Apparently some people are upset about the new movie about Alexander the Great.
ATHENS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A group of Greek lawyers are threatening to sue Warner Bros film studios and Oliver Stone, director of the widely anticipated film "Alexander," for suggesting Alexander the Great was bisexual.
The lawyers have already sent an extrajudicial note to the studio and director demanding they include a reference in the title credits saying his movie is a fictional tale and not based on official documents of the life of the Macedonian ruler.
Putting aside, for the moment, that I can't for the life of me think of what grounds there might be for such a suit, to say nothing of the difficulty of finding someone with standing to bring it, these Greek lawyers may be forgetting something: Alexander wasn't Greek. He was Macedonian.
Now it's true that he had Greek tutors and that much of his army was made up of Greek soldiers, but that was largely because his father, Philip of Macedon, had conquered most of Greece and consolidated it into his kingdom.
Of course, over the ages forgetting this little bit of history has been a national Greek past time. (As far as I can tell. I could be wrong, but I've seen lots of instances over the years of Greeks writing and talking about Alexander as if he was Greek.) I guess when there's a king who ruled most of the known world in your history, it's easier to think of your country being his home than it being a mere vassal.
Update: Josh Claybourn takes a look at the underlying facts about Alexander. My vague recollection is that there's slightly more evidence about Alexander's possible bi-sexuality than Josh thinks, but it's been ten years since I've studied the subject and I wasn't that interested at the time so I'll defer to him on this.
Recent Comments