Greek Cultural Minister Lina Mendoni is outraged by U.S. streaming service Netflix’s take on Alexander the Great with its new show “The Making of a God.” The Greek minister of culture is upset that Alexander the Great — one of the most prominent figures in ancient history — is portrayed as homosexual, along with his main friend in the show.
An opinion piece in the Greek daily Eleftheros Typos had already been published earlier, saying that this was a “distortion of the truth.” In the article, Oliver Stone’s 2004 film Alexander was blamed for “launching a propaganda campaign about Alexander the Great’s homosexuality.”
Dimitris Natsios, the president of the right-wing Niki party, called the series “deplorable, unacceptable and unhistorical” and said the film aims to subliminally convey the idea — without any basis — that homosexuality was acceptable in ancient times.
Natsis also asked Mendoni what he thought about all this. The culture minister said the series is full of historical inaccuracies, which “shows the negligence of the director and the lack of quality of the script.”
“There is no mention in the sources that this friendship goes beyond the boundaries of friendship as defined by Aristotle,” said Mendoni.
Asked by Nathosios whether the Greek government would take action against Netflix over this, Mendoni said that “such a move would be unconstitutional. Greece’s constitution has protected artistic freedom since the early 19th century.”
“The Ministry of Culture does not censor, prosecute, ban, manipulate, restrict or control the dissemination of information and ideas in a preventive, punitive or repressive way,” added Mendoni, according to The Guardian.
Last Thursday, the Greek parliament passed a bill allowing same-sex civil marriage. It was the first country with an Orthodox Christian majority to do so.
