Susa weddings

Depiction of the Susa weddings of 324 BCE: Alexander III marrying Stateira, daughter of Darius III; and Alexander's general Hephaestion marrying Stateira's sister Drypetis.

The Susa weddings were arranged by Alexander the Great in 324 BCE, shortly after he conquered the Achaemenid Empire. In an attempt to wed Greek culture with Persian culture, he and his officers held a large gathering at Susa and took Persian noblewomen in matrimony. The collective weddings involved 80 couples and blended various Greek and Persian traditions. Celebrating his own Persian wife, Alexander intended for these new unions to help him begin identifying himself as a son of Persia and thereby legitimize his claim as the heir of the Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty. It was also expected that any children produced from these marriages would, as the progeny of both Greece and Persia, serve as a symbol of the two civilizations coming together under Alexander's Macedonian Empire.[1]

  1. ^ Worthington, Ian (2012). Alexander the Great: A Reader. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-1136640049.