Alexander friends

[H]

Marcus,I salute your bravery! You could very well get slammed by the philohephaistiones as you say - are you counting Alexander as one of them? However, my interest lies in the fact that you have these feelings without historical basis. You're not alone in this, of course, Peter Green is a well-known example who springs to mind. Any ideas why these feelings exist in regards to Hephaistion and yet are not generally felt towards, say, Lysimachus who we know much more about?Best regards
Halil

[Link]

You are describing Philotas!
Were you jealous or drunk?;-))

[marcus]

Ha ha! Well, I expected some lambasting, and I got it :-)No, Pela, I was describing Hephaistion, not Philotas (although I think pretty much everything I said applies to Philotas, as well).Tre, as I said, nothing there is explicitly stated in the sources. However, I think I have fairly good grounds for coming to that conclusion - but I will need to look out the references in order to answer you properly on that one... watch this space.All the bestMarcus

[S]

Greetings All,
I was going to avoid posting to this thread, but I would like to throw in a thought:I would tend to agree that Hephaistion was carefully watchful, of guarding his position- but in the atmosphere of the particular culture, it would be understandable...they all were.As to arrogant, that would depend, would it not, on being compared to his peers? And these men were fed a diet of pride and power of place - none were "meek" or self-sacrificing much... There is not enough written about Hephaistion to accurately assess his personality, despite Green's conclusion. What few incidents are recorded do not give us the details behind the events. For example, the incident with the flute player does not state who this person was nor why they were placed above Eumenes in the "who gets this house" incident except that we know Alexander agreed with Hephaistion's decision once he heard H's side of the story; the incident with Krateros does not give the background regarding the *why* of this incident except for skimming the surface, and the fact that Hephaistion is seen as a logistics person does not say anything about his ability to fight, though it might well say something about the place he held with Alexander. Like Alexander, Hephaistion seems to have a wall of secrecy about him and that does not have to imply the negative.Though I see it has been deleted, Susa's comment assumed far too much based in prejudicial stereotypes that, in this new millenium, should have gone the way of the dinosaur. It is obvious that Hephaistion was not inconsequential to Alexander, nor can we assume that the work he did was of no effect to Alexander's goals... each man in the high circles had his part to play, and in warfare, logistics is a critical element and would not be "sniffed" at by any leader worth his salt.We cannot examine these men, in that time, place and culture, with eyes that seek to put modern views and perspectives on people long dead. From Hephaistion to Olympiada, we too often assess their behaviours as though they were modern people, in modern cultures.. the culture they lived in was violent and these were the aristo, born to pride, power and a sense of entitlement, but it was also a culture based in codes of honour, loyalty and strength- Hephaistion would have been expected to hold to the same codes of conduct Alexander set for himself, to even be Alexander's friend.In an army of young lions, I do not see Hephaistion as being anyth

[S]

...In an army of young lions, I do not see Hephaistion as being any different from his peers.
Regards,
Sikander