§-Quick questions
NSWAncient HistorySection III (Personalities): Alexander the Great
Quick questions on Alexander the Great's death at Babylon and the successors: HSC Ancient History
1short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the death of Hephaestion, 324 BC?Show answer
At Ecbatana in Media, in the autumn of 324 BC, Hephaestion - Alexander's lifelong companion, his second-in-command and, in the sources, the man he loved above all others - fell ill with a fever and died within days. Alexander's grief was overwhelming and, to ancient observers, alarming in its excess. The sources (Arrian, Anabasis 7.14; Plutarch, Alexander 72; Diodorus 17.110 to 115) report that he executed the attending physician Glaucias, refused food, lay on the body, cut off his own hair in the manner of Achilles mourning Patroclus, and ordered mourning across the empire. He commanded an immense and hugely expensive funeral pyre and monument to be raised at Babylon, held magnificent funeral games, and sent to the oracle of Ammon at Siwah, which granted that Hephaestion be honoured as a hero (a divine hero cult), the highest status the oracle would allow.
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