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
Born
c. 356 BC Pella, Macedonia, Ancient Greece
Died
October 324 BC (aged c. 32) Ecbatana[1]
Allegiance
Macedonia
Rank
General, 2nd in command.
Unit
Somatophylakes
Commands held
Companion cavalry
Battles/wars
Siege 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: ἩφαιστίωνHephaistíon; 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.
^A. B. Bosworth; Elizabeth Baynham (2002). Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-19-925275-6.
^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.
^Reames 2020 p. 12.
^Curtius 3.12.16
^Joseph Bidez; Albert Joseph Carnoy; Franz Valery Marie Cumont (2001). L'Antiquité classique. Imprimerie Marcel Istas. p. 165.
^Ian Worthington (10 July 2014). Alexander the Great: Man and God. Taylor & Francis. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-317-86644-2.
Hephaestion (Ancient Greek: Ἡφαιστίων Hephaistíon; c. 356 BC – October 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman of probable "Attic...
Achilles, and Hephaestion honoring Patroclus. According to Robin Lane Fox, Alexander and Hephaestion were possible lovers. After Hephaestion's death in Oct...
identical with the New History in six books ascribed by Photius to Ptolemy Hephaestion, of which a summary outline has been preserved in Photius' Biblioteca...
Hephaestion, Hephaistion, or Hephaistio of Thebes (Ancient Greek: Ἡφαιστίων ὁ Θηβαῖος, Hēphaistíōn ho Thēbaĩos) was a Hellenized Egyptian astrologer of...
hand. When Alexander and Hephaestion went together to visit the captured Persian royal family, Sisygambis knelt to Hephaestion to plead for their lives...
the Persian treasure. There, his closest friend, Hephaestion, died of illness or poisoning. Hephaestion's death devastated Alexander and he ordered the preparation...
was married to Hephaestion, a general in Alexander's army, during the Susa weddings. Soon after, Drypetis was widowed when Hephaestion accompanied Alexander...
his plan for the city of Alexandria, the monumental funeral pyre for Hephaestion and the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, as well as...
squadron Attalus strategos of Philip and early taxiarch of Alexander Hephaestion – Chiliarch (after 327 BC) Perdiccas – Chiliarch (after 324 BC) Seleucus...
Fontenrose 1981, p. 171. Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190). Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 2 (summary...
and giving him advice about his burial. According to Photius, Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to Ptolemy Chennus) wrote that Patroclus was also...
nothing is known; a single couplet from the seventh book is preserved in Hephaestion but it is unclear whether this was an entire stanza or part of a three-...
Artaxerxes III. To Hephaestion he gave Drypetis; she too was the daughter of Darius, his own wife's sister, for he wanted Hephaestion's children to be his...
alluding to Hephaistos; meaning the figure depicted could be the general Hephaestion. The dog depicted is possibly Peritas accompanying Alexander. The stag...
there with Leto. Photius, in his Bibliotheca, tells us that in Ptolemy Hephaestion's New History, Hera refuses to lay with Zeus, and hides in a cave to avoid...
Great had subdued Sidon, he gave permission to Hephaestion to bestow its crown on whom he pleased. Hephaestion offered it to two brothers with whom he lodged...
connected Demeter with this Styx. According to Photius, a certain Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to Ptolemy Chennus) knew of a story, "concerning...
the 2nd century AD, in the Handbook of Metrics by the grammarian Hephaestion. Hephaestion also calls the pattern the "Euripideum" ("τὸ καλούμενον Εὐριπίδειον...
or the battle in which the Giant aforementioned was killed." Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History 4 "The plant “moly” of which Homer speaks; this plant had...
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