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Hephaestion son of Amyntor was Alexander’s closest friend (Curtius 3.12.16). A native of Pella (Arrian Indica 18), he shared Alexander’s education and upbringing (Curtius 3.12.16), and probably served in the army from an early age. He was commander of the bodyguards (somatophylakes) at Gaugamela (Diodorus 17.61.3), where he was wounded, and was later appointed joint commander, with Cleitus, of the Companion Cavalry (Arrian 3.27.4). At the end of the Persian campaign, he was decorated for bravery and leadership (Arrian 7.5.6). 

By the time of his death he was Chiliarch of the empire, Alexander’s second-in-command in both military and political spheres (Photius 92). 

His distinguished military career included various special missions. Some were diplomatic, such as the occasion when he selected a new king for Sidon (Curtius 4.1.16), and others related to engineering, such as when he and Perdiccas bridged the Indus (Arrian 4.23.59), or the construction of the new fort and harbour at Pattala (Arrian 6.18.1, 6.20.1). 

Hephaestion’s interests were not limited to the military and technical; he corresponded with the philosophers Aristotle and Xenocrates, (Diogenes Laertius, Aristotle 5) and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to integrate Greeks and Persians (Plutarch Alexander 55.1). 

In all that Alexander undertook, Hephaistion was at his side, a man he trusted completely and one upon whom he increasingly relied. Towards the end of the Bactrian campaign, when Alexander had cause to divide his forces, it was Hephaistion to whom half were entrusted when the objectives were not clear-cut, and Alexander needed someone who would be able to do what he would have done himself (Arrian 4.22.58). 

Such was Alexander’s regard for Hephaestion, that when he and his officers took Persian brides, Hephaestion was given Drypetis, daughter of the former king Darius, and sister to Alexander’s own bride, Stateira. Alexander stated that he wished for their children to be cousins (Arrian 7.4.29). 

Their working partnership was strong, and there is evidence that Alexander saw Hephaestion as an alter ego. He was free to speak his mind to the king, and Alexander, for his part, trusted Hephaestion with his secrets (Curtius 3.12.17). 

It’s also entirely likely that they were lovers. None of the extant sources says so in so many words, but by the time those were written down, such a love was already being frowned upon (Horace Epistles 2, 1, 156). Nevertheless, several well-attested incidents suggest that this was indeed the case. For example, Alexander and Hephaestion publicly honoured their dead heroes, Achilles and Patroclus, at Troy (Arrian 1.12.1). Even more telling is Alexander’s overwhelming grief at Hephaestion’s death. He had to be dragged away from the body (Arrian 7.14.6), and he ordered the sacred fires extinguished, a thing which was normally only done on the death of the Great King himself (Diodorus 17.114.4). 

Hephaestion died at Ecbatana in October 324, of a fever which had similarities to typhoid (Plutarch Alexander 72.2). His funeral was probably the most expensive in history (Arrian 7.15.5), and with the permission of the oracle at Siwa, he was honoured as a divine hero (Arrian 7.23.8). Many of the splendid monuments in his memory went uncompleted. Alexander was still planning them at the time of his own death, just eight months later (Arrian 7.23.10).

Written by Fiona