Hephaistion

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Hephaestion (disambiguation) .

Marble head of Hephaistion
(ca.320 BC, Getty Villa )

Hephaistion ( ancient Greek Ἡφαιστίων ; * around 360 BC in Pella , Macedonia ; † winter 324/23 BC in Ekbatana ), son of Amyntor , was a Macedonian nobleman, the closest friend, general, bodyguard and possibly also the Beloved Alexander the Great . Due to his special loyalty to Alexander and his political program of reconciliation and amalgamation of the different peoples of his empire, he was able to rise to the second man of the empire.

Introduction: source problems and research situation

The ancient authors unanimously describe Hephaestion as the most intimate confidante of the later Macedonian king. This special relationship corresponded to the fact that he was the only one of Alexander's close friends to be honored with a cult as a hero after his early death .

Their relationship was compared early on in ancient literature with the friendship of Patroclus and Achilles in Homer's Iliad and interpreted accordingly. Like Alexander, Hephaestion soon began to form legends, although it is not always possible to decide in detail whether a true core can be discerned in the reports of Greek and Roman authors.

According to the accounts of the historians Marcus Iunianus Iustinus and Curtius Rufus , the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, and the rhetorician and grammarian Athenaios of Naukratis, Hephaistion was Alexander's lover. It is unlikely, however, that he and Alexander were inseparable friends from a very early age, as Curtius Rufus reports; for Hephaestion was not one of those closest friends of Alexander, who were met by King Philip II of Macedon in 337 BC. Were temporarily banished.

Even in the ancient sources, some statements by other authors were viewed as implausible, which makes an assessment even more difficult. According to Arrian it is fictitious that Hephaistion 334 BC. At the beginning of the Persian campaign brought a wreath to Patroclus in Troy. Also the episode in which after the victorious battle of Issus in 333 BC Chr. Sisygambis , the mother of the defeated Persian King Darius III. According to Arrian, it is a myth that Hephaistion was mistaken for Alexander.

The historical significance of Hephaestion's political and military career in what is undoubtedly an extraordinary close and deep friendship with Alexander is controversially assessed by the ancient authors. It is therefore very difficult for modern research to extract the historically credible core of a biography from the tradition and to arrive at a reasonably fair judgment on the independent performance of Hephaistion.

Live and act

Promotion to hetaire general

The exact date of birth of Hephaistion is not known. When he in October 324 BC Died, he was still a "young man". So he must have been of about the same age as Alexander and therefore around 360 BC. To be born in BC. As the son of Amyntor, he came from a Macedonian noble family from Pella, and was educated together with the Crown Prince Alexander and other sons of Macedonian noble houses in the residential school of Pella and in the temple of the nymphs of Mieza. Her most important teacher was without a doubt Aristotle .

Hephaestion, detail from the so-called " Alexander sarcophagus ", around 300 BC Chr.

Originally probably an officer of the aristocratic equestrianism, he first appears during Alexander's march from Tire to Egypt in late autumn 332 BC. Chr. Entrusted with an independent command. He led the fleet there. On October 1, 331 BC He was wounded in the arm of an enemy spear at the battle of Gaugamela . Arrian reports this without giving a rank, while Diodorus Hephaistion ranks among the somatophylakes, the "bodyguards" of Alexander, and even makes him their "leader". What is meant by this is controversial in modern research. Gerhard Wirth believes that this means the command of the mounted bodyguard. Others claim that Diodor and Curtius (or their sources) merely spun this out from Hephaistion's later position as “bodyguard” and added the addition “Führer”.

In the trial of Philotas in the autumn of 330 BC Chr. Hephaistion was involved in his arrest and torture. After Philotas was executed, Alexander divided the command of the Hetairen riding between two generals, namely Hephaistion, son of Amyntor , and Kleitus , son of Dropidas . In doing so, he halved the hetaires' association, because in future he wanted to avoid a single rider alone, even if it was the best friend, commanding such a large number of riders who, in terms of rank and otherwise, formed the elite of the entire cavalry.

Supporting Alexander's policies

The winter of 329/328 BC BC Alexander spent with his army in Bactra . Now, for the first time, he implemented a new political program of the mixture of peoples and communities in concrete political measures that were supposed to eliminate the barbarians - Hellenes opposition . For the first time he put on a barbaric festival costume. Possibly he wanted to adapt to the national customs in the belief that the tribal was of great importance for the taming of the people. Perhaps, however, he also wanted to  try proskynesis - the worship of God at foot - among the Macedonians, so that they could gradually get used to his change and his departure from the old way of life. At first he only used the costume when dealing with barbarians; later he showed himself to be seen in her in front of the crowd when he was riding out or holding audiences. It was the magnificent, so-called Persian priestly robe of the Achaemenids with the golden crown ( kidaris ) as headgear.

Finely dosed and gradual, but extremely consistent, Alexander sought to develop his program further. He had 30,000 local boys selected, educated in Greek and trained in the use of Macedonian weapons. On the one hand, he adapted his way of life even more to the locals and, on the other hand, tried to bring Macedonian customs closer to them “in the belief that such a mixture and community on the basis of benevolence and voluntary consent would better establish his power than through violence . "

Another building block in the implementation of this comprehensive pacification program was the marriage to Roxane , the daughter of the Sogdian prince Oxyartes , in the spring of 327 BC. The grueling partisan war in Bactria and the Sogdiana had lasted two years until the resistance could finally be overcome through contractual agreements with the most important tribal leaders. The marriage with Rhoxane was therefore not only a love marriage by Alexander, but also a dynastic marriage, which was to give the contracts a permanent basis. That is why Alexander Rhoxane married according to local rituals - a prelude to Susa's weddings that fit perfectly into his political program. Alexander noticed that of his most trusted friends, Hephaistion, in particular, fully supported his behavior and program and went along with the change in way of life, while Krateros stuck to his father's customs. Therefore he assigned Hephaestion to deal with the barbarians, while Krateros with the Greeks and Macedonians.

In the Kallisthenes affair in the spring of 327 BC Chr. Hephaistion was among those with whom Alexander had agreed the introduction of Proskynesis also with the Greeks and Macedonians. He showed him this gesture of oriental-Persian adoration as God before it came to Callisthenes, who was not privy to the agreement and refused the gesture on grounds of principle. It therefore seems plausible if Plutarch allowed Hephaistion to appear as the accuser of Callisthenes in the subsequent so-called page conspiracy from an indeterminable source .

Military and political career highlights

Alexander rewarded the unconditional loyalty of his friend and his support for his new political program with a military mandate: 327 BC. He let him march into India at the head of an independent army group together with Perdickas , where he built a bridge over the Indus near Ohind . Hephaistion founded several cities on behalf of Alexander. As the “bodyguard” (= Greek somatophylax ) of Alexander, he was the highest-ranking of a total of 33 Trierarchs who built the Indus fleet. In this role he led a part of the army on the left side of the river to the sea, where he was in the summer of 325 BC. BC fortified the citadel of the port city of Pattala (near Haidarabad ) and thus secured the mouth of the Indus. After completing this assignment, Alexander gave him the task of fortifying the ship's bearings and preparing the construction of shipyards. This arose from Alexander's plan to leave a fleet of many ships in Pattala, where the Indus forked. In the battle with the Oreiten , Alexander Hephaistion granted in the autumn of 325 BC The order to develop the largest settlement of this tribe called Rhambakia into a city.

In the winter of 325/24 BC In BC Alexander sent his companion with most of the troops, the entourage and the war elephants on the way along the sea of ​​Carmania back to Persis to Susa . Since leaving for India, Hephaistion has held the highest command positions alongside Krateros .

Arrived in Susa, Alexander paid tribute in the spring of 324 BC. Chr. Hephaestion's military and organizational achievements by promoting him to Chiliarch . In the Persian imperial organization, the Chiliarch (= old Persian hazarapati , ie. "Thousands leader" ) commanded over 1,000 men of the royal bodyguard regiment, whose lance peaks were golden. In addition, as the highest ranking Chiliarch, he commanded the entire bodyguard of the 10,000 “immortals” . These formed the elite of the Achaemenid army and their nine thousand groups were characterized by silver lance peaks. At the same time the Chiliarch was general of the whole army. In the civil sector he officiated as a kind of "Maior domus" . So he had the function of the Persian "court marshal" and was at the head of the Achaemenid court. His position in Arabic corresponds to the vizier. He was the second man after the king and formed with him the "head of government" . In the seven-member Reichshofrat, with whom the Persian great king consulted on all important state matters, he took first place. Based on this Persian model, Alexander created the new office of Chiliarch and transferred it to Hephaestion. In the courtly hierarchy he now took first rank after Alexander, who in turn saw himself as the successor to the Persian great king. The office of Chiliarch was the culmination of Hephaistion's military and political career. At the same time, it was an expression of the unique relationship of trust and friendship that connected Alexander with his childhood companion. How intimate it was is illustrated by a whole series of more or less credible anecdotes.

Alexander and Stateira as well as Hephaistion and Drypetis during Susa's mass wedding; Illustration from the late 19th century

The intimate position of Hephaestion vis-à-vis the king found another obvious expression around the same time in the so-called mass wedding of Susa . Alexander married him to Drypetis , the daughter of the Persian great king Darius III, whom he had defeated. and sister of his own bride named Stateira; "For his and his sons should be cousins" . So Hephaistion became Alexander's brother-in-law and a member of the great royal family. In Alexander's favor, he had now far surpassed all other friends. But this marriage also had a political character; The Persian great king also used to entrust the office of Chiliarch to one of the closest "relatives" because of the special relationship of trust.

Once again Hephaistion was the deputy leader of the main army: from Susa he led it south to the Tigris near the mouth, while Alexander went down Eulaios and up the Tigris by ship and united with him. From there, both of them evidently moved up the Tigris in the same order to Opis, later Seleukia. It came here in the summer of 324 BC. To the mutiny of the army, when Alexander agreed with Hephaistion and released the Macedonian veterans home. The external reason should not hide the deeper causes of this mutiny: The Persian policy of Alexander and his vizier played a central role: Alexander donning the Persian costume, training the non-Greek "epigones" in the Macedonian style, classifying riders of foreign origin in the Macedonian hetaires cavalry, the foreign ruler's cult in the form of Proskynesis and the propagation of the sons of God, the mass wedding of Susa according to Persian ritual and with women of the Iranian aristocracy. The protest was exacerbated by the fact that he had now made Persians army commanders and his “relatives” and considered them worthy of the “kiss” within the framework of the prosksynesis they had shown him. A particular thorn in the side of the Macedonians was their compatriot Peukestas , whom Alexander had appointed satrap of Persis because he liked the fact that he had given up his Greek way of life, learned the Persian language and now act like a Persian.

In a masterfully designed coup, Alexander and his Chiliarch Hephaistion, who had apparently fallen out completely in this dispute with Eumenes and Krateros, put down the mutiny of the army. They reconciled the Macedonians with the offer to make them "relatives" of the king and to allow the "kiss" . From then on, the Macedonians accepted Proskynesis and, like the Persians, recognized Alexander's divine rank. The seemingly insurmountable barrier between barbarians and Greeks was finally broken. There was a great festival of sacrifice and reconciliation, followed by a feast, to which Alexander sat down on a golden throne in their midst, dressed in the splendid Persian priestly robe, while the Macedonians sat around him in the first row, then the Persians in the second and behind them the personalities of the other peoples who are particularly respected for rank and merit. He and those who were in his vicinity drank together from a mixing jug and offered their libations, with Greek seers and Persian priests (= magicians ) saying the prayers in ecumenical unity, as it were. Alexander and Hephaistion had thus chosen a ritual that is used as a metaphor in Plato's “Laws” : The state should be like a mixing jug in which the citizens, even if they are reluctant to do so, are brought together by marrying each other. As the religious head of the new multi-ethnic empire, Alexander was the first to speak the famous prayer of Opis, in which, among other things, he implored " goods harmony (Greek " Homonoia " ) and community (" Koinonia ") of rule for Macedonians and Persians”. 9,000 men are said to have made one and the same sacrifice and sang religious chants. The Macedonians had not only recognized Alexander's divine rank by showing him proscyneism, but also his program of brotherhood of all people, world peace and equality up to the merging of the Greeks / Macedonians and Persians. As the second man in the state and co-organizer of the feast of Opis, Hephaistion had to set a good example and, under pressure from Alexander, be reconciled with Eumenes and Krateros before the sacrificial meal and the dispensing of drinks.

Death and posthumous honors

In the late autumn of 324, Hephaistion fell ill in Ekbatana at the same time (in October) the Dionysia were celebrated with feasts and competitions. On the seventh day he died without Alexander finding him alive. The cause of the disease is unknown, but it seems to have been the result of previous efforts.

Alexander's grief over the sudden loss of his “best friend” , who was “as important to him as his own life” , knew no bounds, and the honors that he ordered for the deceased also exceeded human standards:

The lion sculpture Sang-e Schir in today's Hamadan is considered a funerary monument to Hephaestion.

He did not eat or drink for three days and ordered an empire-wide mourning. The holy fire that burned in the Iranian sanctuaries for the great king was to remain extinguished until the burial, as if he had died himself. Alexander sent ambassadors to the Siwa oasis to ask his "father" Zeus - Ammon whether he would allow Hephaestion to be worshiped as a god, which the god's priests denied. May the god only allow him a hero cult . Alexander was very happy about this and honored Hephaistion in this way. But the two heroes' temples in Alexandria , one on the mainland, the other on the island of Pharos where the world-famous lighthouse stood, seem to have not been completed. The latter cult site “should be of particularly large dimensions and striking splendor, yes he (sc. Alexander) wanted the naming of the island even after Hephaestion to become official. All contract documents with which the merchants seal their mutual business should also bear the name of Hephaestion ” . The body was carefully embalmed . Perdiccas was commissioned to transfer him to Babylon , where he was to be publicly cremated the following year and the remains to be buried. For the construction of a monumental tomb in the form of a Babylonian step pyramid with five floors and the execution of the funeral games , the sum of 10,000 talents was estimated. The post of Chiliarch, which had been created for Hephaistion, was not filled again after his death, “so that the name would not be deleted from the schematic of the leadership positions. It continued to exist as the so-called Chiliarchy of Hephaestion and carried the standard that came from him “ , even as after the death of Alexander on June 26, 323 BC. Chr. Perdiccas was the new "imperial administrator" and actual successor of Hephaistion.

A hitherto unique honor for his former intimate enemy had first come up with Eumenes : Many of Alexander's companions should "have dedicated themselves and their weapons to the dead for the cult (sc. Des Hephaistion)." He invented this gesture, "around Alexander not to give the impression that he was happy about Hephaestion's death ” .

In Ekbatana (today Hamadan , Iran ) Alexander most likely had a stone lion erected as a monument to Hephaistion. Even among today's antiquities in Hamadan, this “Sang i Shir” is the most famous. The lion stands on a hill overlooking the city from the southeast, while in early Islamic times it crowned one of the city gates. He's pretty damaged today and lost his legs.

The largest burial site ever discovered in Greece is located near the ancient city of Amphipolis , east of Thessaloniki and is said to have been built in honor of Hephaestion on behalf of Alexander. The theory of the archaeologists is based on ancient Greek inscription fragments, from which the sentence results: “I Antigonus , I took over the building material for the construction of a monument in honor of Hephaestion.” The hill has a circumference of almost 500 meters and is 33 meters high.

Summary: The Historical Significance of Hephaestion

The increasing affection of Alexander for Hephaestion over the years provided the ancient authors with material for many different interpretations; the question of whether homoerotic moments were involved or not is not answered uniformly by current research: for example, Hephaestion and Alexander advocate an erotic-intimate relationship. B. the researchers Robin Lane Fox , Hermann Bengtson , Helmut Berve , Hans-Joachim Gehrke or Elizabeth D. Carney. Hans-Ulrich Wiemer believes an intimate same-sex relationship is at least conceivable, while those researchers who consider such an unlikely or impossible position hold a minority position in current research. In the 1940s brought z. For example, the English historian William Tarn suggests that Alexander and Hephaistion not only have renounced any same-sex activities themselves, but that Alexander was also hostile to same-sex eroticism. Proponents of the existence of an intimate relationship between these two historical personalities argue, however, that among those ancient chroniclers whose sources are chronologically relatively close to the lifetimes of Hephaestion and Alexander, the aspect of homoeroticism comes to light relatively openly, mainly during the approximately 400 years after death Alexander's writing Plutarch subsequently wanted to declare Alexander the alleged opponent of Paiderastia. In doing so, however, Plutarch relied on source material, which, at the time when Plutarch's parallel biographies were written, often had a reputation for being imprecise and tendentious.

According to the current state of research, it can therefore be said that an intimate-erotic connection between Hephaistion and Alexander is quite possible; the fact that several ancient scribes (Diogenes, Iustinus, Athenaios et al.) referred to such a writer, ultimately speaks more for its existence, although Alexander also had obviously erotic relationships with women. Equally controversial is the question to what extent the friendship between Alexander and Hephaistion is related to the phenomenon of the succession of Achilles.

The sources, which were rated as serious and credible, convey the following overall picture of the personality and work of Hephaistion:

He was quite competent as a military leader and organizer, but not as excellent as other generals and friends of Alexander. Alexander was aware of this. He is said to have said that Hephaestion would be nothing without him. Even if the saying was invented, it still reflects a piece of historical reality.

It could be proven that the exceptional position that Hephaestion had achieved after his merits in the Indian campaign with the Grand Vizier's office was primarily due to the fact that of all the generals he most wholeheartedly supported Alexander's new political program of international unity and peace policy. He proved his absolute loyalty from the beginning of this new policy in the winter of 329 BC. BC, then above all in the Callisthenes affair with the introduction of proskynesis and a ruler cult based on the Persian model and also with the adoption of the "Persian" chiliarchy and the marriage to the Persian king's daughter Drypetis in the so-called mass wedding of Susa, which was based on a "Persian King's ritual ”was performed. Had he survived Alexander, a divorce from Drypetis would have been out of the question for him, while the other closest friends, with the exception of Seleucus , separated from their wives from the Iranian nobility after Alexander's death. For his unconditional loyalty, Hephaistion also accepted personal enmities such as those with Philotas, Krateros and Eumenes and other courtiers and generals of Alexander. But not least from this, Alexander also drew complete trust in him.

So Hephaistion shows himself in all his thinking and acting like Alexander's alter ego. However, it is doubtful whether he can be characterized as a “spiteful intriguer” with Badian. Such a derogatory judgment hardly does justice to the Hephaistion's commitment to his best friend's new program of international understanding and harmony.

The central social problem of the Alexander Empire in the Near East was the relationship between Greeks / Macedonians on the one hand and barbarians on the other. Since the Persian Wars, the originally linguistic delimitation and division of mankind also acquired a political dimension. The barbarian was not only subhuman, but also the enemy of the Greeks. Plato describes the barbarians as the natural enemies of the Hellenes. Xenophon calls the Persian hatred "noble" . Isocrates, the most important propagandist of a war of revenge against Persia, called for a fight against the barbarians and for harmony between the Greeks: Homonoia. And Aristotle , who instructed Crown Prince Alexander from 343 to about 340 on behalf of Philip II, together with Hephaistion and other sons from the Macedonian noble families, regarded all barbarians, especially the peoples of Asia, as "slaves by nature". In a letter he advised his pupil Alexander to regard the Greeks as free men as friends and relatives, but to treat the barbarians as slaves like animals or plants.

Alexander's new political program marked a fundamental break with this doctrine. Plutarch reports that Alexander rejected his teacher's advice and rather felt himself to be a steward and a conciliator for the whole world. He was sent by the gods to unite all people in a single state and, as it were, to mix the peoples with each other in a huge mixing jug of friendship with all their ways of life and customs, wedding customs and habits. Incidentally, that anticipated the metaphor for American society: melting pot . Alexander, Plutarch continues his report, ordered that all people, regardless of their origin, should regard the earth as their fatherland, his camp as their castle and residence, the good and decent as their relatives, but the bad as barbarians. He forbade distinguishing Greeks and barbarians according to a war coat and leather shield, a dagger and an overcoat; for by virtue of “virtue” one recognizes Greekism, barbarism by depravity. But clothing, food, marriage and customs should not differ, because all this is mixed up with blood and children. Plutarch compares this program with the cosmopolitanism of Zeno (approx. 335–263 BC), who founded the philosophical school of the Stoa . He also taught a worldwide brotherhood and that the true polis was the cosmopolis, in which all people should live as fellow citizens and brothers according to the same way of life and order. But that remained a philosophical dream for him, while Alexander had already put it into practice. This is confirmed by the geographer Eratosthenes , whom Plutarch quotes in this context. After that, Alexander categorically rejected the division of the entire human race in two halves, Greeks and barbarians, which Aristotle and many others represented, and replaced it with the distinction between morally "good" and "bad" people.

Hephaistion and Alexander formed a community of struggle and loyalty in politics that was unparalleled. This ideal symbiosis proved itself above all in the fact that - probably out of his own congenial insight into the necessity of such a policy - he supported and supported Alexander's plan for world peace and harmony between nations through the gradual equality, even veritable merging of the Orientals with the Greeks like no other of his friends promoted to the best of his ability. In return he accepted the hostility of numerous opponents of this policy and supporters of the teaching of Aristotle from the circle of Alexander's generals. The fact that his sudden death was an irreplaceable loss for Alexander is very understandable regardless of how intimate their personal relationship was.

swell

• Gerhard Wirth , Oskar von Hinüber (ed.): Arrian. The Alexanderzug. Indian history. Greek and German. Edited and translated, Artemis Verlag Munich and Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-7608-1649-5 .
• Plutarch . Five double biographies . 1st part: Alexandros (= here abbreviated quoted as Plut. Alex.) And Caesar ..., Greek and German. Translated by Konrat Ziegler and Walter Wuhrmann, selected by Manfred Fuhrmann. With an introduction and explanations by Konrat Ziegler, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt 1994. Order number 12645-9.
• Theodor Vogel (Ed.): Q. Curti Rufi Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis libri qui supersunt . 2 volumes. 4th and 3rd ed., Teubner, Leipzig 1903 and 1906. Reprint Olms, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 3-487-11556-5 , = here abbreviated and quoted as Curtius.
• Diodoros of Sicily. In Twelve Volumes, Vol. VIII. Books XVI.66-95 and XVII , with an English Translation by C. Bradford Welles, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge-London 1963. ISBN 0-674-99464-7 = cited here as a diode. 17 and
• Diodoros of Sicily. In Twelve Volumes, Vol. IX. Books XVIII-XIX, 65 with an English Translation by Russel M. Geer, The Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge-London 1984. ISBN 0-674-99415-9 = abbreviated here, cited as Diod. 18th
• M. Juniani Iustini. Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi , ed.Otto Seel, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-519-01470-X = here abbreviated Iustin.

literature

• Helmut Berve : The Alexander Empire on a prosopographical basis . Vol. 2, Munich 1926, No. 357.
• Ernst Badian : Hephaistion 1. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 5, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01475-4 , column 349 f.
• Albert Brian Bosworth: Hephaistion . In: Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth (Eds.): The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, p. 186, ISBN 0-19-866172-X .
• Elizabeth D. Carney: Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Aristocracy . Dissertation, Duke University, 1975.
• Alexander Demandt : Great moments in history . Beck-Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46649-4 .
• Volker Fadinger : Greek tyranny and the ancient Orient . In: Kurt Raaflaub (ed. With the collaboration of Elisabeth Müller-Luckner): Beginnings of political thinking in antiquity. The Middle Eastern cultures and the Greeks , writings of the historical college. Colloquia 24, Oldenbourg-Verlag Munich 1993, 263-316 and 404-412, ISBN 3-486-55993-1 .
• Volker Fadinger: The assassination attempt on King Philip II of Macedonia in Aigai 336 BC Chr. In: Peter Neukam (Ed.): Legacy and Challenge . Dialogue between school and science. Classical languages ​​and literatures, Volume XXXI, Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag Munich 1997, pp. 101–145, ISBN 3-7627-8366-7 .
• Volker Fadinger: Peisistratos and Phye. A contribution to the sacred legitimation of tyrannical rule in the archaic city-state of Athens . In: Wolfgang Pircher and Martin Treml (eds.): Tyrannis and seduction . Turia and Kant publishing house, Vienna 2000, pp. 9–70, ISBN 3-85132-247-9 .
• Eid Hafez: Hephaistion: The Secret of Alexander. Projekteverlag, Halle 2004, ISBN 3-937027-53-X .
• Waldemar Heckel : Hephaestion . In: Ders .: The Marshals of Alexander's Empire . Routledge, London 1992, pp. 65-90, ISBN 0-415-05053-7 .
• Waldemar Heckel: Who's Who In The Age Of Alexander The Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire . Oxford 2006, pp. 133ff.
• Walther Hinz: Darius and the Persians . A cultural history of the Achaemenids, Vol. 2, Baden-Baden 1979, ISBN 3-87355-167-5 .
• Peter Högemann : The Ancient Near East and the Achaemenids. A contribution to the Herodotus analysis . Wiesbaden 1992, ISBN 3-88226-563-9 .
• Sylvia A. Matheson: Persia. An archaeological guide . Reclam Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-15-010296-0 .
• Klaus Meister : The Greek historiography. From the beginning to the end of Hellenism , chap. III.4. The Alexanderhistoriker , Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart-Berlin-Cologne 1990, 102 ff, ISBN 3-17-010264-8 .
• Gerhard Plaumann : Hephaistion 3). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VIII, 1, Stuttgart 1912, Col. 292-296.
• Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman: Hephaistion Amyntoros: Éminence Grise at the Court of Alexander the Great . Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1998.
• Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman: An Atypical Affair? Alexander the Great, Hephaestion, and the Nature of Their Relationship . In: The Ancient History Bulletin 13.3 (1999), pp. 81-96.
• Jakob Seibert , Alexander the Great . Results of research, Volume 10, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 4th unaltered edition, Darmstadt 1994, ISBN 3-534-04492-4 .
• Gerhard Wirth : Hephaistion 1. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1022 f.
• Fritz Rudolf Wüst : On the hypomnemata of Alexander the great. The tomb of Hephaestion . In: Yearbook of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 44 (1959), pp. 147–157.

Web links

Commons : Hephaistion  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hephaistion - Philalexandros: Website with essays, pictures, links (English)
• Hephaistion biography (English)
• Q. Curtii Rufi: Historiae Alexander Magni Macedonis, Liber III, XII (Latin)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Demandt: Alexander the Great. Life and legend . Munich 2009, p. 236f.
2. ↑ Robin Lane Fox: Alexander the Great. Conqueror of the world . Stuttgart 2004, p. 61.
3. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court, in: Roisman, Joseph (ed.): Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great, Leiden, Boston 2003, p. 243.
4. ↑ In summary Pedro Barcelo: Alexander the Great (Gestalten der Antike, edited by Manfred Clauss), Darmstadt 2007, p. 50.
5. ^ Curtius Rufus 3, 12, 16.
6. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 1, 12, 1 assigned to the novel-like tradition.
7. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 2, 12, 6, according to his own confession, did not find this scene in his two most important contemporary sources, Ptolemy and Aristobulus, but in the romance-like tradition and questions its credibility.
8. ↑ See u. a. Gerhard Wirth, a. OS 803 f. Note 94 in the commentary on Arrian. Anabasis 1, 12, 1: "How far here (sc. In the friendly relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion) Personally-Human and Political-Necessary condition one another, can no longer be seen in detail" . For the sources and the problem of historical credibility in general, cf. u. a. Jakob Seibert, aO1-61 and Klaus Meister, a. O. 102-123.
9. ↑ Plutarch , Alexandros 72, 1-2.
10. ↑ Arrian , Anabasis 6, 28, 4 and Indika 18, 3.
11. ^ Curtius Rufus 4, 5, 10; on this Plaumann, op. O. Sp. 291.
12. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 3:15 , 2.
13. ↑ Diodorus 17, 61, 3.
14. ↑ cf. also Curtius Rufus 4, 16, 32: One of the "troop leaders" ( duces copiarum ) of Alexander.
15. ↑ a. O. 1022.
16. ↑ so Ernst Badian , op. OS 349.
17. ↑ Plutarch, Alexandros 49, 11-13.
18. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis , 3, 27, 4-5.
19. ↑ Plutarch Alex. 45, 2-4; Arrian, Anabasis 4,7,4; on the Persian festive robe cf. also Curtius 6,6,2 ff .; Ephippos from Olynth , "On the death of Hephaistion and Alexander" FGrHist 126 from Athenaios , Deipnosophistai VII 537e – 538; on the “Persian” coronation robe as a god's robe, which transformed the Persian great king into the human image of the sun god Mithra, Volker Fadinger, assassination attempt on King Philip II. 1997, 106 f.
20. ↑ Plutarch Alex. 47, 3 and 71, 1-2; on the 30,000 so-called epigones cf. also Arrian 7, 6; on the underlying new political program of international understanding, cf. here the final chapter: "Summary" with the relevant sources.
21. ↑ so rightly Plutarch Alex. 47, 7-8 and Arrian Anabasis 4, 19, 5-6; on the rite of eating bread together, which is still common today in Turkestan at weddings: Curtius 8, 4, 27.
22. ↑ Plutarch Alex. 47, 9-10.
23. ↑ Arrian a. O. 4, 12, 3-6: Plutarch Alex. 54.5-6 following Chares by Mytilene FGrHist II 66.
24. ↑ Alex. 55, 1.
25. ↑ Arrian 4, 22, 7 and 5, 3, 5.
26. ↑ Arrian Indika 18, 3; on this Plaumann, op. O. Sp. 292.
27. ↑ Arrian Indika 18, 3; 19, 2; Anabasis 6, 18, 1.
28. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 6, 20.
29. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 6, 21, 5.
30. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 6, 28, 7.
31. ↑ Plaumann, op. O. Sp. 293.
32. ↑ P. Högemann, op. O.344; the Office of the Persian Court Marshal in detail Walther Hinz, Darius and the Persians , Vol. 2, 1979, 79 ff., 139 f., after which the Persian court marshal literally "Vice Great King" was the in Persian titled "second ruler" led ; on the Reichshofrat the so-called 7 houses and the religious significance of the number seven cf. the Old Testament book of Esther 1:14 and Ezra 7:14; also Josephus, Antiquitates Iudaicae 9,31; Strabon, Geographica 11, 9, 3 C 515 and Hinz, a. O. 105 and Fadinger, The assassination attempt on King Philip II of Macedonia, p. 107 f. with A. 42 on p. 135.
33. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 7, 14, 10 and succ. Alex. 3. cf. also Diod. 18, 48, 4.
34. ↑ e.g. Arrian Anabasis 1, 12, 1; 7, 18, 2; Aelian, Varia Historia 7,7; Plutarch Alex. 39.47; Curt. 3, 12, 15; Diod. 17, 37, 5; 114, 2.
35. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 4, 5-6; Diod. 17, 107, 6; Curt. 10, 5, 20; see. also Plutarch Alex. 70, 2 to Stateira.
36. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 7, 1 and 6.
37. ↑ On the meaning of the Greek "proskynein" as "to kiss", more precisely: "Put your hand to your mouth, stretch it out with a kiss to another and thereby testify to his reverence" cf. on this and the meaning of the gesture of adoration in the context of the ruler's cult in detail Volker Fadinger, Peisistratos and Phye , Vienna 2000, 13 ff. and Dens., Greek Tyrannis and Alter Orient , Munich 1993, 288 ff. and 408 ff.
38. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 8–12; to the deeper causes esp. 7, 8, 2-3. 11, 3-7; to the annoyance of the Macedonians about the mass wedding of Susa and the associated regulations, according to which "Alexander has become completely a barbarian and treats Macedonian customs, and ultimately herself, as something contemptible", Arrian Anabasis 7, 6-7, esp. 6, 5; to Peukestas 7, 6, 3.
39. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 12, 7 and 13.1; Plutarch Eumenes 2 and Al. 47 with the comment of Wirth, op. OS 976 A. 49.
40. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 11, 5-9.
41. ↑ Plat., Nomoi 733 D.
42. ↑ See A. Demandt, Sternstunden der Geschichte , Munich 2000, 41.
43. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 11, 8-9.
44. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 13.
45. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis , 7, 14, 1-2; Iustin.12, 12, 1. The contemporary Ephippos of Olynthos traces the early end of both to excessive alcohol consumption in his work on "the death of Hephaistion and Alexander" , which had been a hallmark of their way of life for years; see. also Diod. 17, 110, 7-8 and Plutarch Alex. 70, 1.
46. ↑ Wirth, loc. Cit. 977 A. 54 in the commentary on Arrian 7, 14, 1-2.
47. ↑ Arrian 7, 14, 6.
48. ↑ Arrian 7:14, 2-8.
49. ↑ Arrian 7, 14, 7.
50. ↑ Arrian 7:23, 6-7; Plutarch Alex. 72, 2-3 and 75, 3; on the other hand, the tradition in Diod. 17, 115, 6 and Justin. 12, 12, 11, the oracle ordered the divine worship of Hephaistion to be strictly rejected as a legend; so rightly Plaumann, loc. cit. Sp. 295.
51. ↑ Arrian 7, 23, 7-8.
52. ↑ Diod. 17, 110, 8.
53. ↑ Arrian 7, 14, 8 with the commentary by Wirth, loc. Cit. 978 f. in note 58; Plutarch Alex. 72, 3-4; Diod. 17, 115, 2; 18, 4, 2 and Justinus 12, 12, 12, who even handed down the sum of 12,000 talents.
54. ↑ Arrian 7, 14, 10.
55. ^ Arrian Succ. Alex. 3 and Diod. 18, 45, 5.
56. ↑ Arrian 7, 14, 9-10; on the quarrel between the two and the reconciliation initiated by Alexander Arrian 7, 13.
57. ↑ Sylvia A. Matheson, AO 121 f. with illus. 34 on p. 123; see. also Badian, aO Sp. 350 and Heinz Luschey : Der Löwe von Ekbatana . In: Archaeological Communications from Iran . NF Vol. 1, 1968, pp. 115-122.
58. ↑ Riddle about Amphipolis tomb solved In the sz-online
59. ↑ Robin Lane Fox: Alexander the Great, pp. 61–63.
60. ^ Hermann Bengtson: Philipp and Alexander. The founders of the Hellenistic World, Munich 1997, pp. 210–212.
61. ↑ Helmut Berve: The Alexander Reich on a prosopographical basis, Vol. 2, Munich 1926, p. 169ff.
62. ↑ Hans-Joachim Gehrke: Alexander the Great. 5th edition, Munich 2008, p. 20.
63. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court, pp. 242-243.
64. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wiemer: Alexander the Great, Munich 2005, pp. 75–76.
65. ↑ Demandt: Alexander the Great, Munich 2009, p. 237.
66. ↑ Cf. on this the source-based assessment in Bengtson: Philipp and Alexander, Munich 1997, p. 210: The attempts of the newer, this [d. H. Denying the same-sex activities of Alexander and some of his companions] is not convincing, and if Athenaios (from the 2nd century AD) is described as unreliable, this is also true with regard to the dikaiarch [a Contemporary Alexander], the author of a Greek cultural history, quite absurd. On this point there is nothing to save or idealize with Alexander. The image of his personality is not significantly changed by his pederasty.
67. ↑ see also Arrian Anabasis 7, 5, 4–6.
68. ↑ Plutarch Alex. 47, 11.
69. ↑ on this and especially Arrian Anabasis 7, 11, 9.
70. ↑ on this Plutarch Alex. 47-55; Arrian 7, 13, 1.
71. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 7, 4, 6 and 6, 2.
72. ↑ Plutarch Alex. 47, 11-48; Arrian 7, 13.
73. ↑ cf. Wirth, op. cit. Sp. 1023 and Badian, op. cit. Sp. 350.
74. ↑ in: Der Neue Pauly , Vol. 5, 1998, Col. 350.
75. ↑ Cf. Homer, Ilias 2, 897, where the term barbaros onomatopoeia stands for people who do not speak Greek but an incomprehensible blah blah .
76. ↑ Plato , Letter 7, 333a; 336a.
77. ↑ Agesilaus 7: 7.
78. ↑ Speeches 4, 184; 5, 16; 12, 163.
79. ↑ Aristotle fr. 658, ed. Valentin Rose.
80. ↑ Demandt, Sternstunden der Geschichte , p. 39.
81. ^ Plutarch, De Alexandri Magni Fortuna aut Virtute Or. 1, 6 = Moralia 329 B 19-D 14.
82. ↑ Plutarch loc. Cit. 1, 6 = Moralia 329 A 9-B 18.
83. ↑ Plutarch Moralia 330 = Eratostenes at Strabon, Geographica 1, 4, 9, p. 66 C, 23-9, p. 67 C, 7 in the German translation by St. Radt (Ed.): Strabons Geographika , with translation and commentary Vol. 1: Prolegomena Book I-IV: Text and Translation, Göttingen 2002, 167; on the implementation of the new program of world peace and the merging of peoples by Alexander, especially by marrying Rhoxane and then the mass wedding of Susa, cf. also Alexander Demandt, loc. cit. 39 ff., who rightly characterizes “the greatest wedding in world history” as “a great moment for mankind” (p. 41).

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on September 6, 2006 in this version .