Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/397

Rh HEPHAESTION of Philotas (b. c. 330), the command of the select cavalry called iraipoi, or horse-guards, was divided for a time between Hephaestion and Cleitus, but it does not appear that on the death of the latter any one was appointed to succeed him, and thence- forward Hephaestion held the sole command of that important corps, — a post which was regarded as the highest dignity in the whole army. (Arr. Anab. iii. 27, vii. 14, ap. Phot. p. ^9, a. ; Diod. xviii. 3.) From this time forward — whether Alexander tmst- ed to experience having supplied any original defi- ciency of military talent, or that he had really seen occasion for placing greater confidence in his fa- vourite — we find Hephaestion frequently entrusted with separate commands of importance, during the campaigns in Bactria and Sogdiana, and still more during the expedition to India. Thus he was not only charged by Alexander with the care of found- ing new cities and colonies, with preparing the bridge over the Indus, and with the construction of the fleet on the Acesines, which was to descend that river and the Indus, but was detached on several occasions with a large force for strictly military objects. When Alexander approached the Indus in B. c. 327, Hephaestion was ordered to advance, together with Perdiccas and the Indian king Taxiles, by the direct line down the valley of the Cophen, while the king was engaged in sub- duing the warlike tribes farther north ; and on reaching the Indus, he reduced an important fortress, after a siege of thirty days. Again, after the passage of the Acesines, and the defeat of Porus, the task of subduing tlie other king of that name was assigned to Hephaestion, a service of which he acquitted himself with much distinction. After this he was appointed to conduct one division of the army along the left bank of the river, while Craterus led the other on the opposite side ; and throughout the descent of the Indus, and the sub- sequent march through Gedrosia, the command of the main body of the army, whenever it was sepa- rated from the king, devolved upon Hephaestion, either singly or in conjunction with Craterus. (Arr. Anab. iv. 16, 22, v. 21,29, vi. 2, 4, 5, 13, 17, 18, 20—22, 28, Ind. 19 ; Diod. xvii. 91, 93, 96 ; Curt. viii. 1, 2, 10, ix. 1, 10.) By his ser- vices during this period Hephaestion earned the distinction of being among those rewarded by Alex- ander with crowns of gold on his arrival at Susa (B.C. 324): a still higher honour was conferred on him at the same time by Alexander's giving him in marriage Drypetis, the daughter of Dareius and sister of his own bride Stateira. (Arr. Anab. vii. 4 ; Diod. xvii. 107.) Hephaestion now found himself in possession of the highest power and dis- tinction to which a subject could aspire ; but he was not destined long to enjoy these accumulated honours. From Susa he accompanied Alexander, towards the close of the year 325, to Ecbatana, where he was attacked by a fever, which carried him off, after an illness of only seven days. Alex- ander's grief for his loss was passionate and vio- lent, and found a vent in the most extravagant de- monstrations. A general mourning was ordered throughout the empire, and a funeral pile and mo- nument erected to him at Babylon (whither his body had been conveyed from Ecbatana), at a cost, it is said, of 10,000 talents. Orders were at the same time given to pay honours to the deceased as to a hero — a piece of flattery which is said to have been dictated by the oracle of Ammon. Alexander HEPHAESTUS. 383 also refused to appoint a successor to him in his military command, and ordered that the division of cavalry of which he had been chiliarch should con- tinue to bear his name. (Arr. Anab. vii. 14 ; Diod. iii. 110, 114, 115 ; Plut. Aleoo. 72 ; Justin, xii. 12.) It was fortunate for Hephaestion that his prema- ture death saved him from encountering the troubles and dissensions which followed that of Alexander, and in which he was evidently ill qualified to compete with the sterner and more energetic spirits that surrounded him. Even during the lifetime of the king, the enmity between him and Eumenes, as well as that already adverted to with Craterus, had repeatedly broken out, with a vehemence which required the utmost exertions of Alexander to repress them ; and it is but justice to the latter to observe, that his authority was em- ployed on these occasions without any apparent partiality to his favourite. (Plut. Alex. 47, Eum. 2 ; Arr. Anab. vii. 13, 14.) If, indeed, we cannot refuse this obnoxious name to Hephaestion, nor affirm that he was altogether exempt from the weaknesses and faults incident to such a position, it may yet be fairly asserted that history affords few examples of a favourite who abused his ad- vantages so little. [E, H. B.] HEPHAE'STION {^Yicpaiarlc^v). 1. A Greek grammarian, who instructed the emperor Verus in Greek, and accordingly lived about the middle of the second century after Christ. (Capitolin. Verus Imp. 2.) It is commonly supposed that he is the same as the Hephaestion whom Suidas calls an Alexandrian grammarian. This latter He- phaestion wrote versified manuals on grammatical subjects. Suidas, who mentions several works be- sides, speaks of one entitled fierpwu HeSiafiol, which is believed to be the same as the 'E7xet- pi5iov irepl ficrpcov, which has come down to us under the name of Hephaestion, and is a tolerably complete manual of Greek metres, forming, in fact, the basis of all our knowledge on that subject. This little work is of great value, not only on account of the information it affords us on the subject it treats of, but also on account of the numerous quotations it contains from other writers, especially poets. The first edition of this Enchi- ridion appeared at Florence, 1526, 8vo., together with the Greek grammar of Theodorus Gaza. It was followed by the editions of Hadr. Tumebus (Paris, 1553, 4to., with some Greek scholia), and of J. Corn, de Pauw. (Traject. ad Rhen. 1726, 4to.) The best edition is that of Th. Gaisford (Ox- ford, 1810, 8vo., reprinted at Leipzig, 1832, 8vo.) There is an English translation of it with prolego- mena and notes by Th. Foster Barham, Cam- bridge, 1 843, 8vo. 2. A person who seems to have made it his busi- ness to publish other men's works under his own name. Thus he is said to have published one ITe^i rod irapd * A.vaKpiovri vylvov (TTe(pduov, and an- other which was the production of the Aristotelian Adrantus. (Athen. xv. p. 673.) [L. S.] HEPHAE'STION, a Greek sculptor, the son of Myron ; but whether of the great sculptor, Myron, or not, is unknown. His name occurs in an in- scription. (Spon. Misc. Erud. Ant. p. 126 ; Bracci, vol. ii. p. 268.) [P. S.] HEPHAESTUS Cn<pai(rros the god of fire, was, according to the Homeric account, the son of Zeus and Hera. {II. i. 578, xiv. 338, xviii. 396,