“Alexander the Great”
Netflix series is harshly attacked in Greece
Buck Braithwaite as the title character in “Alexander the Great: How He Became a God.”
© Netflix
Was Alexander the Great gay? There is a dispute in Greece about this question based on a Netflix documentary series.
The documentary series “Alexander the Great: How he became a god” has just started on Netflix – and criticism is already hailing from Greece about the treatment of the legendary general. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni (60) described the format according to media reports as “fiction of extremely poor quality”. The series, which combines expert interviews with game scenes, is “poor in content and full of historical inaccuracies.”
The main bone of contention is Alexander’s relationship with his bodyguard and friend Hephaestion. It is portrayed in the documentary series as a homosexual relationship. Dimitris Natsiou, head of the right-wing Niki party, called “Alexander the Great” “unfortunate, unacceptable and unhistorical.” According to the politician, it is intended to “give a subliminal impression that homosexuality was acceptable in ancient times, an element that has no basis.”
A comment from the Greek newspaper “Eleftheros Typos” takes the same line. He accuses the series of representing a political agenda that Hollywood director Oliver Stone (77) started with his film “Alexander” (2004). The work, starring Colin Farrell (47), initiated a “propaganda campaign about Alexander’s homosexuality”.
No ban: Minister of Culture defends artistic freedom
However, there will be no ban on the Netflix format. Lina Mendoni made this clear in parliament when Niki asked. Despite her criticism of the series, she defended the freedom of art.
“There is no mention in the sources that it goes beyond the boundaries of friendship as defined by Aristotle,” she said of the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion. To Niki’s representatives, she noted: “You will know that the concept of love in ancient times is broad and multidimensional. We cannot compare the practices or the people who acted 2,300 years ago with our own standards, ours interpret your own norms and assumptions.”
Alexander’s homosexuality is controversial
In fact, in 2,300 years, Alexander the Great never needed anyone “to protect his reputation and his memory,” the politician affirmed.
In historical scholarship, the question of Alexander’s homosexual relationship with his closest confidant is controversial. There was no word for homosexuality in ancient Greece, notes an expert in “Alexander the Great: How He Became a God.”
Netflix had already faced headwinds for a series about another ancient great. In “Queen Cleopatra” about the Egyptian pharaoh, there was criticism of the casting of a black actress; “blackwashing” was the keyword here. There are similar debates about the planned Netflix film “Hannibal”, in which the African American Denzel Washington (68) will portray the general from Carthage in what is now Tunisia.