Lovers, famous and infamous

The most famous gay couple of antiquity…

… were possibly really just close platonic friends. Whether Alexander the Great and his close advisor and bodyguard Hephaestion did indeed share a bed is a matter that divides opinion among historians to this day.  What is undisputed is that during Alexander's lifetime — in the 4th century BC — same-sex relationships were nothing unusual. There is also historical evidence that Alexander and Hephaestion fought together on the Macedonian king's great campaigns.

Writings by ancient historians claim that Alexander mourned the death of his friend so deeply that he posthumously declared him a demigod, no longer allowed festivals throughout the empire, massacred an entire tribe out of sheer grief and had Hephaistion's personal physician tortured and killed, but those accounts cannot be historically verified.

Cleopatra and Caesar: Love affair and political alliance

The year is 48 B.C. A power struggle in Ancient Egypt between Cleopatra and her brother — and husband — Ptolemy has erupted into a bitter civil war. Seeking support from Rome, Cleopatra attempts to ensnare the local general, Julius Caesar, with her charm and beauty. Caesar takes the bait: in addition to a liaison with the most beautiful and powerful woman of antiquity, he can expect even greater power, since a Roman alliance with Egypt would allow him to maintain his position in the eastern Mediterranean.

With his armies, he ends the civil war in Egypt in Cleopatra's favor. Ptolemy suffers a convenient fatal accident. Caesar goes on to live with Cleopatra in Rome, where his close relationship with a foreign queen causes a stir. Still, many Romans also recognize the political benefits of the relationship — which ends with Caesar's assassination in 44 BC. Cleopatra then begins another love affair in Rome, one no less politically explosive, but that is another story.

Heloise and Abelard: Dazzling lovers of the Middle Ages

The 12th century: 40-year-old Peter Abelard is considered the most intelligent scholar in all of Europe; 18-year-old Heloise is the most beautiful maiden in Paris. Abelard wants to win over the young beauty, but has to get past her uncle and protector, the canon Fulbert. So he gives Heloise private tutoring. Abelard teaches Heloise not only the arts of science, but also the arts of love — and Heloise makes such great progress that Abelard brags about it to his other students. Soon all of Paris knows about it — and Fulbert is the last to find out.

When Fulbert's anger subsides, he and Abelard negotiate a deal: an immediate marriage with Heloise. The marriage is to remain secret, as the role of husband would damage Abelard's reputation as a star among the scholars of the Middle Ages, as Heloise also sees it. When Fulbert goes back on his word and makes their marriage public, an exasperated Abelard sends Heloise to a convent. Fulbert is once again furious, seeing this as an attempt by Abelard to evade the obligations of marriage. He has the sinful professor castrated. Abelard flees to an abbey and becomes a monk; Heloise is left with little choice but to become a nun. Though separated by distance and religious vows, the two remain intimately linked for the rest of their lives.

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII: Love on the chopping block

1527: King Henry VIII of England is married to Catherine of Aragon. But she has yet to bear Henry a son — and the king now finds her young lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn far more attractive. He woos her with ardent love letters, but Anne makes it clear to him that she will not have sex before marriage. Henry is so obsessed with her that he renounces the Roman Catholic Church so he can divorce Catherine and marry Anne. But that marriage also fails to produce a male heir to the throne. The couple become estranged and Henry is told that Anne is having an affair. He has his former mistress imprisoned in the Tower of London.

She is found guilty of high treason and executed on the morning of May 19, 1536. Thousands watch as the executioner beheads Anne Boleyn with a sword. Henry is not among the spectators. He marries four more times — and also has his fifth wife beheaded for adultery.

Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal: A monumental love

It was love at first sight in 1607 when 15-year-old Prince Khurram, later to become India's Great Mogul Shah Jahan, and 14-year-old Arjumand Banu Begum meet. Five years later, they are married. From then on, Arjumand is called "Mumtaz Mahal” — the jewel of the palace — and is Shah Jahan's favorite wife. She accompanies him on all his travels and bears him 14 children. After the birth of their last child, she starts bleeding to death. On her deathbed, she asks him for a tomb as large and magnificent as the world has never seen before.

The widower, whose beard turns white overnight, has a mausoleum built in Agra, India — it was to be the most perfect building in human history. To this day, the Taj Mahal shines in the brightest white marble.

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: Power couple of the Parisian bohème

The crème de la crème of the Parisian avant-garde meets in the salon of Jewish American Gertude Stein. Stein has money and is an author and art collector with a keen nose for trends. On the walls of her salon hang pictures by painters such as Gauguin, Picasso and Delacroix, who are also frequent guests, along with writers like Ernest Hemingway and T. S. Eliot. A woman, Gertrude's great love, toils away in the background: writer Alice B. Toklas.

The two women had fallen in love in 1907. But Alice is not only Gertrude's lover, she is also her cook, secretary, muse, editor and critic — and they live together for almost 40 years until Gertrude's death in 1946. Alice outlives her by 21 years. She is buried next to Gertrude in Paris, her name inscribed in gold letters on the back of Stein's gravestone.

Bonnie and Clyde: Outlaw lovers

Bonnie Parker (1910-1934) and Clyde Barrow (1909-1934) meet in Texas in 1930. Both grew up in poverty and they share a dream of a better life. Clyde was already committing crimes, and their romance is interrupted when he is sentenced to two years in prison. But Bonnie waits for him, and when Clyde is released, they join forces in robbing stores, gas stations and banks across several states, always just managing to evade arrest.

Newspapers print photos of the two lovebirds posing with weapons, and they're celebrated as rebellious anti-heroes in Depression-era America. But public sympathy wanes when the couple starts killing people. Their love story comes to a violent and gruesome end when they are lured into a trap in 1934. For sixteen seconds, police fire on their car, and Bonnie and Clyde die, riddled with dozens of bullets.

Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis: The (self-) destruction of a diva

Maria Callas is at the height of her career as an opera star and is still married when she encounters Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy shipping magnate who is also married. The two meet at a glamorous high society party on Onassis' luxury yacht, and begin a passionate relationship. Onassis lavishes Callas with expensive gifts and she is crazy about him. Both their marriages end in divorce.

Callas hopes to marry Onassis, but he is in no hurry to tie the knot with her. Their relationship becomes increasingly toxic. She performs only when he wants her to. Her obsession with him affects her voice; she becomes erratic and flops in concerts. While destroying her opera career, she clings to him — and he distances himself further and further. When he meets the presidential widow Jacqueline Kennedy and marries her, Callas can only look on helplessly. Although Onassis and Callas still meet from time to time, their relationship is as ruined as Maria Callas' voice.

Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader: Till death do us part

Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader meet in 1967 during student protests in Berlin. Both are active in the "extra-parliamentary opposition” — a group that does not feel represented by parties in the Bundestag and makes that clear through politically motivated acts of sabotage. In 1968, Baader and Ensslin commit their first crime together: two attacks on department stores. They go on trial, and present themselves as lovers, to great headline-grabbing effect. 

Together with Ulrike Meinhof, they become the heads of the Baader-Meinhof Group, who were responsible for the first terrorist attacks by the Red Army Faction (RAF), which shook Germany to the core in the 1970s. Baader and Ensslin are arrested in 1972, followed by a long trial, covered extensively in the media. In October 1977, both are found dead in their cells. The circumstances of their deaths remain unclear to this day.

This article was originally written in German.