Let's put it this way. Achilles and Patroclus do not have to be gay. There are multiple readings of the text in that case, and that was certainly not the biggest textual error in a movie to which textual error was a term which could not rationally be applied (since "text" was apparently something they'd never heard of). But as I understand it, most ancient and modern scholars are more or less in agreement that Alexander had sex with one or more male humans. In this society, we identify that with something we call "homosexuality", or "being gay". That concept the way we understand it is only tentatively applicable to ancient Greece. If you're asking if Alexander has to have some kind of sexual feelings towards another male human, then I'd say yes, to be true to any kind of historical model, he does. If you're asking if he has to hang out at gay bars, have impeccable fashion sense, and join a Pride parade, I'd say probably not.
I'm not looking forward to this either. Maybe I will actually get the Classics department to have an outing to see it, however, which would make it all worthwhile somehow. Mainly because my faculty advisor has the most amazingly contagious laughter. |
