XXX (imported) wrote: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:24 pm
I haven't seen 'Alexander', I hear it is pretty bad. Furthermore, I'm no fan of Oliver Stone.
But upon reading Entertainment Weekly's review of the 'Alexander' dvd, they said Stone says something in the the director's commentary to the effect of "it'll be a long time before eunuchs will be treated like normal people".
Apart from that comment, were there any eunuch characters in this movie?
Slaves? Prisoners sexually tortured? If not, apart from not hearing his own words, I wonder if this is an off the cuff statement of his (perhaps Stone is a eunuch himself).
I'm not familiar with the Alexander the Great story, but where did eunchs fit into it?
The problem with Stone's Alexander is that he took one of the most interesting historical characters and made a boring movie about him.
Bagoas, a eunuch, probably a teenaged boy, was one of the Persian King Darius' concubines. He was one of the spoils of war Alexander acquired when he conquered Darius. He's depicted in the movie in a couple of scenes, once dancing for Alexander. Stone hinted in the movie that more was going on between Alexander and Bagoas.
Another great love of Alexanders life was the eunuch Bagoas. The two met while Alexander was on campaign against king Darius of the Persians. The war had raged for some time, with Darius finally on the run and deserted by his vassals, finally to be assassinated by one of his own men. His general, Nabarzenes, went to swear fealty to Alexander, and to offer rich gifts, among which the beautiful boy. Curtius describes him as, "... Bagoas, a eunuch exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate," [VI.5.23] The stormy, outspoken character of the boy matched his stunning looks, and the friendship which grew between him and the warrior king was to last the rest of their lives.
Alexander saw to it that his darling was well provided. As Eumenes recounts, the king installed Bagoas in a villa outside of Babylon and required all his officers and courtesans, both Greek and Persian, to render him honors (i.e. to present him with rich gifts). They all did but one, the faithful satrap Orsines, who claimed that he had come "to honor the friends of Alexander, not his whores," and that "it was not the custom of the Persians to take males in marriage who had been turned into women for the sake of being fucked." Enraged, the young Bagoas wrought Orsines' destruction by means of endless calumnies, rousing Alexander's mind to anger until he condemned the man. Still not satisfied with his handiwork, Bagoas struck Orsines as he was being led off to execution, who turned and said "I had heard that women once reigned in Asia; this however is something new, for a eunuch to reign!" [Curtius, X.1.22]
Alexanders favor to Bagoas is also apparent in his subsequent appointment of Bagoas as one of the trierarchs, men of substance who oversaw and funded the construction of the navy for the journey homeward. Their affair is attested to by many historians of the time, among whom Plutarch, who recounts an episode suggesting that the love between the two was common knowledge among the troops. As Plutarch would have it, after a dancing contest in which Bagoas had won the honors, he went to sit by the side of the king. which so pleased the Macedonians that they shouted out for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander took him in his arms and kissed him warmly.[Plutarch, The Lives]
Alexander the Great (
http://www.androphile.org/preview/Libra ... xander.htm)