Greeceâs minister for culture has criticised a Netflix drama-documentary about Alexander the Great as âextremely poor-quality fictionâ and âlow content, rife with historical inaccuracies.â
Lina Mendoniâs comments about Alexander: The Making of a God come amid a furore over the showâs depiction of a romantic relationship between Alexander the Great and his confidant and friend Hephaestion. In Greece, an opinion piece in Eleftheros Typos called the show âa distortion of the truthâ and blamed Oliver Stoneâs 2004 film Alexander for starting âa propaganda campaign about Alexanderâs homosexualityâ.
Dimitris Natsiou, the president of the Christian Orthodox, far-right political party Niki, called the series âdeplorable, unacceptable and unhistoricalâ and said it aimed to âsubliminally convey the notion that homosexuality was acceptable in ancient times, an element that has no basisâ.
Asked in parliament about the show by Natsiou, Mendoni said it was âreplete with historical inaccuracies, demonstrates the directorâs sloppiness and poverty of scenarioâ.
On the showâs depiction of the relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion, Mendoni said: âThere is no mention in the sources that it goes beyond the limits of friendship, as defined by Aristotle.
âBut you will know that the concept of love in antiquity is broad and multidimensional. We cannot interpret either practices or persons who acted 2,300 years ago by our own measures, our own norms and assumptions. Alexander the Great, for 2,300 years, has never needed, nor does he need now, the intervention of any unsolicited protector of his historical memory or, even more, of his personality and moral standing.â
When Natsiou asked whether the government would take action against Netflix, Mendoni said such a move would be unconstitutional. Greeceâs constitution has protected freedom of art since the early 19th century.
âThe ministry of culture does not exercise censorship, does not carry out actions that result in prosecution or ban, does not manipulate, does not limit, does not control the dissemination of information and ideas neither preventively nor repressively,â Mendoni said.
âThe inspiration of artists, personal interpretation, and the judgment of individuals cannot, evidently, be subjected to a regulatory regime and control, nor can it be governed by the courts or dragged into them. Instead, it is assessed and judged by each of us, by the international community. This is how Netflix is also evaluated.â
The nature of the relationship between the Macedonian king and his general has long been speculated on. What is not debated is that Alexander and Hephaestion were intimate friends from childhood, and were often likened to Achilles and Patroclus by their contemporaries.
âSame-sex relationships were quite the norm throughout the Greek world,â Prof Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, of Cardiff University in Wales, says in the first episode of Alexander: The Making of a God. âThe Greeks did not have a word for homosexuality, or to be gay. It just wasnât in their vocabulary whatsoever. There was just being sexual.â
The controversy mirrors a similar one in Egypt last year, when the Egyptian antiquities ministry published a lengthy statement criticising Netflixâs decision to cast a Black actor as Cleopatra in the drama-documentary Queen Cleopatra.
