Hephaestion

Hephaestion, Prado Museo, Madrid

Hephaestion, Amyntorin poika, oli makedonialainen sotapäällikkö ja Aleksanterin sydänystävä lapsuudesta saakka. Teini-ikäisinä he olivat olleet yhdessä Miezassa, jossa filosofi Aristoteles opetti Aleksanteria. Aleksanteria ja Hephaestionia on verrattu Akhilleeseen ja Patroklokseen. Heitä on pidetty sydänystävinä ja rakastajina kuuluisien edeltäjiensä tavoin.

Aleksanteri edisti Hephaestionin uraa siitä huolimatta, että Hephaestionilla oli puutteelliset johtajan ominaisuudet ja vähäiset sotilaalliset taidot. Hephaestion oli kuitenkin taitava organisoija, ja Aleksanteri antoi hänen hoidettavakseen useita logistisia tehtäviä kuten esim. varastojen ylläpidon, varusteiden kuljetuksen, sillanrakennuksen ja siirtokuntien perustamisen. Aasian sotaretkellä Hephaestion hoiti monia tärkeitä tehtäviä ja tuki Aleksanterin pyrkimyksiä tasa-arvon luomiseksi voittajien ja voitettujen välillä.

Hephaestion oli niin lähellä Aleksanteria, että Dareioksen äiti, nähtyään miehet yhdessä, luuli Hephaestionia Aleksanteriksi hänen ylvään ja kuninkaallisen ulkomuotonsa vuoksi. Aleksanteri ei tästä pahastunut vaan totesi, että “myös Hephaestion on Aleksanteri”. Vuosien kuluessa heidän kiintymyksensä syventyi entisestään. Susan hääjuhlissa Aleksanteri halusi tehdä Hephaestionista sukulaisensa ja antoi tälle yhden Dareios III:n tyttäristä. Pian tämän jälkeen Aleksanteri nimitti Hephaestionin khiliarkiksi, joka oli kuningaskunnan toiseksi arvokkain virka.

Hephaestion kuoli sairauteen 32-vuotiaana vuonna 324. Surun murtama Aleksanteri oli lohduton. Historioitsija Plutarkhoksen mukaan Aleksanteri määräsi suruajan merkiksi kaikkien armeijan hevosten harjat harjat ja hännät leikattaviksi, naapurikaupunkien suojamuurit tuhottaviksi, Hephaestionin lääkärin ristiinnaulittavaksi ja kaiken musiikin kiellettäväksi. Aleksanteri suunnitteli yksityiskohtaiset hautajaiset joihin kuului mm. pyramidi. Hamadanin leijonan sanotaan olleen osa suunnitelmaa, jota ei koskaan saatettu loppuun. Aleksanterin eläessä khiliarkin virkaan ei nimitetty enää ketään.

Hephaestionin hautajaisissa Siwan oraakkeli kehotti kunnioittamaan vainajaa puolijumalana. Hephaestionin muistoksi rakennettiin jättiläismäinen monumentti. Antiikin historioitsijat kertovat, että tästä lähtien Aleksanterin käytös muuttui synkäksi ja häntä vaivasivat synkät aavistukset.

Aleksanterin ja Hephaestionin kuolemien välillä on nähty yhteys. Aleksanteri kuoli vain kahdeksan kuukautta Hephaestionin jälkeen. Aleksanteri Suuren kuolinsyy on yksi historian suurista mysteereistä, joka on askarruttanut tutkijoita pitkään.

Hephaestionin hautarovio.

Head of Hephaestion

Head of Hephaestion. Unknown. Greek, about 320 B.C. Marble. The J. Paul Getty Museum.

The son of a noble Macedonian family, Hephaestion was the beloved companion of Alexander the Great. Together since boyhood, Hephaestion fought alongside Alexander as he created his great empire. When Hephaestion died in Persia in 324 B.C., Alexander mourned him extravagantly. He was given a royal funeral and Alexander ordered the cities of Greece to worship Hephaestion as a hero.

This head of Hephaestion, broken from a full-length statue, was originally part of a multi-figured group, which might have depicted a sacrificial scene. The J. Paul Getty Museum has more than thirty fragments of this group. The participants include Alexander, Hephaestion, a goddess, Herakles, a flute player, and several other figures, as well as animals and birds. This group may have served as a funerary monument for some nobleman who wanted to associate himself with Alexander, or it might be a monument erected in response to Alexander’s call for the creation of a hero cult.

The appearance of this head has changed over time. A metal ribbon or diadem once circled the head, although only a shallow groove remains today. The head was also re-carved in antiquity, with the hair shortened and the lower eyelids altered.

The J. Paul Getty Museum

Alexander The Great in front of the tomb of Achilles.

This painting in the Louvre Museum is a work of Hubert Robert (1733 -1808) done around 1754.

The subject taken from the Greek rhetorician Claudius Aelianius or Aelian (Varia Historia, XII, 7), writing in the second century CE, and shows the Macedonian king having the tomb of Achilles opened in order to pay a homage to the Greek hero of the Trojan War.

Achilles’ relationship with Patroclus is a key aspect of his myth. Its exact nature has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times. Thus in 5th-century BCE Athens, the relationship was commonly interpreted as pederastic. Nowadays some see it as a love relationship of an egalitarian homosexual couple. It is the same case as the relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion. The relationship between the Macedonian king and his dearest and closest friend and confidant, lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus. Hephaestion and Alexander grew up in a time and place where homosexual affairs were seen as perfectly normal. Roman and later writers, taking the Athenian pattern as their example, have tended to assume either, that their sexual relationship belonged to their adolescence, after which they left it behind, or that one of them was older, the lover (erastes) and the other was the beloved (eromenos). Claudius Aelianus takes the latter view when he uses just such an expression when describing the visit to Troy: “Alexander laid a garland on Achilles’ tomb and Hephaestion on Patroclus’, indicating that he was Alexander’s eromenos, as Patroclus was of Achilles.” No other circumstance shows better the nature and length of their relationship than Alexander’s overwhelming grief at Hephaestion’s death. The many and varied ways, both spontaneous and planned, by which Alexander poured out his grief are overwhelming. In the context of the nature of their relationship however, one stands out as remarkable. Lucius Flavius Arrianus “Xenophon” (Arrian of Nicomedia, ca. 86 – 160), in his work Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις 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.

This painting by Robert (known as Robert des Ruines) is close to Panini, who was his teacher during his long stay of 11 years in Rome, and it is considered to be one of the first productions of the French artist in that city. In the painting by the French vedutista, an architectural fantasy, we see a pyramid similar to that of Caius Cestius in Rome, the ruins of a temple with Ionic columns inspired by the temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum and a round temple, after the Roman temple of Vesta, or the temple of the Sybile in Tivoli. The statue standing at the left-hand side of the canvas is the so-called Antinous of the Belvedere, or Antinous Admirandus, the famous statue in the Pio-Clementino Museum of the Vatican. This statue, correctly identified as a Hermes in the 19th century, was long taken to be a depiction of the beautiful Bythinian lover of Emperor Hadrian, one of the great “eromenos-erastes” relationship of the antiquity.

Alexander The Great: The Weddings in Susa

In February 324, Alexander forced many Macedonian officers to marry to native women. If it was intended as an attempt to unite the European and Asian elites, it was a sad failure: nearly all marriages ended in divorce. The Greek author Arrian of Nicomedia describes this event in section 7.4.4-5.6 of his Anabasis.

Then he also celebrated weddings at Susa, both his own and those of his Companions. He himself married Barsine [1], the eldest of Darius’ daughters, and, according to Aristobulus, another girl as well, Parysatis, the youngest of the daughters of Ochus [2]. He had already married previously Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes of Bactria.

He gave Drypetis to Hephaestion, she too a daughter of Darius and a sister of his own wife; his intention was that the children of Hephaestion should be cousins to his own children. To Craterus he gave Amastris daughter of Oxyathres, brother of Darius, and to Perdiccas the daughter of Atropates, satrap of Media. To Ptolemy the bodyguard and to Eumenes the royal secretary he gave the daughters of Artabazus, Artacama to one and Artonis to the other. To Nearchus he gave the daughter of Barsine and Mentor, and to Seleucus the daughter of Spitamenes of Bactria [3]. Similarly he gave to the other Companions the noblest daughters of the Persians and Medes, some eighty in all.

The marriages were celebrated according to Persian custom. Chairs were placed for the bridegrooms in order, and after the drinks the brides came in and sat down, each by the side of her groom. They took them by the hand and kissed them; the king began the ceremony, for all the weddings took place together. More than any action of Alexander this seemed to show a popular and comradely spirit. The bridegrooms after receiving their brides led them away, each to his own home, and to all Alexander gave a dowry. And as for all the Macedonians who had already married Asian women, Alexander ordered a list of their names to be drawn up; they numbered over 10,000, and Alexander offered them all gifts their wedding.

He also thought this was a suitable opportunity to settle the debts of the army, and ordered a list of individual debts to be drawn up, with a promise to pay them. At first few put down their names; they feared Alexander was testing them to find out who thought the soldier’s pay insufficient and who was living above his means. When it was reported that the majority would not put their names down, but concealed any bonds they had, he condemned the soldiers’ lack of trust. A king should not say anything but the truth to his subjects, and they must not imagine their king to be saying anything but the truth to them.

So he had tables set up in the camp with gold on them, and men charged with the distribution of money to anyone who could show a bond, and he ordered the debts to be settled but without now drawing up a list of names. In this way they were convinced that Alexander was saying the truth, and their pleasure at not being individually identified was even greater than their satisfaction at seeing their debts paid off. It is said that up to 20,000 talents were distributed to the army on that occasion.

He also made various presents to various men, according to the reputation each enjoyed or the courage which anyone had displayed in dangers. He also crowned with golden wreaths those conspicuous for bravery, first Peucestas who had covered him with his shield [4], then Leonnatus for the same service and for the dangers he faced among the Indians and the victory he won among the Orians. With the forces left to him he opposed the them in battle, and in other respects and Alexander offered them all gifts for rebelling Oreitans and their neighbors and defeated he seemed to have handled affairs well among the Orians. In addition Alexander crowned Nearchus for his navigation from India by the great sea; for he had now arrived at Susa. He also crowned Onesicritus the pilot of the royal ship, and Hephaestion and the other bodyguards.

The Apadana of Susa.

Note 1:
She is also called Statira.

Note 2:
Surname of the Persian king Artaxerxes III (358-338).

Note 3:
Her name was Apame (or Apame I, to use a modern expression). This marriage was the only one that did not end in divorce.

Note 4:
This happened during Alexander’s attack on the town of the Mallians.

Source: Ancient Warfare Magazine

Hephaestion – Omnium Amicorum Carissimus

Hephaestion

Hephaistion Amyntoros (Hephaestion, or Hephaistion, son of Amyntor)

Curtius calls him “omnium amicorum carissimus” to the king: dearest of all the friends. Alexander himself named him “Philalexandros”–friend of Alexander–in contrast to his great rival, Craterus (Krateros), who was merely “Philobasileus”–friend of the king. By the time of his death in Ecbatana in 324 BCE (only eight months before Alexander’s own) he was the second man in the empire (Chiliarch), married to the sister of Alexander’s own wife.

He and Alexander were coevals, and had shared their education under Aristotle at Mieza. They may have known one another before that. He was not a great military leader, and Alexander seems to have kept him away from important commands in actual battle. But this does not make him the incompetent or sycophant which he has sometimes been painted. Curtius stresses that he had great freedom to speak his mind to the king. And snatches of evidence in the extant sources suggest his real gifts were diplomatic and logistical, not military. It would be wrong to dismiss him as unimportant, and unnecessary to assume him a mere yes-man in order to get along with the king. His skills and those of Alexander were complimentary, not competitive.

We know little about his looks or personality. He was tall and, apparently, handsome. He also seems to have had a reputation for both charm and quarrelsomeness by turns. Later speculation whispered that he and the king had been lovers. While this is nowhere stated plainly, it is entirely possible. Nonetheless, it would be reductive to characterise their relationship solely in this way. Our model of friendship is not consonant with theirs. Within these ancient societies where homoerotic desire was freely, sometimes emphatically, expressed, intense friendships might well develop a sexual expression even while that expression was not the focus of the friendship.

Perhaps in the end, Alexander’s own name for Hephaistion is best: Philalexandros. And so he has been known down through history: dearest of all the friends of the great Alexander.

Article by Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman , The Pennsylvania State University.

Alexander Sarcophagus

The Alexander Sarcophagus is considered as the most important artifact in the İstanbul Archaeological Museums. It was found in the Royal Necropolis in Sidon in 1887.

Though it is called the Alexander Sarcophagus, in fact, it does not belong to Alexander the Great. It is thought to be the sarcophagus of Abdalonymus, the king of Sidon. .

On the front side of the sarcophagus, Alexander is shown on his horse. Since Alexander claimed descent from Heracles, he is depicted with the skin of the Nemean Lion on his head. Additionally, next to his ear, a ram horn, the symbol of the Egyptian god Amun is seen. Because of this depiction on the sarcophagus, it was named after Alexander. In fact, Alexander the Great died in Babylon and his body was transferred to Alexandria. It is known that his sarcophagus was an anthropoid one.

On one of the long sides of the sarcophagus, there is a scene of battle between Persians and Greeks. Greek and Persian soldiers can easily be distinguished thanks to their outfits. Greeks have short tunics or cloaks, whereas Persian soldiers, who had to cover all parts of their bodies excluding their faces and fingers, wear trousers, more than one long-sleeved shirts and tiaras covering their heads. The scene of battle is thought to represent the Battle of Issus, won by Alexander the Great in 333 BC and opened the doors of Phoenicia and Syria. As a result of this battle, the fate of Abdalonymus, who is thought to be the owner of the sarcophagus, changed and he became the king of Sidon after a while.

Two hunting scenes are depicted on the second long side of the sarcophagus. It is known that hunting with horses and carriages was usual for Near Eastern civilizations and that Alexander the Great participated in such events in Phoenicia.

It is accepted that Alexander’s aim was to establish a Greek-Persian empire through uniting Eastern and Hellenistic cultures after conquering Iran. Towards the end of his life, he married a Persian princess, started to wear Persian clothes and accepted Persian dynastic customs. The Persians and Greeks who friendly hunt on one side of the sarcophagus should be considered within this perspective. It is known that after defeating Darius III in Issus, Alexander the Great passed through the Amanus Mountains and entered Syria following the Mediterranean shores. The people of Sidon, who disliked the Persian administration, opened the doors of the rich cities to the Macedon army and asked Alexander the Great to choose a king for them. Alexander, who had no time to choose a king for Sidon, gave this job to Hephaestion. He found Abdalonymus, who was a distant relative of the royal dynasty of Sidon but who had a quiet life in the country until chosen as the king. The name of Abdalonymus means “servant of gods” in Persian and the Alexander the Great and Hephaestion depictions were therefore added to the sarcophagus ordered by him.

When the carvings are analyzed, it is understood that those who made this sarcophagus were masters of the Eastern art of decoration. The upper row of the acroter consists of eagles, partially with no remains other than pieces of wings, and women heads. In the Ancient Syria, it was believed that eagles were birds carrying the souls of dead people to heaven. Nine smaller women heads that line up at the bottoms of each of two sides bring the mother goddess worshipped since the prehistoric periods of Anatolia and Mesopotamia to mind. Upper acroters of the both pediments are decorated with Persian griffins and herbal figures. At each of the corners of the pediment, a lion is placed as sarcophagus protectors. Those lions with thin necks and small bodies, which resemble dogs, are elements belonging to the Ionian art.

Both the body and the cover of the sarcophagus is made of the same kind of marble. The carvings on the sarcophagus are so fine that it is thought that this artifact should have been made in Sidon since it would have been too dangerous to transfer such a work from Greece to Lebanon. There is no information about its sculptor. Painters of the sarcophagus should have been masters of their job as well. It seems that the eyes, eyelashes, lips and clothes were dyed in purple, yellow, blue, red and violet, and that the figures were slightly varnished.

www.istanbularkeoloji.gov.tr

Hephaestion’s death and funeral

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. Plutarch says that, being a young man and a soldier, Hephaestion had ignored medical advice, and 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.

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.” The explanation that fits most of the facts is that the fever was typhoid, and that solid food perforated the ulcerated intestine that the typhoid would have caused. This would have led to internal bleeding, though it would be unusual in that case for death to follow quite as swiftly as it seems to have done here. For that reason, it is not possible altogether to discount other possible explanations, one of them being poison.

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 “… 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. Arrian relates an account that “… he 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 …”, another that said “… he lay stretched upon the corpse all day and the whole night too …”, and another which told how he had the doctor, Glaucias, executed for his lack of care. Arrian also mentions Alexander ordering the shrine of Asclepios in Ecbatana to be razed to the ground, and that he cut his hair short in mourning, this last a poignant reminder of Achilles’ last gift to Patroclus on his funeral pyre: “… he laid the lock of hair in the hands of his beloved companion, and the whole company was moved to tears.”

The seven stage funeral pyre of Hephaestion, based on the description by Diodorus and imitating the ziggurat shown in the background (late 19th century).

Hephaestion´s relationships

Hephaestion

Little is known of Hephaestion’s personal relationships, beyond his extraordinarily close friendship with Alexander The Great. Alexander was outgoing, charismatic man, who had many friends, but his dearest and closest friend and confidant was Hephaestion. Theirs was a friendship which had been forged in boyhood. It endured through adolescence, through Alexander’s becoming a king, through the hardships of campaigning and the flatteries of court life, and their marriages.

Their tutor, Aristotle, described such a friendship as “..one soul abiding in two bodies”. That they themselves considered their friendship to be of such a kind is shown by the stories of the morning ater  the battle of Issus. Diodorus, Arrian and Curtius all describe the scene, when Alexander and Hephaestion went together to visit the captured Persian royal family. Its senior member, the queen Sisygambis, knelt to Hephaestion to plead for their lives, mistaking him for Alexander, because he was taller, and both young men were wearing similar clothes. When she realised her mistake, she was acutely embarrassed, but Alexander reassured her with the words, “You were not mistaken, Mother; this man too is Alexander”. Their love for each other was no secret, as is borne out by their own words. Hephaestion, when replying to a letter to Alexander’s mother, Olympias, said “..you know that Alexander means more to us than anything”. Arrian says that Alexander, after Hephaestion’s death, described him as “..the friend i valued as my own life”. Paul Cartladge describes their closeness when he says: “Alexander seems actually to have referred to Hephaestion’s as his alter ego”. 

Alexander and Hephaestion enter the tent of the captive royal family of Darius. From a 1696 edition of Curtius.

Their friendship was also a working partnership; in all that Alexander undertook, Hephaestion was at his side. They worked well together; 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, a lack of sympathy with Alexander’s aims of further integration of Persians into the army, and of sheer incompetence. Time ater 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 sympathised with his aims, and above all, who got the job done.

Hephaestion’s career

Hephaestion

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 Thracians while Alexander was regent (followed by Philip II’s Danube campaign 342 BC) and the battle of Chaeronea 338 BC while he was still in his teens. His name is not mentioned in list of high ranking officers during the early battles of Alexander’s Danube campaign 335 BC, or the invasion of Persia, and nor are the names of Alexander’s other close friends and contemporaries, suggesting that their promotions, when they achieved them, were earned by merit.

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.” 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 Tyre 332 BC, Alexander entrusted his fleet to Hephaestion, who had orders to skirt the coast and head for Gaza, their next objective, while Alexander himself led the army overland. Hephaestion’s task was not an easy one, for this was not the Athenian fleet with which Alexander had started, and had earlier disbanded, but a motley collection of semi-reluctant allies of many nationalities, who would need holding together with patience and strength. Furthermore, on arrival at Gaza, the cargo of siege engines had to be unloaded, transported across difficult terrain, and reassembled.

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 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 the 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.”

It is likely, though not certain, that it was Hephaestion who led the advance army from Egypt to bridge the Euphrates river. Darius of Persia sent Mazaeus to hold the opposite bank while the bridging work was in progress. This Mazaeus was the commander who threw away what looked like certain victory on the Persian right at the battle of Gaugamela 331 BC, and later became Alexander’s governor of Babylon. Robin Lane Fox has an interesting suggestion that conversation with Hephaestion may have won Mazaeus over: “It is conceivable that the battle of Gaugamela was partly won on the banks of the Euphrates and that Mazaeus’ reinstatement was less a sign of magnanimity than of a prearranged reward.”

It is at Gaugamela that mention is first made of Hephaestion’s rank. He is called the “… commander of the bodyguards (somatophylakes).” 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.

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.”Alexander had realised 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.

Hephaestion : Childhood and education

Hephaestion

Hephaestion 356 BC – 324 BC, general in the army of Alexander The Great, Alexander’s life long friend and lover.

Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander The Great. Hephaestion was the dearest of all the Alexander’s friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared his life and his secrets. Friendship lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus.

His military career was distinguished. A member of Alexander The Great’s personal bodyguard, he went on to command the Companion cavalry, and was entrusted with many other task through Alexander’s ten year campaign in Asia, including diplomatic missions, the bridging of major rivers, sieges, and the foundation of new settlements. Besides being a soldier, engineer and diplomat, he corresponded with the philosophers Aristotles and Xenocrates, and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to integrate Greeks and Persians. Alexander formally made him his second-in-command when he appointed him Chiliarch of the empire, and made him part of the royal family when he gave him as his bride Drypetis, sister to his own second wife, Stateira, both daughters of Darius III of Persia. When Hephaestion died suddenly at Ecbatana, Alexander was overwhelmed with grief. He petitioned the oracle at Siwa to grant Hephaestion divine status, and Hephaestion was honoured as a Divine Hero. At the time of his own death eight months later, Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion’s memory.

Childhood 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’s fair to assume that he was born about 356 BC. Hephaestion is said to have become a page in 343 BC, a role common to adolescent boys of the aristocratic class in Macedon. Now a member of court life, it is possible that the two future conquerors would have met around this time.

The only surviving anecdote from Hephaestion’s youth comes courtesy of the Alexander Romance. According to this tale “..one day when Alexander was 15 years old..sailing with Hephaestion, his friend, he easily reached Pisa and he wentt off to stroll with Hephaestion”. That Alexander’s exact age is given provides another clue to Hephaestion’s upbringing because at fifteen Alexander and his companions were at Mieza studying under Aristotle. Hephaestion has never been named among those who who attended the lectures at Mieza, but his close friendship with Alexander at that age suggests strongly that he was numbered among them. More telling is Hephaestion’s name being found in a catalogue of Aristotle’s correspondences. The letters themselves no longer exist, but for them to have found their way into an oficial catalogue, their content must have been of some significance. It implies that Hephaestion received a good education, and shows that Aristotle was impressed enough by his pupil to send letters throughout Alexander’s expanding empire to converse with him.

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 Pixodarus affair. Among those exiled by Philip II after Alexander’s failed attempt to offer himself as groom to the Carian princess were Ptolemy, Nearchus, Harpalus, Erigyius, and Laomedon. The reason for Hephaestion’s absence from this list could be due to the fact that all of the exiled men were older friends of Alexander, Erigyius himself roughly 24 years older than the prince. Hephaestion was a contemporary of Alexander and it is likely that his influence might have been seen as less of a threat than these more mature companions. Whatever Hephaestion’s opinion had been on the whole affair, like many of Alexander’s other childhood companions he was not exiled in its aftermath.

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.

 

Personal relationships of Alexander The Great

Alexander and Hephaestion

Alexander the Great’s lifelong companion was Hephaestion, the son of a Macedonian noble man Hephaestion was Alexander’s closest friend, and held the position of second-in-command of Alexander’s forces until his death, which devastated Alexander. Alexander married at least two women, Roxane, daughter of a minor noble and the Persian princess Stateira, daughter of Darius III of Persia. His son by Roxane, Alexander IV, was born after Alexander the Great’s death and was killed before the boy reached adulthood.

Alexander was admired during his lifetime for treating all his lovers humanely. Plutarch has argued that Alexander’s love of males took an ethical approach, inspired by the teachings of his mentor, Aristotle. He gives several examples of Alexander’s morality in this domain:

When Philoxenus, the leader of the seashore, wrote to Alexander that there was a youth in Ionia whose beauty has yet to be seen and asked him in a letter if he (Alexander) would like him (the boy) to be sent over, he (Alexander) responded in a strict and disgusted manner: “You are the most hideous and malign of all men, have you ever seen me involved in such dirty(sexual) work that you found the urge to flatter me with such hedonistic business?

Plutarch also wrote:

When Philoxenus, the commander of his forces on the sea-board, wrote that there was with him a certain Theodorus of Tarentum, who had two youths of surpassing beauty to sell, and inquired whether Alexander would buy them, Alexander was incensed, and cried out many times to his friends, asking them what shameful thing Philoxenus had ever seen in him that he should spend his time in making such disgraceful proposals.

His moral approach towards sexual relations also extended to relations with prisoners of war: But as for the other captive women, seeing that they were surpassingly stately and beautiful, he merely said jestingly that Persian women were torments to the eyes. And displaying in rivalry with their fair looks the beauty of his own sobriety and self-control, he passed them by as though they were lifeless images for display.

The above quotations would be in line with the thoughts laid about before him by Aristotle, who regarded relationships based purely on carnal relations to be shameful.

Diodorus Siculus writes, “Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper garment. He distributed to his companions cloaks with purple borders and dressed the horses in Persian harness. In addition to all this, he added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Darius, in number not less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia. Each night these paraded about the couch of the king so that he might select the one with whom he would lie that night. Alexander, as a matter of fact, employed these customs rather sparingly and kept for the most part to his accustomed routine, not wishing to offend the Macedonians “

Curtius reports, “He scorned sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring.” To encourage a relationship with a woman, King Philip and Olympias were said to have brought in a high-priced Thessalian courtesan named Callixena.

There is no evidence that Alexander sought intimacy with women outside of marriage, however he did marry three times: to Roxane of Bactria, Stateira and Parysatis, daughter of Ochus. He fathered at least one child, Alexander IV of Macedon, born by Roxane shortly after his death in 323 BC. There is speculation that Stateira could have been pregnant when he died; if so, she and her child played no part in the succession battles which ensued after his death. There is speculation that he may have fathered another child, (Heracles), of a woman said to be his concubine Barsine (the daughter of satrap Artabazus of Phrygia) in 327 BC. Mary Renault’s rebuttal of this theory is worth quoting: “ No record at all exists of such a woman accompanying his march; nor of any claim by her, or her powerful kin, that she had born him offspring. Yet twelve years after his death a boy was produced, seventeen years old…a claimant and shortlived pawn in the succession wars…no source reports any notice whatever taken by him of a child who, Roxane’s being posthumous, would have been during his lifetime his only son, by a near-royal mother. In a man who named cities after his horse and dog, this strains credulity.

Hephaestion

Alexander had a close emotional attachment to his companion, cavalry commander (hipparchos) and childhood friend, Hephaestion. He studied with Alexander, as did a handful of other children of Macedonian aristocracy, under the tutelage of Aristotle. Hephaestion makes his appearance in history at the point when Alexander reaches Troy. There the two friends made sacrifices at the shrines of the two heroes Achilles and Patroclus; Alexander honouring Achilles, and Hephaestion honouring Patroclus. Aelian in his Varia Historia recounts that Hephaestion “thus intimated that he was the eromenos “beloved” of Alexander, as Patroclus was of Achilles.”

No contemporary source states that Alexander and Hephaestion were lovers; historian Paul Cartledge writes that: “Whether Alexander’s relationship with the slightly older Hephaestion was ever of the sort that once dared not speak its name is not certain.” Alexander and Hephaestion were, in Fox’s words, “exceptionally deep and close friends” until Hephaestion’s death, after which Alexander mourned him greatly and did not eat for days. Alexander held an elaborate funeral for Hephaestion at Babylon, and sent a note to the shrine of Ammon, which had previously acknowledged Alexander as a god, asking them to grant Hephaestion divine honours. The priests declined, but did offer him the status of divine hero. Alexander died soon after the receipt of this letter; Mary Renault suggests that his grief over Hephaestion’s death had led him to be careless with his health.

Campaspe

Campaspe, also known as Pancaste, may have been the mistress of Alexander, if so one of the first women with whom Alexander was intimate. She was thought to be a prominent citizen of Larisa in Thessaly; Aelian surmised that she initiated the young Alexander in love.

One story tells that Campaspe was painted by Apelles, who enjoyed the reputation in Antiquity for being the greatest of painters. The episode occasioned an apocryphal exchange that was reported in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia: seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, Alexander saw that the artist appreciated Campaspe (and loved her) more than he. And so Alexander kept the portrait but presented Campaspe to Apelles. Modern historian Robin Lane Fox says “so Alexander gave him Campaspe as a present, the most generous gift of any patron and one which would remain a model for patronage and painters on through the Renaissance”.

The story is memorable, but may have been invented: Campaspe does not appear in the five major sources for the life of Alexander. Robin Lane Fox traces her legend back to the Roman authors Pliny the Elder, Lucian of Samosata and Aelian’s Varia Historia.

Campaspe became a generic poetical pseudonym for a man’s mistress.

Barsine

Barsine was a noble Persian, daughter of Artabazus, and wife of Memnon. After Memnon’s death, several ancient historians have written of a love affair between her and Alexander. Plutarch writes, “At any rate Alexander, so it seems, thought it more worthy of a king to subdue his own passions than to conquer his enemies, and so he never came near these women, nor did he associate with any other before his marriage, with the exception only of Barsine. This woman, the widow of Memnon, the Greek mercenary commander, was captured at Damascus. She had received a Greek education, was of a gentle disposition, and could claim royal descent, since her father was Artabazus who had married one of the Persian kings daughters. These qualities made Alexander the more willing he was encouraged by Parmenio, so Aristobulus tells us to form an attachment to a woman of such beauty and noble lineage.” In addition Justin writes, “As he afterwards contemplated the wealth and display of Darius, he was seized with admiration of such magnificence. Hence it was that he first began to indulge in luxurious and splendid banquets, and fell in love with his captive Barsine for her beauty, by whom he had afterwards a son that he called Heracles.”

The story may be true, but if so, it raises some difficult questions. The boy would have been Alexander’s only child born during his lifetime (Roxane’s son was born posthumously). Even if Alexander had ignored him, which seems highly unlikely, the Macedonian Army and the successors would certainly have known of him, and would almost certainly have drawn him into the succession struggles which ensued upon Alexander’s death. Yet we first hear of the boy twelve years after Alexander’s death, when a boy was produced as a claimant to the throne. Especially since Alexander’s own half brother Philip III Arrhidaeus (Philip II’s illegitimate and physically and mentally disabled son) was Alexander’s original successor. Alexander’s illegitimate son would have had more rights to the throne than his illegitimate half-brother. Heracles played a brief part in the succession battles, and then disappeared. It seems more likely that the romance with Barsine was invented by the boy’s backers to validate his parentage.

Roxane

Ancient historians, as well as modern ones, have also written on Alexander’s marriage to Roxana. Robin Lane Fox writes, “Roxane was said by contemporaries to be the most beautiful lady in all Asia. She deserved her Afghan name of Roshanak, meaning ‘little star’, (probably rokhshana or roshna which means light and illuminating). Marriage to a local noble’s family made sound political sense. But contemporaries implied that Alexander, aged 28, also lost his heart. A wedding-feast for the two of them was arranged high on one of the Sogdian rocks. Alexander and his bride shared a loaf of bread, a custom still observed in Turkestan. Characteristically, Alexander sliced it with his sword.” Ulrich Wilcken writes, “The fairest prize that fell to him was Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes, in the first bloom of youth, and in the judgment of Alexander’s companions, next to Stateira the wife of Darius, the most beautiful woman that they had seen in Asia. Alexander fell passionately in love with her and determined to raise her to the position of his consort.”

Roxane accompanied Alexander all the way to India, and bore him a child also named Alexander (Alexander IV), 6 months after Alexander the Great died.

Bagoas

Ancient sources tell of another favorite, Bagoas; an eunuch “exceptional in beauty and in the very flower of boyhood, with whom Darius was intimate and with whom Alexander would later be intimate.” Plutarch recounts an episode (also mentioned by Dicaearchus) during some festivities on the way back from India) in which his men clamor for him to kiss the young man: “We are told, too, that he was once viewing some contests in singing and dancing, being well heated with wine, and that his favourite, Bagoas, won the prize for song and dance, and then, all in his festal array, passed through the theatre and took his seat by Alexander’s side; at sight of which the Macedonians clapped their hands and loudly bade the king kiss the victor, until at last he threw his arms about him and kissed him tenderly.” A novel by Mary Renault, “the Persian Boy”, chronicles that story with Bagoas as narrator.

The modern historian Robin Lane Fox, claims that both direct and indirect evidence suggest a “sexual element, this time of pure physical desire” between the two, but as for the consummation of that passion he comments that later gossip presumed that Bagoas was Alexander’s lover. This is uncertain.”. Whatever Alexander’s relationship with Bagoas, it was no impediment to relations with his queen: 6 months after Alexander’s death Roxane gave birth to his son and heir, Alexander IV.