#40 HEPHAISTION, ALEXANDER'S LOVER (356BC-): BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN

Hephaistion, (pron. he-FAIS-ti-on) stands in the shadow of the man who conquered most of the ancient world, overthrew the Persian Empire, and Hellenising it from Greece to Persia and from Egypt to India. Hephaistion, called by Alexander, Philalexandros – meaning the dearest of all Alexander’s friends – remained at his side, his second in command, his closest advisor and probably his lover for all of his life.

Born around 356BC, in the royal palace at Pella, Macedonia, Hephaistion was the son of Amyntor, who was presumably a noble in King Philip’s court. He attended school with Alexander in Mieza where they were educated by Aristotle in rhetoric, science, poetry, drama and philosophy. Aristotle would correspond with Hephaistion when Alexander was on campaign.

At the beginning of their twenty thousand mile military campaign, Alexander and Hephaistion visited the site of Troy: Alexander to pray at the tomb of Achilles and Hephaistion to honour Achilles’ lover, Patroculus. Whether they were making a declaration about their own relationship was unclear but it underscored their admiration of Greek heroes and culture.

After the Battle of Issus where they were victorious against Darius III troops, Alexander and Hephaistion entered the royal tent to inspect their spoils of war. There, Sisgambis, Darius’ mother-in-law mistaking him for the king, prostrated herself at the feet of the taller Hephaistion and was very embarrassed on discovering her error. ‘Don’t be upset. Mother’, Alexander is quoted as saying. “He, too, is Alexander.” Later he would marry her granddaughter Stateira, and Hephaistion would marry her younger sister, Drypetis, allowing the two friends to become brothers-in-law. As he retells that story the Roman historian, Catullus, describes their relationship: “Hephaistion was … the counsellor of all his secrets. No one had more freedom to admonish Alexander which he used in such a way that it seemed granted by the king, rather than taken by himself …” Book 3, ch.12.

Conversation with the Gatekeeper

“My understanding is that Hephaistion is an aspect of Mary having a male life. Is that correct, Gatekeeper?”

“Yes, it is Mary, again in her High Priestess line, who as Hephaistion should never have been in military command as a general. He was a gentle, compassionate, brave, strong man who loathed violence, but he loved Alexander so very much. And that makes Hephaestion’s life very different from her life as King Philip, does it not?”

“Yes. Two very different lives of Mary; no doubt, it is almost a feminine life for a man after her very masculine warrior. What does his name ‘Hephaistion’ mean?”

“It is of barbarian origin and originally meant a manufacturer or a maker of goods. It has the same root as the smith god Hephaestus and it was an appropriate name because Hephaistion was a doer, a practical man of action and a good organiser and if he was lowly born he would have made a good tradesman.”

“What was his background?”

“Born in Macedonia, the same year as Alexander. His father was a general and the Captain of the Bodyguard and a close confidant of Philip. He and Alexander grew up together around the royal place – which we should put in perspective… it was nothing more than a brick and mud village – where all the children played together.”

“It is said they were lovers. How did they fall in love?”

“They were always friends, who experimented with sex as teenagers. Later their love developed into a passion. Remember there weren’t many options for twenty year old Greek men; there were only whores or one another! They weren’t allowed to marry until they were thirty.”

“What did they admire or love in one another?”

“They were opposites. Alexander loved Hephaiston’s gentleness. Hephaistion loved Alexander’s impervious belief in himself… it never occurred to Alexander he couldn’t do what he wanted to do because whatever he wanted to do, he just did. There were never any boundaries set for him. Hephaistion loved Alexander’s quick reflexes, he was a born swordsman, a great rider (and he rode with neither saddle nor stirrups – quite a feat!). Alexander was handsome with a classic Greek profile, curly dark blond hair, light grey eyes and stocky build… Hephaistion had curly dark hair and a wiry, slender build. They used to wrestle as boys and he would later develop in the upper body to be a man of great physical strength who was very brave and never held back.

As Alexander’s counsellor and confidante he agreed with him most of the time which Alexander found most satisfactory and only to be encouraged.

When King Darius’ mother mistook Hephaistion for Alexander, because she had no idea what Alexander really looked like. Hephaistion was taller, not remarkably good looking, pleasing, his nose was more hawk-like with quite a different physical build, but he was nothing like Alexander to look at.”

“Was this the love of Alexander’s life?”

“Theirs was a great love… for both of them there was only one love. For Alexander it was difficult to imagine him loving anyone who wasn’t a soldier because beyond that he wasn’t interested in anything else. Hephaistion was a great deal more intelligent. He was brains with brawn, Alexander was brawn without brains. Although they were both taught by Aristotle, it was Hephaistion who actually understood what they were being taught.”

“What did Aristotle think of Hephaistion?”

“He had a great respect for his considerable intellect and his sense of responsibility. He liked him because he was likeable. But Aristotle’s attitude was quasi paternal. He would have loved a son like Hephaistion, practical and bright who was as admired as he was. Men trusted him.”

“It seems it was to Hephaistion rather than to Alexander that Aristotle wrote when they were on campaign?”

“Yes. Aristotle thought Alexander a dunce and incapable of philosophical dialogue but protocol demanded he acknowledge Alexander but he wrote to Hephaistion.”

“We have some of the letters because Aristotle published them but where were Hephaiston’s replies?”

“There weren’t as many replies as there were Aristotelian letters. Some are destroyed. The remainder are in a document vault under what was the Platonic library under the Academy. These are findable.”

“I hope we get them! In route to conquering the world, Alexander is said to have sacrificed at the grave of Achilles at Troy while Hephaistion sacrificed at the grave of Proculus. Is this how it happened?”

“Yes. Alexander worshipped Achilles as the greatest soldier of all time. For him war meant bravery, courage and daring and he acknowledged all of this in the warrior who was Achilles. Hephaistion wanted to make a point. While he thought Achilles was a good soldier, ‘a grown up’, he said ‘wouldn’t have sulked like Achilles did’. Patroculus, (the same aspect of El Moyra who was John Mark) was a craftsman and Hephaistion was right. The two heroes of the Trojan War were similar in some ways to Alexander and his lover.

Let’s be perfectly clear, Hephaistion had the strategic brain. Alexander would create an elite household troupe which was an innovation credited to him at Hepatisation’s suggestion, and at his prompting Alexander ‘invented’ the flying wedge. Alexander is given credit for his friend’s inventiveness. A trend we will see in Mary’s lives when as a devoted companion she sets others up to succeed and they take all the credit.”

“When they reached Ephesus they saw one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis or Diana which had been destroyed in an earthquake. Did Alexander order Hephaistion, an aspect of Mary, to rebuild her own temple?”

“It is sort of a dance, isn’t it? An historical choreography, in which a sacred structure was built, rebuilt, destroyed then eventually moved to Istanbul. Ephesus, where Mary will die as the Christ’s mother, is one of her cities and it will be of great importance to Mary in your future. There is indestructibility about the place and Mary’s association with Ephesus is indestructible.”

“What was Hephaiston’s greatest achievement?”

“Not the military innovations of the household guard or the flying wedge, but his selfless and unconditional devotion to Alexander. This was so very rare… he literally would have died for him and his love made Alexander’s greatness and his achievements possible.”

“Are you saying without Hephaistion Alexander’s life and achievements would have been a footnote?”

“Without Hephaistion, Alexander would have been a military disaster because Hephaistion was the adjutant, the organiser and the administrator. Alexander would have just forged ahead bashing on regardless. He’d have been dead in no time with his supply lines cut. Hephaistion organised everything quietly standing in the shadows. This is Marian reticence at work.”

“And his spiritual challenge?”

“His spiritual challenge was overcoming his distaste for violence and death, which he hated and despised, so that he could stay close to Alexander.”

“How is that a spiritual challenge?”

“It’s a kind of sanctity in reverse to totally subjugate one’s own nature to please the one you love. Hephaistion was Alexander’s aide de camp, wife, and closest confidante, his ideal partner who understood him completely and loved him unconditionally. He was everything to him.”

“There is a story that Hephaistion tortured a man called Philotas?”

“Yes, he did. He tortured him to find out who sent him. He was an assassin sent to infiltrate the camp and poison Alexander. Hephaistion found him in possession of a large amount of monkshood… aconitum apellus… which looks, tastes and smells like horseradish. He found out he was sent by the Persian satrap of Asia on the orders of the Persian king.”

“How did Hephaistion die? Scholars suggest it was typhoid or malaria.”

“He died of typhoid. It was not easy to diagnose because he already had pneumonia. The two maladies together made it impossible to diagnose for a mere physician.”

“I believe Alexander had his doctor hanged; others say he was crucified.”

“No, neither... he was strangled, garrotted on Alexander’s orders. A wise physician would have called in a consultant and Hephaistion could have been diagnosed and he could have been saved.”

“Some people say Alexander died of a broken heart eighteen months later, in June 323BC.”

“People don’t technically die of broken hearts, but they do die when they have lost the will to live. After Hephaiston’s death, he lost his balance. His course became erratic because he just wished he was dead. He was eventually poisoned by monkshood given in massive doses – which is only about a teaspoon, fed to him over a couple of weeks. He wanted to go to be with Hephaistion.”

“Why did Mary select this life? Could you ask her?”

“Mary says she selected the life as Hephaistion to put steel into the backbone of a gentle soul. She wants you to imagine a submissive, anti-violent, devoted mother who has to see her beloved son put to death in a barbarous, cruel way to fulfil the will of God. That flower of a woman needed a steel spine to complete her mission and her life as Hephaistion gave it to her. It also put the steel in Hephaistion who as Nicodemus will watch Mary’s son and his first cousin being crucified.”

“What qualities of Mary did Hephaistion bring into his life?”

“He brought in compassion, great love and protectiveness; they were all in his nature. Not least of all were his yin qualities: a passive toughness, a non-aggressive toughness. He was steadfast and trusted by others because he was trustworthy.”

“Why did he incarnate and what was his purpose?”

“He needed to improve aspects of his character to improve and perfect his higher consciousness. He thought himself a realist and would take refuge in pragmatism to escape thinking about matters spiritual. But what was the purpose of his life? To be a devoted and trusted servant of others. Hephaistion achieved what he set out to achieve.”

“One last question: was the Hellenisation of the Middle East that Hephaistion fulfilled a necessary precursor to the spread of Christianity?”

“It was not essential but in the Divine Plan it was considered a possible bonus and it was used very effectively by St Paul. Mercantile Greek Koine Greek was the language of the Mediterranean. It was taught to Jesus as a boy. It meant St Paul and his disciples; Timothy, Titus, Barnabas, Luke, Priscilla, could freely preach gospels wherever they went. Even Julius Caesar spoke it using Greek for family intimacy because it is a more subtle language than Latin – which was the language of engineers, lawyers and senators. So the Hellenisation was useful but not essential.”

“I’ve thought of another question: who are the energies of Greece now it is united as one country?”

“They are Hilarion, El Moyra and Athene – and there is no harmony among those energies!”

Thinking about These Lives

This chapter begins with the complex plans for the birth of Western civilisation and the five lives explored each contribute in some way to defining what it will become.

The Gatekeeper leaves little doubt the myths sung by Homer were based on historical fact and he firmly places Homer as a war correspondent who, because of his blindness, cannot be an eye witness to events like other war correspondents. Rather, his blindness sharpens his ear, increases his sensitivity to rhythm; and schools his prodigious memory, allowing him to record and remember what he hears in both music and verse.

The Gatekeeper’s Homer is a lover of a vain glorious Odysseus and, one suspects, of Achilles before him; he is an entertainer who revels in and provokes audience participation.

Homer is also one of the first known spin-doctors. He glorifies his masters, because they provide him with their corporate hospitality. He puts the best construction on their pettiness, their wrangles and their grimy deals. It is his dual handicaps of autism and blindness which contribute to his unique genius, giving him the gifts of acute perception, clear sightedness, lyricism and storytelling.

Homer, the creative start-up of St Germain, sings about the siege of Troy and the skirmishes between gods and warriors but through his song comes the clearly illuminated characters that are ennobled and distraught by the slaughter and loss of war.

St Germain as Homer struggles to control his most creative energy with alcohol and sex and fails. Later he tries again as Aeschylus and fails. It seems the price of their genius is high and its brittle brilliance is tarnished by difficult spiritual challenges. It may be thousands of years before he can control his rampant creative energy in a non-destructive way.

Homer is the first born of a creative maelstrom: an aspect of the Jacob line of St Germain I call the Dante line after the poet, satirist, philosopher and diplomat who wrote The Divine Comedy for his idealised love, Beatrice nearly three thousand years later. There are two main reasons for christening it “Dante” and not after its source, “Homer”. Dante’s talents were more broad based and point the way to the diversity of others who followed him. Dante’s love Beatrice, a life of Mary, encapsulates a complex and enduring relationship, which winds its way through many historical events.

We saw Homer re-emerging as Aeschylus, who invented the dramatic form of tragedy and again later – as the creator of the Italian language: the poet Dante. Eventually Homer will incarnate with all his lecherous qualities and descend their depths as the English romantic poet Lord Byron purging them with his death as a Greek independence fighter. Byron, a marathon swimmer, swam the Hellespont in 1810, and when he died aged thirty-six in Mesolonghi, Greece he was within walking distance of where Homer met his death. Their lives would have come full circle. After Byron, he would explore life as Hector Berlioz, the brilliant, but misfit composer, who would pursue musically the journeys through heaven and hell he had pursued poetically as Homer and Dante. As the British poet and satirist Alexander Pope he would, in 1715, compose one of the most lucid and magnificent translations of The Iliad. It would become one of the greatest poems in the English language.

In Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus tells the myth of the world’s first humanitarian. Prometheus is shackled against his will to a mountain peak for giving human kind the gift of fire without first seeking the gods’ permission. He could stop his torture by revealing the name of the woman who will bring down the almighty and tyrannical Zeus. But Prometheus, at the climax of the play, continues his silence as thunder and fire rain down on him. His tragedy is to be trapped in an irreconcilable dispute by his own moral framework undergoing unjust and never-ending punishment. Aeschylus questions the morality of Prometheus’ fate. In Homer, Prometheus’ punishment occurs because he defied Zeus. In Aeschylus he critically analyses in dramatic form the legends which were accepted by Homer. The same themes will be revisited two thousand years later by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a life of Mary, in his poem Prometheus Unbound (1820). The story of Prometheus echoes the story of Loki also trapped in torture until all slaves are free.

Priam reprises as Phillip and the improvements are obvious. Although far from an ideal father, he plans his sons’ education thoughtfully. He learns from his experience as a hostage, he achieves the creation of a world power in record time. He leaves a strong military legacy for his son who defeats the Persians and helps Hellenise the Middle East. He dies violently like Priam but with the insight after his death into his life which allows him to return first as an early missionary, Barnabas, then as the desert father, Anthony of Egypt. Both saints!

It is in Phillip’s life that the Gatekeeper introduces a new concept: that of incarnating with some of his worst characteristics so they could be eliminated from his character. I would have thought one would eliminate negative traits by not incarnating with them at all. On the contrary, the Gatekeeper maintains that by embracing them in a life, even amplifying them, they teach the being the lesson they need to know. Once the insight occurs the negative aspect will self-destruct, evaporate and by that process the being will become purified. The Gatekeeper revealed Phillip of Macedon achieved the purification after he died in his lifetime review. He learned that rape was an abuse of his power with horrific consequences for the victim and the rapist. The importance of the time immediately after death is demonstrated by Phillip’s experience as his spirit separated from Earth and he reflected on his life and its historical and spiritual purposes and achievements, it was there he was able to see his shortcomings and eliminate them.

Plato does not disappoint. Burdened with an abusive childhood he is emotionally damaged and can’t form any loving relationships although that does not stop him from trying. In a long life he creates masterpieces of world literature by canvassing life’s most important questions, describing logic, dialectic, induction and the classification of ideas.

Hephastion is the third life explored in Mary’s High Priestess line of devotion after her lives as Isis and Nefertari. Multi-talented Hephastion exists for someone else in a symbiotic relationship. Historically, he is almost invisible and his role is to make Alexander greater. Time after time the Gatekeeper will haul out aspects of this line of Mary to stress the importance of their role at significant turning points in history. Anne of Austria, Katherine Parr and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, all consorts of kings, are examples. Whereas Queen Isabella of Spain, also married to a king but a queen in her own right, was perhaps the greatest queen in European history…all from that same High Priestess line of Mary.

One of the overriding questions of this chapter was whether there was an agreement prior to their incarnations among the Masters to have lives close together to influence Western thinking? Kuthumi incarnated as Socrates, St Germain as Plato and El Moyra as Aristotle. And, after them, did Mary agree as King Phillip to teach natural thought or to Hilarion as Alexander and Mary as Hephaistion so that the ancient European and Middle Eastern worlds could be Hellenised? And what was one of the main outcomes of that? Alexander’s and Hephaestion’s short lives prepared the world, six hundred years later, for the rapid spread of Christianity.”

There was an agreement and for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to birth the summation of the truth and rational thought and for Phillip, Alexander and Hephaistion to spread it. The Gatekeeper told me the time was right for this to occur and it fitted the development pattern of the world. Here was one of the most important interlinked incarnations for the progression of the Light in our recorded time. It was setback for the Dark and an outstanding advancement for the Light through the lives of a coincidence of equals. Hephaistion’s role was far more important than we give it credit. Overshadowed by Alexander, she shared with Aaron who was overshadowed by Moses and watched his considerable achievements appropriated to the bombastic, charismatic Hilarion. Unfortunately, this facilitating role will contribute to Mary’s invisibility through the ages.