The Death of Hephaestion and Alexander's Dream (324 BC)

"In December 325 BC, the armies of Alexander, Hephaestion, Nearchus and Craterus reunited in Carmania. This was a time for celebration. Alexander dressed himself as the god of ecstasy, Dionysus, his mythological ancestor, and the rest of the army followed suit - everybody being in a state of drunken exaltation for seven days.

The army continued its march to the west and reached Susa, where Alexander, his officers and his men had a holiday. There were festivities and valiant soldiers were decorated. Some received purple tunics, and there were golden diadems for Nearchus, for Leonnatus (who had defeated the Oreitans), for Peucestas (who had saved Alexander's life in India), and for Hephaestion. Nobody objected to the coronation, which comes as a surprise, because six years before, many had considered it outrageous that Alexander started to wear a diadem.

The greatest of the festivities in Susa was a marriage ceremony that lasted five days. Since Alexander had conquered Babylonia, Elam and Persia proper in 331/330, many Persian princesses had had a Greek education; now they were ready to marry Macedonian officers. Dancers, actors and musicians had come all the way from Greece to add glamor to the event.

Alexander himself married Achaemenid princesses from two dynastic lines: Barsine, a daughter Darius III Codomannus, and Parysatis, a daughter of Artaxerxes III Ochus. Hephaestion married another daughter of Darius III, Drypetis. Other commanders married princesses of lesser rank (text).

Pharnaces (central relief of the North Stairs of the Apadana, Persepolis)
Pharnaces (central relief of the North Stairs of the Apadana, Persepolis)
In these days, Hephaestion was also appointed as chiliarchos, ""vizier"", and Ptolemy became Alexander's edeatros, ""taster"": both were Greek names for old Persian court functions. According to the Persian customs, Hephaestion was entitled to a walking stick and golden earrings, as can be seen on the picture of Pharnaces, who had been vizier (hazarapatiš) almost two centuries earlier.

In the summer of 324, Alexander and Hephaestion commanded army groups in Elam and the south of Babylonia: not for fighting, but to find out the course of the main rivers and the coasts. Alexander's next plan was a naval expedition to Arabia, and it was imperative to control the coastal area. Besides, there were many recruits from Iran, who needed to be trained.

As vizier, Hephaestion was responsible for many things, and his decisions about the royal correspondence may have been the cause of a conflict with Eumenes, the secretary of Alexander. However, our sources are silent about the details of their rivalry. The only thing we know for certain is that Alexander ordered them a reconciliation.

Late in the summer, Alexander went to the north, to visit Ecbatana, one of the capitals of his empire. He was received by Atropates, the satrap of Media. As usual, there was a drinking party, but this time it had a sad consequence: Hephaestion fell ill and died (October 324). Drypetis and Alexander were shocked, and Eumenes - seizing the opportunity to get into Alexander's good books - proposed to give divine honors to the dead hero, who was cremated in Babylon.

In autumn 324 BC Hephaestion died in Ecbatana (Ecbatana was an ancient city in Media in western Iran) Alexander indulged in extravagant mourning for his closest friend; he was given a royal funeral in Babylon with a pyre costing 10,000 talents. His post of chiliarch (grand vizier) was left unfilled. It was probably in connection with a general order now sent out to the Greeks to honour Hephaestion as a hero that Alexander linked the demand that he himself should be accorded divine honours. For a long time his mind had dwelt on ideas of godhead. Greek thought drew no very decided line of demarcation between god and man, for legend offered more than one example of men who, by their achievements, acquired divine status. Alexander had on several occasions encouraged favourable comparison of his own accomplishments with those of Dionysus or Heracles. "