Alexander and Hephaistion side by side

Finding these two great men side by side at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is absolutely thrilling.

I often wonder why there are so few images of Hephaistion, but one should consider that none of the men in Alexander's entourage were ever depicted while the king was still alive. We do have pictures – mainly coins – showing the members of his bodyguards (somatophylakes), but only when they became king in their own realm after Alexander's death, simply because it was a king's privilege to be portrayed.

The most obvious example is, beyond doubt, Ptolemy, who started ruling over Egypt immediately after Alexander's death. Lysimachos had to wait a little longer in the ensuing battle of de Diadochi to be recognized as king of Thracia and represented as such on his coinage. The same applies obviously to Seleucos and Antigonus Monophthalmus. Yet none of the king's Bodyguards, like Aristonous, Peithon, Leonnatus, Peucestas, or even Perdiccas, have ever been carved in stone. Hence we don't know what they looked like.

This being said I should not be ungrateful for the few images we have of Hephaistion, i.e., the head (probably reworked in antiquity) now at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California, and the smaller-than-life-size marble statue at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where he is standing next to Alexander.

Alexander looks rather shabby, but in my eyes, Hephaistion is exactly how he is supposed to be. However, I struggle with the label at the museum, which states, "Marble statue of Hephaistion. Possibly a group erected in Alexandria honoring Hephaistion, 1st century BC". Why would Alexander show up next to an honorific statue for Hephaistion? And how come Alexandria is (still) honoring Hephaistion in the first century BC when the Ptolemaic dynasty is reaching its end with the famous Queen Cleopatra fighting for Egypt's survival? When Hephaistion died in 324 BC, Alexander would have loved to see him deified by the Egyptian priests, who tactfully promoted him to hero instead. So a cult in honor of Hephaistion is not surprising, but I find the time frame and this kind of association with Alexander rather disturbing.

When I wrote my "Ode to Alexander and Hephaistion," I forgot to mention this group of statues. Shame on me! But then I also omitted to mention both men's portraits on the famous Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon, now at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.

This sarcophagus, in fact, deserves a closer look, of course. First, it does not belong to Alexander the Great but was probably made for King Abdalonymus of Sidon, who was put on the throne by Alexander (with the help of Hephaistion) after conquering the city in 332 BC. It has been dated between 325 and 311 BC and was discovered in 1887 at the Royal Necropolis of Sidon, i.e., when Phoenicia was still part of the Ottoman Empire.

One of the long sides of the sarcophagus definitely shows Alexander fighting a Persian, probably King Darius (but this is not certain), at the Battle of Issus that occurred only a few months earlier and where the Persians were defeated by the Greeks. The other long side represents two hunting scenes, those of a lion and a deer, in which both Greeks and Persians participated. The sarcophagus's short sides show a panther hunt and a battle scene.

Alexander is the only figure identified with certainty since he wears Heracles' headdress and the Amon ram's horn. Hephaistion is probably depicted in the hunting scene where he attacks a lion together with a Persian. Most unfortunately, the other personages cannot be tied to a name, although Perdiccas and Abdalonymus have been suggested. It is a great historical document that sadly has yet to be entirely deciphered.

Although these high reliefs appear very Greek, the craftsmen were masters in the Eastern art of decoration. This is based on the use of eagles in the upper row of the acroteria, who carried the souls of the dead to heaven according to ancient Syrian beliefs. The heads of women added at the bottom refer to the worship of the mother goddess as known from prehistoric times in Mesopotamia. The acroteria above the pediments on the sides represent Persian griffons. Also, a lion is lying on each corner of the sarcophagus, symbolizing protection. These meager beasts look more like dogs and seem of Ionian origin.

The attentive eye will notice subtle traces of paint all over this marble sarcophagus. Colors range from purple, blue, and red to violet and yellow, and it is thought that the figures themselves were slightly varnished. Thanks to the intensive work carried out by Vinzenz Brinkman over the past 25 years (see: Ancient Greece in full Technicolor), we can now have a very vivid image of what this sarcophagus must have looked like at the time of its completion.

This being said, we owe a great deal to the owner of this masterpiece. King Abdalonymus is displaying immense gratitude towards both Alexander and Hephaistion since he would never have ruled over his city without them. When the people of Sidon heard of Alexander's victory over Darius at Issus, they decided to deposit their ruling king, Straton II, a friend of Darius, and open the city gates to Alexander, whose task was to appoint a new king. He instructed Hephaistion to find the appropriate candidate. He discovered this distant relative of the dynasty of Sidon, living in the countryside. Abdalonymus, his name meaning "servant of the gods" in Persian, clearly took his task seriously. What an honorable tribute he paid here to both Alexander and Hephaistion!

[Picture from Wikipedia]