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<CENTER>Alexander the Great

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Alexander was born on 356B.C. He

was born in Pella the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son

of Philip II, king of Macedonia, and of Olimpias, a princess of

Epirus. His tutor was Aristotle, who trained him in rhetoric

and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine

and philosophy.

Unfortunately in the summer of 336

B.C. his father was assassinated and he ascended to the Macedainian

throne. Also unfortunate was that by that time he found his empire

in disorder. He had enemies all over, in home and people threatening

rebellion abroad. He did quickly deal with this by killing all

of the threats and restoring order to his small empire. Then

he restored order to Thessaly which had attempted independence.

Before the end of summer he had reestablished his position in

Greece and was elected by a congress of states at Corinth.

In 335B.C. as general of the Greeks

in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his

father, he carried out a successful campaign against the defeating

Thracains, penetrating to the Danube River. On his return he

crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then hastened

to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and

razed it, sparing only the temples of the gods and the houses

of the Greek lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving inhabitants,

about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander's promptness in

crushing the revolt of Thebes brought the other Greek states into

instant and abject submission.

As you can see Alexander had started

his way to being a great and powerful ruler. It is said that

while visiting Athens to seal a pact, Alexander visited the Oracle

at Delphi, despite it being a day when prophecy was forbidden

. In his attempts to drag the priestess to the place where she

gave her Oracles, she screamed:

"My son, you are invincible!"

That was apparently all he needed

to hear and in the spring of 334 he departed to Asia.

Near the point of his death he begin

to believe he was a god so he begin to tell his people that he

was descend from Hercules by printing coins that had them both

on them. His mother also told him that a serpent had impregnated

her rather then his father adding to his thoughts that he was

a god. also before his death he had some of his cities worship

him as a god.

His death is still shrouded in mystery

to this day. It does seem hard to believe that a 33 year old

man could one day out of the blue just die. Modern historians

have tried to piece together what happened.

Something of defiant interest is

the theory that Alexander the Great may possibly have been gay.

Although he did have a wife and a son and it is likely that he

slept with women. The 1956 epic film showed his life more as

an asexual though, him being so busy he never had the time for

women. This is a misconception, for it is generally accepted

that he had a preference for men. Unfortunately, he did not have

many lovers and the ones he did have never spoke about it.

Hephaestion was, by far, Alexander's

closest friend. They were notorious for spending lots of time

together, philosophizing on life, sharing ideas and discussing

the future. When his mother Olympias once sent Hephaestion an

angry note, he replied, " Stop quarreling with me; not that

in any case I should care. You know Alexander means more to me

then anyone." Whether this was a physical relationship was

never documented. However, according to Mary Renult, "In

spite of Homer's reticence, classical Greece assumed the heroes'

love to be sexual."

It is important to consider Alexander's

relationship with his mother, Olympias, as affecting his sexuality.

It is widely thought that Alexander had an Oedipal attraction

to his mother. As a child, he saw his parents' relationship deteriorate

as they became virtual enemies to each other. Philip had many

concubines and eventually married one of them. Naturally, this

left a great impression on the young boy, stuck in the middle

of the feud, and it was only natural that he identified with his

mother. Mary Renault remarks that, " for Alexander, his

father's constant absences on campaign, combined with his mother's

possessive love, made this a certainty." So great a bond

was formed with his mother, that it may have prevented other women

from entering his life.

Most of Alexander's life was either

his boyhood when he was being tutored or his manhood when he was

campaigning far from home in other lands. He took control of

almost the entire known world and most of his people and troops

believed him to be godlike and invincible.

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