alexander and

34:01

Hephaestion in ancient literature,

34:04

such as Lucian of Samosada,

34:06

a contemporary of Arian living

34:08

in Roman Syria, who

34:11

describes how Hephaestion spent all

34:13

night in Alexander's tent, or

34:16

a papyrus fragment of unclear

34:19

origin that suggests that Alexander

34:22

would yield to no opponent

34:24

except for Hephaestion's thighs. However,

34:29

Lucian was a satirist known

34:32

for a comedic writing

34:34

style, and most similar references

34:36

are just that. References

34:39

in larger works on mostly

34:42

unrelated topics from less historical

34:45

oriented sources. It

34:48

very clearly shows that ancient

34:50

people thought Alexander and

34:52

Hephaestion might have had a

34:55

sexual relationship as well. This

34:57

is not a modern theory. That

35:00

said, anybody arguing against their

35:02

relationship on the basis that

35:04

those sources are very late

35:08

is at best horribly

35:10

uninformed and should not

35:12

be taken seriously. As

35:15

I have pointed out repeatedly,

35:17

all of the sources for

35:20

Alexander come from centuries after

35:22

his death. That

35:24

doesn't mean anything one way or

35:26

the other. On

35:28

one hand, there was much

35:31

less stigma about homosexuality in

35:33

ancient Greece and West Asia

35:35

than in the modern Christianized

35:38

or Islamicized world. On

35:41

the other hand, there were still

35:43

sexual politics and social conventions

35:45

at the time. For

35:48

instance, being the receiving partner

35:50

was seen as somewhat shameful,

35:53

a role fit only for servants

35:55

and prostitutes. Both of

35:58

the men in question here were powerful. nobles,

36:01

so neither Alexander nor Hephaestion

36:03

could really have bragged about

36:05

that without one of them

36:07

being taken less seriously. That

36:11

said, that stigma about being

36:13

a bottom or a top was

36:15

developed more in Rome than in

36:18

Greece. Then again,

36:20

who in their right mind would

36:23

have mocked Alexander the Great and

36:25

his best friend in a

36:27

context where either of them might find

36:29

out about it? Alexander

36:32

murdered men in cold blood for

36:34

less. So

36:36

what's the conclusion here? Personally,

36:39

I think Alexander

36:41

and Hephaestion were probably romantically

36:44

and sexually involved with one

36:46

another. It

36:48

was a widespread enough idea in

36:50

antiquity when all of the primary

36:53

sources were still in circulation, and

36:56

the reasons for downplaying it in

36:58

the major sources are pretty obvious.

37:02

Most of our sources today come from the

37:04

Roman period, when

37:06

there was a greater level of

37:09

shame in the ambiguity of their

37:11

relationship. It is entirely

37:13

possible that the actual primary

37:15

sources had more specific details

37:17

and people didn't like that

37:19

part, so they were left

37:21

out of these later summaries.

37:25

That is certainly the implication

37:27

in the yield to Hephaestion's

37:30

thighs, Papyrus. That

37:33

said, the evidence

37:35

is ultimately inconclusive. We

37:38

can't actually say for sure that

37:41

these two were

37:43

more than extremely close friends. I

37:46

do think it does a disservice

37:48

to both history and popular understanding

37:50

of relationships, especially male

37:53

relationships, to frame all such

37:55

close friendships as sexual. Alexander

37:59

and Hephaestion, do remain

38:01

in the realm of speculation, but

38:04

again, very well

38:07

supported speculation. And

38:10

if you follow the story of

38:12

Alexander and Bagowitz, their

38:14

relationship is made perfectly

38:16

explicit by Quintus Curtius.

38:19

Unfortunately, without children of his own

38:21

at this point, that

38:23

brings the discussion of Alexander's family

38:26

to a close. Join

38:29

me next time for a brief return to

38:31

the narrative, as our story

38:33

reaches a fever pitch. Until

38:36

then, if you

38:38

want more information about this

38:41

podcast, you can go to

38:43

historyofpersiapodcast.com. That's

38:46

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38:48

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38:51

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so much for listening, too. The

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