Bagoas (courtier)

For other uses, see Bagoas (disambiguation)

Bagoas (in Old Persian Bagoi) was a eunuch in the Persian Empire in the 4th Century BCE, said to have been the catamite of Darius III, and later the Eromenos (Beloved) of Alexander the Great.

The Famous Kiss

According to Plutarch, Bagoas, beloved of Alexander, won a dancing contest after the crossing of the Gedrossian Desert. The troops, with whom Bagoas was very popular, demanded Alexander kiss Bagoas, and he did so.

Fictionalized versions

• Bagoas is the narrator and title character of The Persian Boy, the historical novel by Mary Renault, which portrays him sympathetically. He reappears in a smaller but still significant role in the sequel Funeral Games.
• He makes an even briefer appearance in Les Conquêtes d'Alexandre by Roger Peyrefitte. Peyrefitte, unlike Renault, has Bagoas riding to battle by the side of Darius.
• He is also a major character in Jo Graham's novel Stealing Fire, part of her Numinous World series. Graham's Bagoas is basically the same as Renault's, except that he is more willing to find a new lover after the death of Alexander.
• He is played by Francisco Bosch in the Oliver Stone film Alexander, which is based in part on Renault's writings.

Sources

• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xiii; Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Alexander", 67; Aelian, Varia Historia, iii. 23; Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni, vi. 5; x. 1

External links

• "Bagoas Pleads on Behalf of Nabarzanes," illuminated parchment by the Master of the Jardin de vertueuse consolation, in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum