Hephaestion
Hephaestion | |
---|---|
Achaemenid dynasty in Persia)[2] |
Hephaestion (
His military career was distinguished. A member of
When Hephaestion died suddenly at Ecbatana[5] around age thirty-two, Alexander was overwhelmed with grief. He petitioned the oracle at Siwa to grant Hephaestion divine status and thus Hephaestion was honoured as a Divine Hero. Hephaestion was cremated and his ashes taken to Babylon.[6] At the time of his own death a mere eight months later, Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion's memory.
Youth and education
Hephaestion's exact age is not known. No concise biography has ever been written about him, likely stemming from the fact that he died before Alexander and none of those among Alexander's companions who survived him would have had a need to promote someone other than themselves. Many scholars cite Hephaestion's age as being similar to Alexander's so it is fair to assume that he was born about 356 BC. He is said to have become a page in 343 BC, a role common to adolescent boys of the aristocratic class in Macedon.[8] As a member of the court, he may have met Alexander around this time.
The only surviving anecdote from Hephaestion's youth comes courtesy of the
A few years after the lectures at Mieza, Hephaestion's presence was notably absent when several of Alexander's close friends were exiled as a result of the
While it is true that very little detail of Hephaestion's childhood and education can be found, that which remains gives credence to what is known about his later life. His friendship with Alexander was long-lasting, as was his tenure in the court at Pella; he even shared the same education as the future Great King of Greece and Asia. With such a promising start, age and experience would have helped mould Hephaestion Amyntoros into the man who would one day be the second most powerful man in Alexander's empire, second only to the king himself.
Career
Sharing Alexander's upbringing, Hephaestion would have learned to fight and to ride well from an early age. His first taste of military action was probably the campaign against the
Wars in Persia
Hephaestion's career was never solely a military one. Right from the start he was also engaged in special missions, sometimes diplomatic, sometimes technical. The first mention of his career in the sources is a diplomatic mission of some importance. After the battle of Issus (333 BC) when Alexander was proceeding south down the Phoenician coast and had received the capitulation of Sidon, Hephaestion was "authorised to appoint to the throne the Sidonian he considered most deserving of that high office".[14] Hephaestion took local advice and chose a man distantly related to the royal family, but whose honesty had reduced him to working as a gardener. The man, Abdalonymus, had a successful royal career, fully justifying Hephaestion's choice.
After the siege of
Plutarch, while writing about Alexander's correspondence, reveals an occasion when Hephaestion was away on business and Alexander wrote to him. The subject matter suggests that this took place while they were in Egypt. What business Hephaestion was attending to we do not know, but Andrew Chugg[16] has suggested that it was concerned either with his command of the fleet or Athenian diplomacy. He quotes sources which suggest that Hephaestion had been approached by Aristion of Athens to effect a reconciliation between Alexander and Demosthenes and, certainly, Athens' inaction during the revolt of the Spartan king Agis would seem to support this idea. As Chugg says, "If he did persuade Alexander to reach an accommodation with Demosthenes at this critical juncture, as would seem likely from the circumstances, then he was significantly responsible for saving the situation for Macedon in Greece by preventing the revolt of Agis spreading to Athens and her allies."[16]
It is likely, though not certain, that it was Hephaestion who led the advance army from Egypt to bridge the
It is at Gaugamela that mention is first made of Hephaestion's rank. He is called the "commander of the bodyguards (somatophylakes)".[18] This is not the Royal Squadron, whose duties also included guarding the king in battle and which was at that time commanded by Cleitus—a man of the older generation—but a small group of close companions specifically designated to fight alongside the king. Hephaestion was certainly in the thick of things with Alexander for Arrian tells us he was wounded and Curtius specifically mentions that it was a spear wound in the arm.[19][20]
After Gaugamela there is the first indication that Alexander intended reconciliation with the Persians and that Hephaestion supported him in this unpopular policy. One evening in Babylon Alexander noticed a high-born woman obliged to dance as part of the entertainment. Curtius explains: "The following day, he (Alexander) instructed Hephaestion to have all the prisoners brought to the royal quarters and there he verified the lineage of each of them."[21] Alexander had realized that people from noble families were being treated with little dignity and wanted to do something about it. That he chose Hephaestion to help him shows that he could rely on Hephaestion's tact and sympathy. Yet Alexander could also rely on Hephaestion for firmness and resolve. When his policies had led to a plot against his life, the possible involvement of a senior officer, Philotas, caused much concern. It was Hephaestion, along with Craterus and Coenus, who insisted on, and actually carried out, the customary torture.[22]
After the execution of Philotas (330 BC), Hephaestion was appointed joint commander—with Cleitus—of the
Expedition into India
In spring 327 BC the army headed into India and Alexander divided his forces. He led his section north into the
Alexander often had to divide his forces and command was given to a variety of senior officers on different occasions. For example, a few weeks before this mission of Hephaestion's, Craterus had been sent with a large force to subdue the last two remaining Bactrian rebels.[27] It seems that Hephaestion was chosen when the objectives were far from clear-cut, and Alexander needed a commander on whom he could rely to do what he would have done himself without needing instructions.
Hephaestion took part in a notable cavalry charge at the
Hephaestion was in command at Pattala while Alexander advanced. When he rejoined Alexander at Rhambacia he established a city there also.[34] Hephaestion crossed the Gedrosian desert with Alexander, sharing the torments of that journey and, when the army was safely back in Susa, he was decorated for bravery.[35] He was to take part in no further fighting; he had only months to live. But, having ended his military career as Alexander's de facto second-in-command, he was also his second in the political sphere. Alexander had made that official by naming him Chiliarch. Photius mentions Perdiccas being appointed "to command the chiliarchy which Hephaestion had originally held".[36]
Relationships
Alexander
Little is known of Hephaestion's personal relationships beyond his close friendship with Alexander. Alexander was an outgoing, charismatic man who had many friends but his dearest and closest friend and confidant was Hephaestion.[4] Theirs was a friendship which had been forged in boyhood. It endured through adolescence, through Alexander's becoming king, and through the hardships of campaigning and the flatteries of court life and their marriages.
Their tutor
Aside from their strong personal bond, theirs was also a working partnership in that all that Alexander undertook, Hephaestion was at his side. It is possible to discern a pattern, when studying Hephaestion's career, of Alexander's constant trust in, and increasing reliance on, Hephaestion. By the time of the advance into India, after the deaths of senior generals from the older generation, there had been worrying instances among senior officers of their own generation of treachery,[45] a lack of sympathy with Alexander's aims of further integration of Persians into the army,[46] and of sheer incompetence.[47] Time after time, when Alexander needed to divide his forces he entrusted half to Hephaestion, knowing that in him he had a man of unquestionable loyalty who understood and sympathized with his aims and, above all, who got the job done.
Hephaestion played a full part in Alexander's regular consultations with senior officers, but he was the one to whom Alexander would also talk in private, sharing his thoughts, hopes, and plans. Curtius states that Hephaestion was the sharer of all his secrets;[48] and Plutarch describes an occasion when Alexander had a controversial change to impose and implies that Hephaestion was the one with whom Alexander discussed it and who arranged for the change to be implemented.[49] According to the painting done by Aetion of Alexander's first wedding, Hephaestion was his torch-bearer (best man), showing by this not only his friendship, but also his support for Alexander's policies as Alexander's choice of an Asian bride had not been a popular one among the Macedonians.
By the time they returned to Persia, Hephaestion was officially, by title, Alexander's second-in-command, as he had long been in practice, and also his brother-in-law (their wives were sisters). Hammond sums up their public relationship as follows: "It is not surprising that Alexander was as closely attached to Hephaestion as
It has been suggested by some modern scholars that as well as being close friends Alexander and Hephaestion were also lovers, though hardly any "of Alexander's extant ancient Greek or Roman biographers ever refers to Hephaestion as anything but Alexander's friend",[53] conforming with Hephaestion's epithet "Philalexandros" which was given to him by Alexander himself.[54] It has been observed, however, that the ancient Greek word "φίλος" (philos), besides meaning "friend", was also applied to lovers in the homo-erotic or sexual sense.[55]
Furthermore, Arrian and Plutarch describe the occasion when Alexander and Hephaestion publicly identified themselves with the Homeric figures of Achilles and Patroclus. At the onset of the campaign in Asia, Alexander led a contingent of the army to visit
"It was a remarkable tribute, uniquely paid, and it is also Hephaestion's first mention in Alexander's career. Already the two were intimate, Patroclus and Achilles even to those around them; the comparison would remain to the end of their days and is proof of their life as lovers, for by Alexander's time, Achilles and Patroclus were agreed to have enjoyed the relationship which Homer himself had never directly mentioned."[62]
Thomas R. Martin and Christopher W. Blackwell claim "homosexual affairs" in the time of Alexander and Hephaestion were seen as "abnormal" by majority Greek standards of their time.[58] But Andrew Chugg, Robin Lane Fox, Paul Cartledge, and others[63] show very different views. According to Eva Cantarella, male bisexuality was widely permitted and ruled by law, and generally not frowned upon by the public to the extent to which it remained within the preset limits. For the Greeks "homosexuality was not an exclusive choice. Loving another man was not an option out of the norm, different, somehow deviant. It was just a part of life experience; it was the show of an either sentimental or sexual drive that, over a lifetime, alternated and was associated (sometimes at the very same time) with love for a woman".[64] The pattern that same-sex love affairs followed, however, was not the same in every city-state.
The assumption has persisted to the present day, with writers of fiction such as Mary Renault and the film director Oliver Stone among its proponents, as well as modern historians such as Paul Cartledge, who says: "Rumour had it – and rumour was for once surely correct – that he [Hephaestion] and Alexander had once been more than just good friends."[65] Cartledge further writes that any attempt to "expunge all trace, or taint, of homosexuality" from Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship are "seriously misguided."[66] Moreover, he notes that there was no stigma attached to homoerotic attachments in ancient Greece, and "almost certainly" Alexander and Hephaestion's love was physically expressed at one or more stages in their lives.[66] But, he notes, if Hephaestion was Alexander's "catamite", the stigma attached to being the passive sexual partner is not something that Hephaestion would have wished to boast about.[66]
However, what was the case in
No other circumstance shows better the nature and length of their relationship than Alexander's overwhelming grief at Hephaestion's death. As Andrew Chugg says, "it is surely incredible that Alexander's reaction to Hephaestion's death could indicate anything other than the closest relationship imaginable".[72] The many and varied ways, both spontaneous and planned, by which Alexander poured out his grief are detailed below. In the context of the nature of their relationship however, one stands out as remarkable. Arrian says that Alexander "flung himself on the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears, and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions".[73]
Others
Among Alexander's other officers, it is possible that Hephaestion was closest to
However, outside the close-knit coterie of the Macedonian high command, he was not universally admired. This is clear from Arrian's comment about Alexander's grief: "All writers have agreed that it was great, but personal prejudice, for or against both Hephaestion and Alexander himself, has coloured the accounts of how he expressed it."[76]
Yet given the factions and jealousies that arise in any court and that Hephaestion was supremely close to the greatest monarch the Western world had yet seen, it is remarkable how little enmity he inspired. Arrian[77] mentions a quarrel with Alexander's secretary Eumenes but, because of a missing page in the text, the greater part of the detail is missing, leaving only the conclusion that something persuaded Hephaestion, though against his will, to make up the quarrel. However, Plutarch, who wrote about Eumenes in his series of Parallel Lives,[78] mentions that it was about lodgings and a flute-player, so perhaps this was an instance of some deeper antagonism breaking out into a quarrel over a triviality. What that antagonism might have been, it is not possible to know, but someone with the closeness to the king of a secretary might well have felt some jealousy for Hephaestion's even greater closeness.
In only one instance is Hephaestion known to have quarrelled with a fellow officer and that was with Craterus. In this instance it is easier to see that resentment might have been felt on both sides, for Craterus was one of those officers who vehemently disliked Alexander's policy of integrating Greek and Persian, whereas Hephaestion was very much in favour. Plutarch tells the story: "For this reason a feeling of hostility grew and festered between the two and they often came into open conflict. Once on the expedition to India they actually drew their swords and came to blows ..."[79] Alexander, who also valued Craterus highly as a most competent officer, was forced to intervene and had stern words for both. It is a measure of how high feelings were running over this contentious issue that such a thing should have happened and also an indication of how closely Hephaestion identified Alexander's wishes with his own. Hephaestion gave perhaps the ultimate proof of this in the summer of 324 BC, when he accepted as his wife Drypetis, daughter of Darius and sister to Alexander's own second wife Stateira.[2] Of his short married life nothing is known, except that at the time of Alexander's own death, eight months after Hephaestion's, Drypetis was still mourning the husband to whom she had been married for only four months.[80]
For Alexander to marry a daughter of Darius made good political sense, allying himself firmly with the Persian ruling class, but for Hephaestion to marry her sister shows the high esteem in which Alexander held him, bringing him into the royal family itself. They became brothers-in-law, and yet there was more to it than that. Arrian says that Alexander "wanted to be uncle to Hephaestion's children".[81] Thus it is possible to imagine Alexander and Hephaestion hoping that their respective offspring might unite their lines and that, ultimately, the crown of Macedon and Persia might be worn by one who was a descendant of them both.[81]
Death and funeral
Death
In spring 324 BC Hephaestion left Susa, where he had been married, and accompanied Alexander and the rest of the army as they travelled towards Ecbatana. They arrived in the autumn and it was there, during games and festivals, that Hephaestion fell ill with a fever. Arrian says that after the fever had run for seven days, Alexander had to be summoned from the games to Hephaestion, who was seriously ill. He did not arrive in time; by the time he got there, Hephaestion was dead.[82] Plutarch says that being a young man and a soldier, Hephaestion had ignored medical advice. As soon as his doctor, Glaucias, had gone off to the theatre, he ate a large breakfast, consisting of a boiled fowl and a cooler of wine, and then fell sick and died.[83]
Piecing the accounts together, it seems as if Hephaestion's fever had run its course for seven days, after which time he was sufficiently recovered for his doctor, and Alexander himself, to feel it was safe to leave him, and for Hephaestion to feel hungry. His meal, however, seems to have caused a relapse that led to his rapid death. Precisely why this should have happened is not known. As Mary Renault says, "This sudden crisis in a young, convalescent man is hard to account for."
Following Hephaestion's death his body was either cremated (and the ashes later taken to Babylon)[85] or embalmed and conveyed there, where an enormous funeral pyre was erected for him.[86] The general Eumenes suggested that divine honors be given to Hephaestion; this was later done.[86]
Hephaestion's death is dealt with at greater length by the ancient sources than any of the events of his life, because of its profound effect upon Alexander. Plutarch says that "Alexander's grief was uncontrollable" and adds that he ordered many signs of mourning, notably that the manes and tails of all horses should be shorn, the demolition of the battlements of the neighbouring cities and the banning of flutes and every other kind of music. on his funeral pyre:
- Thus o'er Patroclus while the hero prayed,
- on his cold hand the sacred lock he laid.
- Once more afresh the Grecian sorrows flow:
- And now the sun had set upon their woe.[90]
Another hint that Alexander looked to Achilles to help him to express his grief may be found in the campaign, shortly following these events, against a tribe called the Cossaeans. Plutarch says they were massacred as an offering to the spirit of Hephaestion, and it is quite possible to imagine that to Alexander this might have followed in spirit with Achilles' killing of "twelve high-born youths" beside Patroclus' funeral pyre.[87]
Alexander ordered a period of mourning throughout the empire and "many of the Companions, out of respect for Alexander, dedicated themselves and their arms to the dead man".[91] The army, too, remembered him; Alexander did not appoint anyone to take Hephaestion's place as commander of the Companion cavalry; he "wished Hephaestion's name to be preserved always in connection with it, so Hephaestion's Regiment it continued to be called, and Hephaestion's image continued to be carried before it".[92]
Messengers were sent to the oracle at Siwa to ask if Amon would permit Hephaestion to be worshipped as a god. When the reply came saying he might be worshipped not as a god, but as a divine hero, Alexander was pleased and "from that day forward saw that his friend was honoured with a hero's rites".[93] He saw to it that shrines were erected to Hephaestion's memory, and evidence that the cult took hold can be found in a simple votary plaque now in Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, inscribed, "To the Hero Hephaestion".[94][95]
Funeral
Hephaestion was given a magnificent funeral. Its cost is variously given in the sources as 10,000 talents or 12,000 talents, about $200,000,000 or $240,000,000 in the early 21st century's money.[96] Alexander himself drove the funeral carriage part of the way back to Babylon with some of the driving entrusted to Hephaestion's friend Perdiccas.[88] At Babylon, funeral games were held in Hephaestion's honour. The contests ranged from literature to athletics and 3,000 competitors took part, the festival eclipsing anything that had gone before both in cost and in number of participants.[97] Plutarch says that Alexander planned to spend ten thousand talents on the funeral and the tomb. He employed Stasicrates, "as this artist was famous for his innovations, which combined an exceptional degree of magnificence, audacity and ostentation", to design the pyre for Hephaestion.[98]
The pyre was sixty metres high, square in shape and built in stepped levels. The first level was decorated with two hundred and forty ships with golden prows, each of these adorned with armed figures with red banners filling the spaces between. On the second level were torches with snakes at the base, golden wreaths in the middle and at the top, flames surmounted by eagles. The third level showed a hunting scene, and the fourth a battle of
One final tribute remained, and it is compelling in its simplicity and in what it reveals about the high esteem in which Hephaestion was held by Alexander. On the day of the funeral, he gave orders that the sacred flame in the temple should be extinguished. Normally, this was only done on the death of the Great King himself.[101]
Amphipolis Tomb
Based on a monogram found in the Amphipolis Tomb in northern Greece, the lead archaeologist, Katerina Peristeri, claims that the whole tumulus was a funerary monument for Hephaestion, built between 325 and 300 BC.[102]
Portrayals of Hephaestion in fiction
- In the 1961 television version of Terence Rattigan's play Adventure Story, Hephaestion is played by William Russell.
- In the Oliver Stone film Alexander, Hephaestion is portrayed by Jared Leto.
- Hephaestion is a major character in Mary Renault's novels Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy.[103]
- Hephaestion is a secondary character in Judith Tarr's 1993 Lord of the Two Lands.[104]
- Cave, A. J. (2008) Roxana Romance. Pavasta. Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-9802061-1-1
- Hephaestion is a secondary character in Jo Graham's 2010 Stealing Fire.[105]
- Hephaestion is one of the main characters in Stephanie Thornton's 2015 novel The Conqueror's Wife (ISBN 978-0-451-47200-7).
- He is mentioned as "Alexander's Lover" in the song "Mystery of Love" from the 2017 film Call Me By Your Name; the song received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Song.
- Indian actor Akash Singh Rajput portrays Hephaestion in the 2017 Indian TV series Porus.
- Hephaestion is a main character in Jeanne Reames's 2019 Dancing with the Lion duology.[106]
- Hephaestion is the major character in "Trampling in the Land of Woe" by William Galaini (Alternative Universe)
- Hephaestion is a major character in "Memories of Hephaestion: A Story of Alexander the Great" by A.R. Valeson.
- John McLeod's novel The Lion of Macedonia.
- A character calling herself "Hephaestion" appears as a Servant in The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II, but later it is revealed that she is Hephaestion's sister, but never received a name in order to serve as a political decoy to Alexander the Great as well as her brother.
- Hephaestion is portrayed by Will Stevens as a recurring character in Netflix's 2024 drama docuseries Alexander: The Making of a God.
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-19-925275-6.
- ^ ISBN 9780838636602.
Alexander married 'Barsine' (Stateira), daughter of the dead Darius III; his best friend, Hephaestion, married her sister 'Drypetis', whose Persian name recalls Draupadi, the Indian heroine of the Mahabharata.
- ^ Reames 2020 p. 12.
- ^ a b Curtius 3.12.16
- ^ Joseph Bidez; Albert Joseph Carnoy; Franz Valery Marie Cumont (2001). L'Antiquité classique. Imprimerie Marcel Istas. p. 165.
- ISBN 978-1-317-86644-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4116-9960-1, pp 78-79.
- ^ Heckel 2006 p.133
- ^ Chugg 2006 p. 67
- ^ Plutarch 7
- Diogenes Laërtius, Aristotle 5
- ^ Plutarch 10
- ^ Heckel 2006 p. 119
- ^ Curtius 4.1.16
- ^ Curtius 4.5.10
- ^ a b Chugg 2006, p.93
- ^ Lane Fox 1973, p.227
- ^ Diodorus 17.61.3
- ^ Arrian 3.15.2
- ^ Curtius 4.16.32
- ^ Curtius 6.2.9
- ^ Curtius 6.11.10
- ^ Arrian 3.27.4
- ^ Arrian 4.16.43 and 4.16.45
- ^ Arrian 4.22.58
- ^ Arrian 4.23.59
- ^ Arrian 4.22.54
- ^ Curtius 8.14.15
- ^ Arrian 6.2.4
- ^ Arrian, Indica 18
- ^ Arrian 6.5.6
- ^ Arrian 6.17.4
- ^ Arrian 6.18.1 and 6.20.1
- ^ Arrian 6.22.37
- ^ Arrian 7.5.6
- ^ Photius 92
- ^ Diogenes Laërtius 5.1.20
- ^ Diodorus 17.37.5
- ^ Arrian 2.12.31
- ^ a b Curtius 3.12.17
- ^ "This I have included not as necessarily true nor yet altogether untrustworthy"' writes Arrian (2.12.31).
- ^ Diodorus 17.114.3
- ^ Arrian 7.14.50
- ^ Cartledge p. 19
- ^ Arrian 3.26
- ^ Arrian 4.8
- ^ Arrian 4.5
- ^ Curtius 12.16.2
- ^ Plutarch 55.1
- ^ Hammond 1980, p.16
- ^ Hammond 1980, p.250
- ^ Alexander Demandt: Alexander der Große. Leben und Legende., München 2009, p. 236f; Robin Lane Fox: Alexander der Große. Eroberer der Welt., Stuttgart 2004, p. 61; Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court, in: Roisman, Joseph (Hg.): Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great, Leiden, Boston 2003, p. 243
- ISBN 9780299232832.
[...] none of Alexander's extant biographers, Greek or Roman, ever refers to Hephaestion as anything but Alexander's 'friend' (Greek philos, Latin amicus), conforming to Alexander's own epithet for him, philalexandros
- ^ Arrian: Hephaestion (1) Archived 2014-11-25 at the Wayback Machine; Hephaistion Philalexandros; John J. Popovic, Alexander the great of Macedon
- ^ Stählin, Gustav (1974). "φιλεω κτλ". In Kittel, Gerhard; Friedrich, Gerhard (eds.). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol. IX: Φ—Ω. Translated by Bromiley, Geoffry W. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. p. 116 et pass. (113–171). Cf also: Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB, ed. (2017). "Friendship / φιλία [philia]. Kittel [ † φίλος, † φίλη, † φιλία]". Camarillo: St. John's Seminary. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
- ^ Arrian 1.12.1
- ^ Plutarch, 15.4
- ^ ISBN 978-0521148443.
- The Myrmidons.
- ^ Plato, Symposium, 179e–180a.
- ISBN 0-292-71223-5
- ^ Lane Fox 1973, p.113
- ISBN 0-691-09522-1.
- ISBN 978-0300093025).
- ^ Cartledge 2004, p.10
- ^ a b c Cartledge 2004, p.205
- ^ Lane Fox 1973, p.57
- ^ Hammond 1997, p.27
- ^ Lucian, On Slips of the Tongue, 8
- ^ Plutarch 39.40
- ^ Pseudo-Diogenes 24. The letter in question is part of the Cynic epistles, none of which are considered authentic nor written by Diogenes of Sinope as scholars attribute them to multiple authors between the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD (Abraham J. Malherbe, (1977), The Cynic Epistles: A Study Edition. SBL; Leif E. Vaage, (1990), Cynic Epistles (Selections), in Vincent L. Wimbush, Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook, pp. 117-118. Continuum International).The letter is partially translated and quoted by Chugg (Alexander's Lovers, second edition, 2012, p. 18). It reads as follows: "If you wish to be beautiful and good, throw away the rag you have in your head and come to us. Yet you will not be able to do so, for you are held fast by Hephaistion's thighs."
- ^ Chugg 2006, p.125
- ^ a b Arrian 7.14.13
- ^ Arrian 4.22.1
- ^ Arrian 5.12.25
- ^ Arrian 7.14.11
- ^ Arrian 7.13
- ^ Plutarch, Eumenes 2
- ^ Plutarch 47
- ^ Curtius 10.15.20
- ^ a b Arrian 7.4.29
- ^ Arrian 7.14.3
- ^ Plutarch 72.2
- ^ Renault p 209
- ISBN 9781317866442.. Alexander himself would supervise its building when he got back to Babylon. In the aftermath of the king's death, it was abandoned.
Then Hephaestion was cremated and the ashes were taken to Babylon. There, an enormous funerary monument was to be built of brick and decorated with five friezes. It would stand over 200 feet high and cost 10,000 talents
- ^ ISBN 9781467806343.
Eumenes suggested giving divine honors to Hephaestion, as so it was done, Hephaestion was then cremated when they got back to Babylon.
- ^ a b Plutarch 72.3
- ^ a b Arrian 7.14.9
- ^ Arrian 7.14.8
- ^ Iliad 23.160 (translation by Alexander Pope)
- ^ Arrian 7.15.3
- ^ Arrian 7.15.4
- ^ Arrian 7.23.8
- ^ "SEG 40:547".
- ^ "Copy of votive relief". Greek and Roman Art (greek-art.livejournal.com). 13 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-12-01. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
Διογένης Ἡφαιστίωνι ἥρωι (Diogénēs Hephaistíoni hḗroi)
- ^ See footnote one in "Life of Crassus", which calculates the value of an attic talent as $20,000 in 2004 money.
- ^ Arrian 7.15.5
- ^ Plutarch 72.4
- ^ Diodorus 17.115 1–5
- ^ Lane Fox 1973, p. 477
- ^ Diodorus 17.114.4
- ^ "New findings: A Monogram discovered reveals the name of the honored person". Retrieved 2015-11-09.
- ^ Gomez, Alex (July 10, 2010). "Mary Renault's 'The Last of the Wine' Reviewed". Banderas News. Retrieved 2014-11-19.
- ^ "Lord of the Two Lands on Goodreads".
- ^ ""Stealing Fire by Jo Graham (Reviewed by Liviu Siciu)" for Fantasy Book Critic".
- ^ "Dancing with the Lion website".
References
Ancient sources
- Aelian, Varia Historia
- Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander
- Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander
- Bibliotheca Historica
- Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers: Aristotle
- Diogenes of Sinope, Letters
- Homer, Iliad
- Horace, Epistles
- Lucian, Pro Lapsu
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives: Alexander, Eumenes
Modern sources
- ISBN 1-4050-3292-8
- Chugg, Andrew Michael (2006) Alexander's Lovers. Lightning Source UK Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4116-9960-1
- ISBN 1-85399-068-X
- ISBN 0-7156-3341-4
- Heckel, Waldemar (2006) Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great. MA, USA: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-1210-7
- ISBN 0-14-102076-8
- ISBN 9780521767484
- ISBN 0-7139-0936-6
Further reading
- Reames, Jeanne. Hephaistion Amyntoros: Eminence Grise at the Court of Alexander the Great. Diss. The Pennsylvania State University, c1998. (abstract)
- Borza, Eugene and Reames, Jeanne. Some New Thoughts on the Death of Alexander the Great, The Ancient World 31.1 (2000) 1–9.
- Bosworth, Albert Brian. Hephaistion. In: Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth (Hrsg.): The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3. Aufl., Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-866172-X.
- Carney, Elizabeth D. Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Aristocracy. Dissertation, Duke University, 1975.
- Heckel, Waldemar. Hephaistion. In: Ders.: The Marshals of Alexander's Empire. Routledge, London 1992, ISBN 0-415-05053-7.
- Reames, Jeanne. An Atypical Affair? Alexander the Great, Hephaistion, and the Nature of Their Relationship. In: The Ancient History Bulletin 13.3 (1999), pp. 81–96.
- Reames, Jeanne. The Cult of Hephaistion. In: Cartledge, Paul, and Greenland, Fiona Rose (ed.), Responses to Oliver Stone's Alexander. Film, History, and Cultural Studies. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2010, ISBN 0-299-23284-0 (accessible online in Scribd.com).
- Reames, Jeanne. The Mourning of Alexander the Great, In: Syllecta Classica 12 (2001) 98–145.
- Reames, Jeanne. Becoming Macedonian: Name-mapping and Ethnic Identity. The Case of Hephaistion, In: Karanos 3 (2020) 11–37.
External links
- Alexander's Tomb by Andrew M. Chugg
- Hephaestion at WCD (Wiki Classical Dictionary)
- Hephaistion - Philalexandros by Jeanne Reames
- Livius, Hephaestion Archived 2014-11-25 at the Wayback Machine by Jona Lendering
- pothos.org All about Alexander the Great