#Alexander the great the making of a god

[spectres-fulcrum]

I need to sleep but can confirm right off the bat the Alexander The Great docuseries was like this guy was gay and dating his best friend.

Complete with a sweet make out in the lake that Ptolomy ruined. They started perhaps aptly with the trio leaving exile after that year Alex was exiled.

(The summaries confirmed what episode was the Battle of Issus, they did the Alexander meets Darius' family scene super weirdly and pretended Darius had only a daughter and a wife when it was his wife, two daughters, son, and mom and they weren't threatening him. Alexander promised to treat them nicely. They butchered the He Too Is Alexander line. Very Weird as it's one of the big events.

I've written entire stories from Drypetis' pov so the Persian Royal family is something I I feel strongly about. )

[isabellaofparma]

Besides, you'll be by my side, right? Till the bitter end.

Alexander the Great and Hephaestion in Alexander: The Making of a God (2024)

[hephaestn]

Ptolemy tired of thirdwheeling Alexander and Hephaestion in Episode 1: The Boy King

Alexander: The Making of a God (Netflix, 2024)

[patroclusdefencesquad]

VINDICATION!!

[swftmoony]

why is everyone obsessed over romeo and juliet when the holy trinity of gay tragic lovers exits!? like alexander the great, achilles and apollo didn’t lose hephaestion, patroclus and hyacinthus for everyone to forget about them!! like they’re the same but one is a myth, the other is a book, and the one that was real

[your-name-is-jim]

Interviewer: Are you very fond of Alexander? Gene Roddenberry: As a matter of fact, I am. I have Mary Renault's new Oxford book―in fact, I'd have everything in the bookstores a few years ago. Passionate admirer of Alexander. Passionate man. [...] Interviewer: There's a great deal of writing in the STAR TREK movement now which compares the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to the relationship between Kirk and Spock―focusing on the closeness of the friendship, the feeling that they would die for one another― Gene Roddenberry: Yes. There's certainly some of that with―certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal―we never suggested in the series―physical love between the two. But it's the―we certainly had the feeling the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style in the 23rd Century. [He looks thoughtful] That's very interesting. I never thought of that before. [From Shatner: Where No Man (1979)]

Sooo I watched the new docuseries Alexander: The Making of a God and I was hit by indirect Kirk/Spock feelings because I remembered this interview. And of course I had to make a gifset about it. :)

[siriusly-amazing]

Hephaestion trying to convince Alexander to go back to Macedonia is Patroclus trying to convince Achilles not to go to war.

[toastytrusty]

i'm not the only one who watched that new alexander the great series and completely absolutely irrevocably hyperfixated on hephaestion and alexander right... right......

[strategist-scientia]

Hephaestion must be rolling in his 2,348-year-old grave knowing that he's the cause of homophobic dudebros crying on twitter rn 🤭

[violetcancerian]

I apologize for the person I'm going to become with the new Alexander the Great documentary on Netflix

But also as a history major with an interest in queerness in ancient history, I do not apologize

[tiny-librarian]

"What Alexander the Great accomplishes, seems like something out of myth....and yet he did it."

[jeannereames]

So you said you hoped they didn't use those nicknames, Alex, Heph, and Ptol. I thought Heph was a little weird, but I didn't mind the others. What nicknames would you have suggested instead? You said you suggested Greek ones. What were they?

Ah.... I'm glad somebody asked!

First, I've talked HERE about nicknames and endearments in ancient Greece. It's not the same as now. Not every culture makes nicknames by shortening. Yet even in my own novels I used nicknames to make unfamiliar names more accessible to readers.

So I get why nicknames might be valuable. But it's possible to use more likely ones!

What would be natural Greek nicknames? First, the names we know them by are Latinized, not their real names. In Dancing with the Lion I used the actual Greek, because it affected only a few and weren't that different. But here are the Latin, Greek, and known/likely nicknames.

Alexander = Alexandros (a-LEX-an-dros) = Aleko(s)

Ptolemy = Ptolemaios (tol-eh-MAI-os) = Ptolas

Hephaestion = Hephaistion (he-pais-TEE-on) = Phaistas/Phaiton

"Alex" and "Tol" aren't that far off. But "Heph"? Really? HUGH HEFNER is who immediately comes to mind: give him a pipe and a smoking robe. Maybe they thought "young people won't know..." but chatting with a 23-year-old student, that was the first thing she said. "It sounds like Hugh Hefner."

Virtually all I've heard from people is ridicule for the nicknames. This is one thing I completely disavow all responsibility for. I told them.

[isabellaofparma]

"But the fates of death await us. So we either give our enemy glory…" "Or win it for ourselves."

Alexander the Great and Hephaestion in Alexander: The Making of a God (2024)

[hephaestn]

Alexander and Hephaestion in Episode 1: The Boy King

Alexander: The Making of a God (Netflix, 2024)

[spectres-fulcrum]

Nooooo they did the visit to Achilles shrine and did the Alexander/Achilles stuff but didn't highlight Patroclus or Hephaestion as his Patroclus in any way shape or form. They even had Alexander go "Ptol(emy) should be here" and I was like um no.

Cause it was not a simple pilgrimage of worship. It was was two men who deeply loved each other and saw their deep love and deep friendship in these men who lived and loved so long before them-and they also believed was related to Alexander.

Ptolemy would not have made since to be included in that scene as he would've ruined the purpose of including Hephaestion

This thing. I like it on it's own(LOVE, like utterly obsessed, with the differences between Persia and Macedon, Memnon's intro scene was fantastic) but my teenage self is screaming "Inaccurate! Pause so we can check that! What about XYZ?"

[small-bambi]

“The Greeks did not have a word for homosexuality, or to be gay. It just wasn't in their vocabulary whatsoever. There was just being sexual.”

- Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of Cardiff, University in Wales (Alexander: The Making of a God)