Hephaestion Hephaestion ( , alternative transliteration : " Hephaistion " ; c . 356 BC – 324 BC ) , son of Amyntor , was a Macedonian nobleman 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 . " This friendship 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 he died suddenly at Ecbatana 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 " . At the time of his own death a mere eight months later , Alexander was still planning lasting monuments to Hephaestion ' s memory . Youth and education . Hephaestion ’ s exact age is not known . No concise biography has ever been written about him , likely stemming from the fact that he died before Alexander and none of those among Alexander ' s companions who survived him would have had a need to promote someone other than themselves . Many scholars cite Hephaestion ’ s age as being similar to Alexander ’ s so it is fair to assume that he was born about 356 BC . He is said to have become a page in 343 BC , a role common to adolescent boys of the aristocratic class in Macedon . Now a member of court life , it is possible that the two future conquerors would have met around this time . The only surviving anecdote from Hephaestion ’ s youth comes courtesy of the Alexander Romance . According to this tale , “ . . . one day when Alexander was 15 years old [ . . . ] sailing with Hephaestion , his friend , he easily reached Pisa [ . . . ] and he went off to stroll with Hephaestion . ” That Alexander ’ s exact age is given provides another clue to Hephaestion ’ s upbringing because at fifteen Alexander and his companions were at Mieza studying under Aristotle . Hephaestion has never been named among those who attended the lectures at Mieza , but his close friendship with Alexander at that age suggests strongly that he was numbered among them . More telling is Hephaestion ’ s name being found in a catalogue of Aristotle ’ s correspondences . The letters themselves no longer exist , but for them to have found their way into an official catalogue , their content must have been of some significance . It implies that Hephaestion received a good education and shows that Aristotle was impressed enough by his pupil to send letters throughout Alexander ' s expanding empire to converse with him . A few years after the lectures at Mieza , Hephaestion ’ s presence was notably absent when several of Alexander ’ s close friends were exiled as a result of the Pixodarus affair . Among those exiled by Philip II after Alexander ’ s failed attempt to offer himself as groom to the Carian princess were Ptolemy , Nearchus , Harpalus , Erigyius and Laomedon . The reason for Hephaestion ’ s absence from this list could be due to the fact that all of the exiled men were older friends of Alexander , Erigyius himself roughly 24 years older than the prince . Hephaestion was a contemporary of Alexander and it is likely that his influence might have been seen as less of a threat than these more mature companions . Whatever Hephaestion ’ s opinion had been on the whole affair , like many of Alexander ’ s other childhood companions he was not exiled in its aftermath . While it is true that very little detail of Hephaestion ’ s childhood and education can be found , that which remains gives credence to what is known about his later life . His friendship with Alexander was long - lasting , as was his tenure in the court at Pella ; he even shared the same education as the future Great King of Greece and Asia . With such a promising start , age and experience would have helped mould Hephaestion Amyntoros into the man who would one day be the second most powerful man in Alexander ’ s empire , second only to the king himself . Career . Sharing Alexander ' s upbringing , Hephaestion would have learned to fight and to ride well from an early age . His first taste of military action was probably the campaign against the Thracians while Alexander was regent , followed by Philip II ' s Danube campaign ( 342 BC ) and the battle of Chaeronea ( 338 BC ) while he was still in his teens . His name is not mentioned in lists of high - ranking officers during the early battles of Alexander ' s Danube campaign ( 335 BC ) or the invasion of Persia . Nor are the names of Alexander ' s other close friends and contemporaries listed , suggesting that their promotions , when they achieved them , were earned by merit . Hephaestion ' s career was never solely a military one . Right from the start he was also engaged in special missions , sometimes diplomatic , sometimes technical . The first mention of his career in the sources is a diplomatic mission of some importance . After the battle of Issus ( 333 BC ) when Alexander was proceeding south down the Phoenician coast and had received the capitulation of Sidon , Hephaestion was " . . . authorised to appoint to the throne the Sidonian he considered most deserving of that high office . " Hephaestion took local advice and chose a man distantly related to the royal family , but whose honesty had reduced him to working as a gardener . The man , Abdalonymus , had a successful royal career , fully justifying Hephaestion ' s choice . After the siege of Tyre ( 332 BC ) Alexander entrusted his fleet to Hephaestion , who had orders to skirt the coast and head for Gaza , their next objective , while Alexander himself led the army overland . Hephaestion ' s task was not an easy one for this was not the Athenian fleet with which Alexander had started and had earlier disbanded , but a motley collection of semi - reluctant allies of many nationalities who would need holding together with patience and strength . Furthermore , on arrival at Gaza the cargo of siege engines had to be unloaded , transported across difficult terrain and reassembled . Plutarch , while writing about Alexander ' s correspondence , reveals an occasion when Hephaestion was away on business and Alexander wrote to him . The subject matter suggests that this took place while they were in Egypt . What business Hephaestion was attending to we do not know , but Andrew Chugg has suggested that it was concerned either with his command of the fleet or Athenian diplomacy . He quotes sources which suggest that Hephaestion had been approached by Aristion of Athens to effect a reconciliation between Alexander and Demosthenes and , certainly , Athens ' inaction during the revolt of the Spartan king Agis would seem to support this idea . As Chugg says , " If he did persuade Alexander to reach an accommodation with Demosthenes at this critical juncture , as would seem likely from the circumstances , then he was significantly responsible for saving the situation for Macedon in Greece by preventing the revolt of Agis spreading to Athens and her allies . " It is likely , though not certain , that it was Hephaestion who led the advance army from Egypt to bridge the Euphrates river . Darius of Persia sent Mazaeus to hold the opposite bank while the bridging work was in progress . This Mazaeus was the commander who threw away what looked like certain victory on the Persian right at the battle of Gaugamela ( 331 BC ) and later became Alexander ' s governor of Babylon . Robin Lane Fox has an interesting suggestion that conversation with Hephaestion may have won Mazaeus over : " It is conceivable that the battle of Gaugamela was partly won on the banks of the Euphrates and that Mazaeus ' reinstatement was less a sign of magnanimity than of a prearranged reward . " It is at Gaugamela that mention is first made of Hephaestion ' s rank . He is called the " . . . commander of the bodyguards ( somatophylakes ) . " This is not the Royal Squadron , whose duties also included guarding the king in battle and which was at that time commanded by Cleitus — a man of the older generation — but a small group of close companions specifically designated to fight alongside the king . Hephaestion was certainly in the thick of things with Alexander for Arrian tells us he was wounded and Curtius specifically mentions that it was a spear wound in the arm . After Gaugamela there is the first indication that Alexander intended reconciliation with the Persians and that Hephaestion supported him in this unpopular policy . One evening in Babylon Alexander noticed a high - born woman obliged to dance as part of the entertainment . Curtius explains : " The following day , he ( Alexander ) instructed Hephaestion to have all the prisoners brought to the royal quarters and there he verified the lineage of each of them . " Alexander had realized that people from noble families were being treated with little dignity and wanted to do something about it . That he chose Hephaestion to help him shows that he could rely on Hephaestion ' s tact and sympathy . Yet Alexander could also rely on Hephaestion for firmness and resolve . When his policies had led to a plot against his life , the possible involvement of a senior officer , Philotas , caused much concern . It was Hephaestion , along with Craterus and Coenus , who insisted on , and actually carried out , the customary torture . After the execution of Philotas ( 330 BC ) , Hephaestion was appointed joint commander — with Cleitus — of the Companion cavalry , Philotas ' former position . This dual appointment was a way of satisfying two divergent shades of opinion now hardening throughout the army : one , like Hephaestion , broadly supportive of Alexander ' s policy of integration , and the other , that of Philip ' s older veterans in particular , whose implacable resentment of Persian ways was well represented by Cleitus . The cavalry prospered under this command , showing itself equal to learning new tactics necessary against Scythian nomads and to counter - insurgency measures such as those deployed in the spring of 328 BC . The army set out from Balkh in five columns to spread through the valleys between the Oxus and Tanais rivers to pacify Sogdiana . Hephaestion commanded one of the columns and , after arriving at Marakanda , he set out again to establish settlements in the region . In spring 327 BC the army headed into India and Alexander divided his forces . He led his section north into the Swat Valley , while Hephaestion and Perdiccas took a sizeable contingent through the Khyber Pass . Hephaestion ' s orders were to " . . . take over either by force or agreement all places on their march and upon reaching the Indus to make suitable preparations for crossing . " They were in unknown territory , whose political and geographical landscapes were unfamiliar , and Hephaestion would have had to make decisions on the spot and act accordingly . He reached the Indus with the land behind him conquered , including the successful siege of Peuceolatis , which took thirty days , and proceeded to organize the construction of boats for the crossing . Alexander often had to divide his forces and command was given to a variety of senior officers on different occasions . For example , a few weeks before this mission of Hephaestion ' s , Craterus had been sent with a large force to subdue the last two remaining Bactria n rebels . It seems that Hephaestion was chosen when the objectives were far from clear - cut , and Alexander needed a commander on whom he could rely to do what he would have done himself without needing instructions . Hephaestion took part in a notable cavalry charge at the battle of the Hydaspes river ( 326 BC ) . Then when the army began its homeward journey he was again entrusted with half the army , including the elite troops and two hundred elephants , as they travelled south - west along the banks of the Hydaspes . Some of the army , including Alexander himself , travelled in boats which had been provided by the sponsorship of leading courtiers . Arrian lists Hephaestion first among these " honorary trierarch s " , indicating his leading position at this time . On entering hostile territory Alexander split his forces into three . Hephaestion ' s section marched " . . . five days in advance , with the object of intercepting and capturing any native troops which . . . might be rapidly moving forward " . Again , Hephaestion was called upon when initiative was required . After Alexander had taken a detour to subdue a hostile tribe , in which he was seriously injured , Hephaestion took command of the greater part of the army as they travelled down the Indus to the sea . At the coast he organized the construction of a fortress and a harbour for the fleet at Pattala . Hephaestion was in command at Pattala while Alexander advanced . When he rejoined Alexander at Rhambacia he established a city there also . Hephaestion crossed the Gedrosian desert with Alexander , sharing the torments of that journey and , when the army was safely back in Susa , he was decorated for bravery . He was to take part in no further fighting ; he had only months to live . But , having ended his military career as Alexander ' s de facto second - in - command , he was also his second in the political sphere . Alexander had made that official by naming him Chiliarch . Photius mentions Perdiccas being appointed " . . . to command the chiliarchy which Hephaestion had originally held . " Relationships . Little is known of Hephaestion ' s personal relationships beyond his extraordinarily close friendship with Alexander . Alexander was an outgoing , charismatic man who had many friends but his dearest and closest friend and confidant was Hephaestion . Theirs was a friendship which had been forged in boyhood . It endured through adolescence , through Alexander ' s becoming king , and through the hardships of campaigning and the flatteries of court life and their marriages . Their tutor Aristotle described such a friendship as " . . . one soul abiding in two bodies " . That they themselves considered their friendship to be of such a kind is shown by the stories of the morning after the battle of Issus . Diodorus , Arrian and Curtius all describe the scene when Alexander and Hephaestion went together to visit the captured Persian royal family . Its senior member , the queen Sisygambis , knelt to Hephaestion to plead for their lives mistaking him for Alexander because he was the taller and both young men were wearing similar clothes . When she realized her mistake she was acutely embarrassed but Alexander reassured her with the words , " You were not mistaken , Mother ; this man too is Alexander . " Their love for each other was no secret , as is borne out by their own words . Hephaestion , when replying to a letter to Alexander ' s mother , Olympias , said " . . . you know that Alexander means more to us than anything . " Arrian says that Alexander , after Hephaestion ' s death , described him as " . . . the friend I valued as my own life . " Paul Cartledge describes their closeness when he says : " Alexander seems actually to have referred to Hephaestion as his alter ego . " Their friendship was also a working partnership ; in all that Alexander undertook , Hephaestion was at his side . They worked well together ; it is possible to discern a pattern , when studying Hephaestion ' s career , of Alexander ' s constant trust in , and increasing reliance on , Hephaestion . By the time of the advance into India , after the deaths of senior generals from the older generation , there had been worrying instances among senior officers of their own generation of treachery , a lack of sympathy with Alexander ' s aims of further integration of Persians into the army , and of sheer incompetence . Time after time , when Alexander needed to divide his forces he entrusted half to Hephaestion , knowing that in him he had a man of unquestionable loyalty who understood and sympathized with his aims and , above all , who got the job done . Hephaestion played a full part in Alexander ' s regular consultations with senior officers , but he was the one to whom Alexander would also talk in private , sharing his thoughts , hopes and plans . Curtius states that Hephaestion was the sharer of all his secrets . And Plutarch describes an occasion when Alexander had a controversial change to impose and implies that Hephaestion was the one with whom Alexander discussed it and who arranged for the change to be implemented . According to the painting done by Aetion of Alexander ' s first wedding , Hephaestion was his torch bearer ( best man ) , showing by this not only his friendship , but also his support for Alexander ' s policies as Alexander ' s choice of an Asian bride had not been a popular one . By the time they returned to Persia Hephaestion was officially , by title , Alexander ' s second - in - command , as he had long been in practice , and also his brother - in - law . Hammond sums up their public relationship well : " It is not surprising that Alexander was as closely attached to Hephaestion as Achilles was to Patroclus " , and " At the time of his death Hephaestion held the highest single command , that of the Companion Cavalry ; and had been repeatedly second in command to Alexander in the hierarchy of the Asian court , holding the title of Chiliarch , which had been held by Nabarzanes under Darius . Thus Alexander honoured Hephaestion both as the closest of his friends and the most distinguished of his Field Marshals . " It has been suggested that as well as being close friends Alexander and Hephaestion were also lovers . None of the ancient sources states this in so many words . By the time the extant sources were written — some three hundred years later — homosexual affairs were looked upon with less favour than they had been in ancient Greece — Horace speaks of the " Greek vice " — and so had already begun the process which has continued intermittently ever since , the " airbrushing " of Hephaestion out of history . However , Arrian describes the occasion when Alexander and Hephaestion publicly identified themselves with Achilles and Patroclus , who were acknowledged by Plato and Aeschylus , among others , to have been lovers . It happened right at the beginning of the campaign in Asia when Alexander led a contingent of the army to visit Troy , scene of the events in his beloved " Iliad " . He laid a wreath on the tomb of Achilles and Hephaestion laid a wreath on the tomb of Patroclus and they ran a race , naked , to honour their dead heroes . Arrian discreetly draws no conclusions from this . However Robin Lane Fox , writing in 1973 , says : " It was a remarkable tribute , uniquely paid , and it is also Hephaestion ' s first mention in Alexander ' s career . Already the two were intimate , Patroclus and Achilles even to those around them ; the comparison would remain to the end of their days and is proof of their life as lovers , for by Alexander ' s time , Achilles and Patroclus were agreed to have enjoyed the relationship which Homer himself had never directly mentioned . " Hephaestion and Alexander grew up in a time and place where homosexual affairs were seen as perfectly normal , but the pattern that such affairs followed was not the same in every city - state . Roman and later writers , taking the Athenian pattern as their example , have tended to assume either that their sexual relationship belonged to their adolescence , after which they left it behind , or that one of them was older , the " lover " ( " erastes " ) and the other was the " beloved " ( " eromenos " ) . The former assumption has persisted to the present day , with writers of fiction such as Mary Renault and the film director Oliver Stone among its proponents , as well as modern historians such as Paul Cartledge , who says : " Rumour had it — and rumour was for once surely correct — that he [ Hephaestion ] and Alexander " had once been " more than just good friends . " Aelian takes the latter view when he uses just such an expression when describing the visit to Troy : " Alexander laid a garland on Achilles ' tomb and Hephaestion on Patroclus ' , indicating that he was Alexander ' s " eromenos " , as Patroclus was of Achilles . " However , what was the case in Athens was not necessarily the case in Macedon . As Robin Lane Fox says , " . . . descendants of the Dorians were considered and even expected to be openly homosexual , especially among their ruling class , and the Macedonian kings had long insisted on their pure Dorian ancestry . " This was no fashionable affectation ; this was something that belonged at the heart of what it was to be Dorian , and therefore Macedonian , and had more in common with the Theban Sacred Band than with Athens . In light of this , it is not surprising that there is evidence that their sexual relationship was indeed lifelong . Lucian , writing in his book " On Slips of the Tongue " describes an occasion when Hephaestion ' s conversation one morning implied that he had been in Alexander ' s tent all night , and Plutarch describes the intimacy between them when he tells how Hephaestion was in the habit of reading Alexander ' s letters with him , and of a time when he showed that the contents of a letter were to be kept secret by touching his ring to Hephaestion ' s lips . Diogenes of Sinope , in a letter written to Alexander when he was a grown man , accuses Alexander of being " . . . ruled by Hephaestion ' s thighs . " No other circumstance shows better the nature and length of their relationship than Alexander ' s overwhelming grief at Hephaestion ' s death . As Andrew Chugg says , " . . . it is surely incredible that Alexander ' s reaction to Hephaestion ' s death could indicate anything other than the closest relationship imaginable . " The many and varied ways , both spontaneous and planned , by which Alexander poured out his grief are detailed below . In the context of the nature of their relationship however , one stands out as remarkable . Arrian says that Alexander " . . . flung himself on the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears , and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions . " Such an all - encompassing love often leaves little room for other affections . Hephaestion ' s lover was also his best friend , his king and his commanding officer , so it is not surprising that we hear of no other close friendships or attachments in his life . There is no evidence , however , that he was anything but popular and well liked among the group of Alexander ' s close friends and Companions who had grown up together , and worked well together for so many years . It is possible that he was closest to Perdiccas , because it was with Perdiccas that he went on the mission to take Peuceolatis and bridge the Indus . By that time , as Alexander ' s effective second - in - command , he could doubtless have chosen any officer he cared to name . They accomplished everything they set out to do with great success , which indicates that the two of them worked well together , and that Hephaestion found the irrepressible Perdiccas a congenial companion . It is notable that their two cavalry regiments in particular were selected by Alexander for the dangerous crossing of the river Hydaspes before the battle with the Indian king , Porus . On that occasion superb teamwork would have been of paramount importance . It would be wrong to imply that Hephaestion was universally liked or admired however . Outside the close - knit coterie of the Macedonian high command he had his enemies . This is clear from Arrian ' s comment about Alexander ' s grief : " All writers have agreed that it was great , but personal prejudice , for or against both Hephaestion and Alexander himself , has coloured the accounts of how he expressed it . " Yet given the factions and jealousies that arise in any court and that Hephaestion was supremely close to the greatest monarch the western world had yet seen , it is remarkable how little enmity he inspired . Arrian mentions a quarrel with Alexander ' s secretary Eumenes but , because of a missing page in the text , the greater part of the detail is missing , leaving only the conclusion that something persuaded Hephaestion , though against his will , to make up the quarrel . However , Plutarch , who wrote about Eumenes in his series of " Parallel Lives " , mentions that it was about lodgings and a flute - player , so perhaps this was an instance of some deeper antagonism breaking out into a quarrel over a triviality . What that antagonism might have been , it is not possible to know , but someone with the closeness to the king of a secretary might well have felt some jealousy for Hephaestion ' s even greater closeness . In only one instance is Hephaestion known to have quarrelled with a fellow officer and that was with Craterus . In this instance it is easier to see that resentment might have been felt on both sides , for Craterus was one of those officers who vehemently disliked Alexander ' s policy of integrating Greek and Persian , whereas Hephaestion was very much in favour . Plutarch tells the story : " For this reason a feeling of hostility grew and festered between the two and they often came into open conflict . Once on the expedition to India they actually drew their swords and came to blows . . . " . Alexander , who also valued Craterus highly as a most competent officer , was forced to intervene and had stern words for both . It is a measure of how high feelings were running over this contentious issue that such a thing should have happened and also an indication of how closely Hephaestion identified Alexander ' s wishes with his own . Hephaestion gave perhaps the ultimate proof of this in the summer of 324 BC , when he accepted as his wife Drypetis , daughter of Darius and sister to Alexander ' s own second wife Stateira . Up until this time Hephaestion ' s name had never been linked with any woman , or indeed any man other than Alexander . Of his short married life nothing is known , except that at the time of Alexander ' s own death , eight months after Hephaestion ' s , Drypetis was still mourning the husband to whom she had been married for only four months . For Alexander to marry a daughter of Darius made good political sense , allying himself firmly with the Persian ruling class , but for Hephaestion to marry her sister shows the high esteem in which Alexander held him , bringing him into the royal family itself . They became brothers - in - law , and yet there was more to it than that . Alexander , says Arrian " . . . wanted to be uncle to Hephaestion ' s children . . . " . Thus it is possible to imagine Alexander and Hephaestion hoping that their respective offspring might unite their lines and that , ultimately , the crown of Macedon and Persia might be worn by one who was a descendant of them both . Death and funeral . In spring 324 BC Hephaestion left Susa , where he had been married , and accompanied Alexander and the rest of the army as they travelled towards Ecbatana . They arrived in the autumn and it was there , during games and festivals , that Hephaestion fell ill with a fever . Arrian says that after the fever had run for seven days , Alexander had to be summoned from the games to Hephaestion , who was seriously ill . He did not arrive in time ; by the time he got there , Hephaestion was dead . Plutarch says that being a young man and a soldier , Hephaestion had ignored medical advice and as soon as his doctor , Glaucias , had gone off to the theatre , he ate a large breakfast consisting of a boiled fowl and a cooler of wine , and then fell sick and died . Piecing the accounts together , it seems as if Hephaestion ' s fever had run its course for seven days , after which time he was sufficiently recovered for his doctor , and Alexander himself , to feel it was safe to leave him , and for Hephaestion to feel hungry . His meal , however , seems to have caused a relapse that led to his rapid death . Precisely why this should have happened is not known . As Mary Renault says , " This sudden crisis in a young , convalescent man is hard to account for . " The explanation that fits most of the facts is that the fever was typhoid and that solid food perforated the ulcerated intestine that the typhoid would have caused . This would have led to internal bleeding , though it would be unusual in that case for death to follow quite as swiftly as it seems to have done here . For that reason , it is not possible altogether to discount other possible explanations , one of them being poison . Hephaestion ' s death is dealt with at greater length by the ancient sources than any of the events of his life , because of its profound effect upon Alexander . Plutarch says " . . . Alexander ' s grief was uncontrollable . . . " and adds that he ordered many signs of mourning , notably that the manes and tails of all horses should be shorn , the demolition of the battlements of the neighbouring cities and the banning of flutes and every other kind of music . Arrian relates an account that " . . . he flung himself on the body of his friend and lay there nearly all day long in tears , and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions . . . " , another that said " . . . he lay stretched upon the corpse all day and the whole night too . . . " , and another which told how he had the doctor , Glaucias , executed for his lack of care . Arrian also mentions Alexander ordering the shrine of Asclepios in Ecbatana to be razed to the ground , and that he cut his hair short in mourning , this last a poignant reminder of Achilles ' last gift to Patroclus on his funeral pyre : " . . . he laid the lock of hair in the hands of his beloved companion , and the whole company was moved to tears . " Another hint that Alexander looked to Achilles to help him to express his grief may be found in the campaign , shortly following these events , against a tribe called the Cossaeans . Plutarch says they were massacred as an offering to the spirit of Hephaestion and it is quite possible to imagine that to Alexander this might have followed in spirit Achilles ' killing of " . . . twelve high - born youths . . . " beside Patroclus ' funeral pyre . Arrian states that all his sources agree that " . . . for two whole days after Hephaestion ' s death Alexander tasted no food and paid no attention in any way to his bodily needs but lay on his bed now crying lamentably , now in the silence of grief . " Alexander ordered a period of mourning throughout the empire . Arrian tells us that " Many of the Companions , out of respect for Alexander , dedicated themselves and their arms to the dead man . . . " The army , too , remembered him ; Alexander did not appoint anyone to take Hephaestion ' s place as commander of the Companion cavalry ; he " . . . wished Hephaestion ' s name to be preserved always in connection with it , so Hephaestion ' s Regiment it continued to be called , and Hephaestion ' s image continued to be carried before it . " Alexander sent messengers to the oracle at Siwa to ask if Amon would permit Hephaestion to be worshipped as a god . When the reply came saying he might be worshipped not as a god , but as a divine hero , Alexander was pleased and " . . . from that day forward saw that his friend was honoured with a hero ' s rites . " He saw to it that shrines were erected to Hephaestion ' s memory , and evidence that the cult took hold can be found in a simple votary plaque now in Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki , inscribed , " To the Hero Hephaestion " . Hephaestion was given a magnificent funeral . Its cost is variously given in the sources as 10 , 000 talents or 12 , 000 talents . It is difficult to give a modern equivalent for such a huge amount but we know that in Hephaestion ’ s time , the daily wage of a skilled worker was two or three drachmas . In western Europe , 2008 , that would be between £50 and £100 , so the lowest possible value for 1 drachma in modern terms is £25 . We know there were 6 , 000 drachmas in a talent , so even at the most conservative estimate , Hephaestion ’ s funeral would have cost £1 , 500 , 000 , 000 . Alexander himself drove the funeral carriage part of the way back to Babylon with some of the driving entrusted to Hephaestion ' s friend Perdiccas . At Babylon funeral games were held in Hephaestion ' s honour . The contests ranged from literature to athletics and 3 , 000 competitors took part , the festival eclipsing anything that had gone before both in cost and in numbers taking part . Plutarch says that Alexander planned to spend ten thousand talents on the funeral and the tomb . He employed Stasicrates , " . . . as this artist was famous for his innovations , which combined an exceptional degree of magnificence , audacity and ostentation . . . " , to design the pyre for Hephaestion . The pyre was sixty metres high , square in shape and built in stepped levels . The first level was decorated with two hundred and forty ships with golden prows , each of these adorned with armed figures with red banners filling the spaces between . On the second level were torches with snakes at the base , golden wreaths in the middle and at the top , flames surmounted by eagles . The third level showed a hunting scene , and the fourth a battle of centaurs , all done in gold . On the fifth level , also in gold , were lions and bulls , and on the sixth the arms of Macedon and Persia . The seventh and final level bore sculptures of siren s , hollowed out to conceal a choir who would sing a lament . It is possible that the pyre was not burnt , but that it was actually intended as a tomb or lasting memorial ; if so , it is likely that it was never completed , as there are references to expensive , uncompleted projects at the time of Alexander ' s own death . One final tribute remained , and it is compelling in its simplicity and in what it reveals about the high esteem in which Hephaestion was held by Alexander . On the day of the funeral , he gave orders that the sacred flame in the temple should be extinguished . Normally , this was only done on the death of the Great King himself . External links . < br >