Hephaestion Amyntoros

[kizzikat]

Dear Jun,

I have finally finished this first part of the essay I promised you, and I’m sorry it took so long!  It started off being an essay on the early years of Hephaestion, but we know little for certain about Hephaestion’s early life other than the following:

• He lived in Pella and his father was called Amyntor
• He was educated with Alexander
• He

Comments

[jun_yumemakura]

Dear Carol,

I was so happy to see this post. I especially enjoyed the Robin Lane Fox's quote on Aristotle's opinion against youth; the Macedonian youth. It is such a vivid image of Alexander and his friends in Mieza.

I also remember from somewhere that Alexander once said that his father gave him life, but Aristotle taught him to live well. And I agree with you, Hephaistion must have been right there with Alexander to experience and absorb all the knowledge Aristotle had to offer.

I also found the statement 'disregarded the demand of his body for sex and sleep' very interesting. It reminded me of Moon's recent story.

This was far from boring. I enjoyed reading it very much, and I cannot wait to see how deeply and thoroughly you are going to dissect the life and the character of Alexander and Hephaistion.

Thank you,

Jun

[kizzikat]

You are more than welcome! I had wanted to do this for a long time, but you gave me the impetus to finish it, so thank you.

[susa_938]

Looking forward to reading this and all the rest of it. It looks excellent. And sending sincere apologies for 'disappearing' once again - I will be in touch (if you can bear it!)

[kizzikat]

Hello! I'm so glad you're still around! I wondered whether I should send you a message to let you know that I had returned from my own self-imposed 'exile', and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

[ewyn]

Dear Kizzikat,
it's totally NOT boring! it's fascinating and fantastic. I read quite all Alexander's biographies that are wrote in italian. Thanks you so so much!!!

[kizzikat]

Thank you very much, and thank you for taking the trouble to let me know what you thought!

[fiona13]

Hello kizzicat, this is Fiona from Alexander's Army, I hope you do not mind me posting here, but I heard about your splendid essay and wanted to read it for myself. I've really enjoyed this first part and I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I think that's a good point that coevals could mean a year or two either way. It'd be interesting to know if Macedon graduated a group of 'ephebes' to manhood every year, like Athens did, or if it was more irregular. If it was more irregular, then that group would have been seen as coevals, and equals, even if they weren't exactly the same age, I suspect

[kizzikat]

Thank you very much for taking the time to comment on this, and I'm always happy to discuss Alexander and Hephaestion with anyone.

I rather doubt there was a graduation ceremony, or celebration of reaching the age of majority. Athens appears to have had a greater 'cult' of the worship of youth than Macedon. Given the different rates at which youths develop, maybe some boys were big enough and strong enough to fight regularly in the agema before they were 18, and I doubt anyone would have stopped them for a technicality like age. I get the impression Macedonian society was much less strict than say Athens.

And I so believe in a Hephaestion who was every bit as alive and passionate as Alexander, and not a passive work of art. I doubt he would have held Alexander's attention for 20 years if he were not an interesting person!

Age

[anonymous]

The author of Envy of the Gods also thinks that Hephaistion was younger.

Regarding who was dominant sexually, as coevals they probably took turns but after Alexander was king he could not have taken a passive position with anyone else. This would afford Hephaistion a unique position.

Re: Age

[kizzikat]

Thanks for commenting. I haven't read this book yet, but I will have to get round to it. My idea of the relationship is also that they were equals and took turns, and that it would have been very difficult for Alexander to maintain his authority as king, certainly once he had reached his mid or late twenties, if he were submissive to someone. Yet who knows what happened if they were very discreet?