Marilyn B. Skinner, Professor Emerita of Classics, University of Arizona
Wednesday, April 24, 2024,
2:30pm – 3:30pm,
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
In addition to his deserved reputation as one of the ancient world’s most influential military leaders, Alexander the Great has been celebrated as a “gay icon” in popular culture. But is that representation of him historically accurate?
In this presentation, Dr. Marilyn Skinner will acquaint us with the biographical details of Alexander’s career and evaluate what is reported about his relationships with wives and male companions in the light of the protocols of classical Greek masculinity as we know them from fifth- and fourth-century BCE Athenian evidence. We will find that Alexander adhered to those protocols to a certain extent, but in one crucial way he, like his hero Achilles, did not conform to them at all.
Marilyn Skinner is a retired professor of Greek and Latin literature and Roman history. After receiving her doctorate in Classics from Stanford University, she taught in the foreign language program at Northern Illinois University and in Classics programs at Reed College, UCLA, Colgate University, and the University of Texas at Austin before coming to the University of Arizona as Department Head of Classics. Her publications include articles and books on the Roman poets Catullus and Vergil and on ancient gender and sexuality. In 2018 she retired and moved to Academy Village, where she has presented several earlier talks on aspects of antiquity.
Compiled and edited by Rosemary Brown, Academy Village Volunteer
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