Alcibiades’ Political Bisexuality in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft Quebéc, 2018)

Abstract

Bisexuality, within the field of Sexuality studies, has often been deemed invisible (Monro et al, 2017; Erickson-Schroth and Mitchel, 2009) and framed as a threat (Klein, 1993). For the bisexuals’ ability to engage with both men and women, they have been regarded as untrustworthy in many spaces. Comparably, Ancient Greek homosexuality, or pederasty, though proven to never have been considered a crime or prejudiced by law (Cohen, 1987; Hindley, 1991; Dover, 1978), was chastised in ancient texts for its involvement in politics, when associated with male prostitution (Oyamada, 2024), and never truly accepted by society (Hubbard, 1998).

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft Québec, 2018), when depicting Classical Athens and its wartime period, includes multiple historical spaces, figures, and events. Among the known Greek politicians, philosophers, and playwrights, Alcibiades (450-404 BCE) is included in main and side missions of the video game. Remembered as a controversial figure of the Peloponnesian War, a politician, a «strategos», and a student of Socrates, “Alkibiades” is loyal to historical, philosophical and even comical surviving references in various ways. And, in this modern depiction, his bisexuality is included in a variety of side missions all revolving, in their own way, around themes of sexuality and desire. Through the ancient references of Alcibiades bisexuality and Ubisoft’s modern portrayal, this paper argues that the game incorporates Alcibiades’ bisexuality not merely as a character trait, but as a political tool used during the times of the tensions and instabilities of Athenian politics.