Hephaestion

For other people with the same name, see Hephaestion (disambiguation).
Hephaestion
Hephaestion marble head, as of September 2015 housed in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California
Bornc. 356 BC
Pella, Macedonia, Ancient Greece
DiedOctober 324 BC
(aged c. 32)
Ecbatana[1]
AllegianceMacedonia
RankGeneral, 2nd in command.
UnitSomatophylakes
CommandsCompanion cavalry
Battles / warsSiege of Pelium, Battle of Thebes, Battle of the Granicus, Siege of Halicarnassus, Siege of Miletus, Battle of Issus, Siege of Tyre (332 BC), Siege of Gaza, Battle of Gaugamela, Battle of the Persian Gate, Siege of Aornos, Battle of the Hydaspes River, Mallian Campaign
Spouse(s)Drypetis (princess of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia)[2]

Hephaestion (Ancient Greek: Ἡφαιστίων Hēphaistíōn; c. 356 BC  –  October 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman of probable "Attic or Ionian extraction"[3] and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets."[4] This relationship lasted throughout their 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 tasks throughout 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 Aristotle and Xenocrates and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to integrate the Greeks and Persians. Alexander formally made him his second-in-command when he appointed him Chiliarch of the empire. Alexander also 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[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.

  1. ^ A. B. Bosworth; Elizabeth Baynham (2002). Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-19-925275-6.
  2. ^ Falk, Avner (1996). A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 211. 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.
  3. ^ Reames 2020 p. 12.
  4. ^ Curtius 3.12.16
  5. ^ Joseph Bidez; Albert Joseph Carnoy; Franz Valery Marie Cumont (2001). L'Antiquité classique. Imprimerie Marcel Istas. p. 165.
  6. ^ Ian Worthington (10 July 2014). Alexander the Great: Man and God. Taylor & Francis. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-317-86644-2.