#Alexander x hephaistion

[your-name-is-jim]

Interviewer: Are you very fond of Alexander? Gene Roddenberry: As a matter of fact, I am. I have Mary Renault's new Oxford book―in fact, I'd have everything in the bookstores a few years ago. Passionate admirer of Alexander. Passionate man. [...] Interviewer: There's a great deal of writing in the STAR TREK movement now which compares the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion to the relationship between Kirk and Spock―focusing on the closeness of the friendship, the feeling that they would die for one another― Gene Roddenberry: Yes. There's certainly some of that with―certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal―we never suggested in the series―physical love between the two. But it's the―we certainly had the feeling the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style in the 23rd Century. [He looks thoughtful] That's very interesting. I never thought of that before. [From Shatner: Where No Man (1979)]

Sooo I watched the new docuseries Alexander: The Making of a God and I was hit by indirect Kirk/Spock feelings because I remembered this interview. And of course I had to make a gifset about it. :)

[my-chiliarch]

Found this in an old thread about Alexander and Hephaestion, and I died LOL

[jeannereames]

Well, that got through at least. :-)

And they took my advice to cast a dark-haired, Mediterranean-looking Hephaistion too.

(Edit to add, because I’ve been asked: I was the historical advisor to the series. No, they didn’t listen to everything I suggested, and I never saw costumes/sets, but they did take my advice on a few things, including the casting look for Hephaistion. And they kept the kiss.)

For more, read Dancing with the Lion. I pulled no punches there about their relationship. And he has a properly Greek nickname (as does Alexander).

[girls-are-weird]

Philαlexαndros

╚ an Alexander the Great and Alexander/Hephaestion Discord server

i don't know how obvious this is from my tumblr posts, but i have been on a huge alexander/hepaestion spiral ever since i watched the making of a god docuseries on netflix.

so as i was tearing through the alexander/hephaestion tag on AO3 recently, i saw someone (shout-out @ solarcalypso, i'm not sure if you have a tumblr) wonder if there was a discord server for alexander or for alexander/hephaestion, and if there wasn't, there should be. and i went "huh! yeah, there should be."

so i made one!

fair warning: this is literally the first server i've ever created, so if anything is not working properly, that's on me. but the basic requirements for joining are quite simple:

you must be over 18 years of age, and

be at least open to the idea that alexander and hephaestion's relationship might have been romantic and/or sexual. (you don't have to actively ship them if that's not your thing, but don't go around arguing with people who do. we don't straightwash alexander in this house.)

** interested? feel free to DM me here or on discord (@cpinillad) for an invite link! **

(and PS: if you have experience moderating discord servers and would like to volunteer to mod for us, DM me as well! i'm definitely looking for some of those, lol.)

please reblog this post for more exposure. i hope people like this idea and we can grow the server into a really active community!

[anxious-helianthus]

as insane of a quote as this is- does anyone know where it's from?

[leonxlykos]

Hephaistíon, Macedonian nobleman and beloved of Alexandros.

[hephaestn]

do you have any alexander x hephaistion fic recs?

YES I DO! 🥰

Ghost On The Throne by Elise_Madrid

Medea by Apollo_Xandros

A Matter of Apples by Apollo_Xandros (everything by this author is completely incredible but these two are probably my favorite!)

Health to you, King by Liaeling

dream is the endless shadow of Truth by Ginny_Potter

[neon-elliot]

Soldiers:Dad,are we there yet?

Alex:Shut up!

[marysmirages]

Brothers in Arms (Like Achilles and Patroclus) 2020

Another version of the work of the same name. This version is made in watercolor. Young Alexander (Alexander the Great) and Hephaestion read the Iliad of Homer in Mieza and dream of campaigns, battles and brotherhood in arms. They wanted to be like Achilles and Patroclus...

[forochel]

on the first day of christmas ...

my yuletide author(s?) gave to me ...

TWO YULETIDE FICS <3 <3 <3 

& they are BOTH delightful!!!

Reaching One’s Limits Vorkosigan Saga; Ivan-centric family fic  THIS IS SUCH A WONDERFUL ROMP! We watch Ivan get dragged along with yet another Milesian scheme, the seeming lone voice of reason in the wake of Miles’s forward momentum. The author does a fabulous job of characterisation within these little bits dialogue between characters, and Ivan gets a little bit of a happy ending at the end. 

Gaza Renault’s Alexander Trilogy; Alexander/Hephaistion on campaign I learnt about the Siege of Gaza from this fic! Beyond that, this is a thoroughly enjoyable episodic sort of fic from Hephaistion’s perspective. Featuring also the best of guest appearances: a grumpy doctor ;) 

GET THEE HENCE! 

[my-chiliarch]

Hey bro what if we married two sisters but like as a political move, like I marry the oldest princess and you marry her younger sister so we can be officially a family, but I mean we should marry the same day with a lot of other couples but you're my right hand and I'm the king so you and I will stand next to each other and be the most important men there and get married together and have a family together because you know our children will be cousins and I want your babies to be related to me and my babies to be related to you bro, isn't it great that we can have babies together, it's just everything true bros would want, I can't wait for our wedding day, love you bro <3

[jeannereames]

Hello Dr. Reames I hope you’re doing well

I have a question. I was reading everything you’ve written on your blog about alexander and hephaistion and in a post you mentioned that as alex and hephaistion became older their relationship became more complicated. Could you expand more on what you mean by that? In what ways did it become complicated?

Why Alexander and Hephaistion as Lovers as Adults was “Complicated”

I’m not entirely sure whether the asker means the historical people, or the characters in my novel, so I’ll answer for both, as the answer is somewhat the same, but in the book, I can add more specificity. One must be more circumspect about the historical people.

First, if they were never lovers (the historical people), then the only complication would have been Alexander’s increasing power. No matter how much freedom Hephaistion had, the murder of Kleitos showed that a drunk, furious Alexander could do terrible things, even to people he considered like family. As ATG aged, he had more cause for anger, and he also drank more.* So there was that.

But returning to the question of whether they were lovers, my colleague Sabine Müller doesn’t think they were—largely because she believes they met as adults. And THAT gets to the heart of why—if they were lovers—their relationship would have become more complicated across time. They aged.

The Greeks placed homoerotic attachments among the stages of life. A preteen/young teen was the beloved, or pursued partner (eromenos). Once he got a beard, post 18-ish (e.g., ephebe age), then one became the lover, or pursuer (erastes). Any relationship one had previously enjoyed with an older lover was expected to transmute into very close friendship/affection. Then, around the late 20s/early 30s, one would settle down and get married. It was still all right to chase younger boys, but only for a little while. Doing it too long earned “dirty old man” status, although we have evidence of older (40+, even 50+) elite men doing just that. Also, males of any age could pursue affairs with hetairai and other prostitutes (male or female), as well as with slaves of any age.

Two adult men still “carrying on” as if they were teens/young men was considered unseemly. By the time both were past 20, and certainly past 25, they shouldn’t still be having sex with each other. Although if they’d been long-time lovers as youths, they might get nods for loyalty (v. the playwright Agathon and his long-time lover, Pausanias) … and friends didn’t ask what they did behind closed doors. But this was easier to pull off as a slightly counter-culture artist playwright than a king and his increasingly important marshal.

So that’s why Alexander and Hephaistion would have experienced complications as they aged—assuming they stayed lovers. And they may not have. Even if, as youths, they were lovers, as adults, they could each have moved on. Curtius names other youths (not just Bagoas) with whom Alexander might have had a fling. It’s subtle in the text, but the Latin word used could imply something. We don’t have similar attestations for Hephaistion, but I wouldn’t expect us to, so that’s meaningless. Remember, our histories are laser-focused on Alexander, with details about other marshals appearing only if/when they matter to the main story. So, we have the name of Philotas’ mistress only because she became Krateros’ source for dirt on what Philotas said about Alexander as pillow talk. If not for that, we wouldn’t even know he had a mistress. Ergo, we MUST assume there’s a lot of information about the men in high positions around Alexander that our sources simply don’t relate (and perhaps didn’t know).

Now, in terms of Dancing with the Lion, the age thing very much is the problem, as Hephaistion is the elder but Alexandros king. They can continue a relationship for a short while (a few years), but AS KING, Alexandros would be assumed to be the “active” partner (erastes), and that would damage Hephaistion’s reputation—because he’s older (and was originally the erastes). For an older male to accept the passive role (bottoming) was demeaning, making himself “like a woman.”

That’s why the penultimate scene in Dancing with the Lion: Rise is so important! Hephaistion “flips the script,” explaining why he considers bottoming the position of power—startling Alexandros, who never thought about it that way.

Going forward, their friends will ignore any continuation and not examine it too closely due to respect for their loyalty to each other. But this works only for a little while. After Granikos and leading up to Issos, the pressure is on for Alexandros to find a nice girl to make his mistress and move Hephaistion into the role of Older Friend (without benefits)—which he does with Barsine. Yet I don’t plan to have them entirely give up their romantic liaison, so that requires concealment for Hephaistion’s benefit. And it’s not fully successful. Some push back against Hephaistion by enemies does owe to disrespect for his “preferences.”

But keep in mind, I’m speaking now of the fictional characters, not necessarily the historical people. My Hephaistion is pretty high on the Kinsey Scale, in the 5-6 range. Keeping the respect needed to command successfully as his political star rises means he must wear a mask, or find a beard, to use slang. One of the (several) points behind my series is to show it wasn’t necessarily any easier to be gay in “tolerant” ancient Greece. It was just difficult in different ways.

———————

* Before anyone asks, no I don’t think Alexander was an alcoholic, even a “functional” one. There’s literally not enough evidence to say for sure, pace J. M. O’Brien (Alexander the Great and the Invisible Enemy). O’Brien may not call him an alcoholic, but he certainly implies it.

We have two complicating factors that make any sort of real determination difficult: first, the nature of banqueting at the Macedonian court, and second, the fact that historians record the exceptional, not the usual. Symposia (drinking parties) in the Greek world were already venues for both competition and display, and Macedonians didn’t customarily dilute their wine, unlike (many) Southern Greeks. The king was not only expected to keep up, but to excel in all things, including his ability to drink. So there’s that. Add to this the fact historians don’t tell you about the 56 times the king held a symposion where nothing exciting or out-of-the-way happened. They’ll tell you about that 57th when something bad DID happen.

Even in antiquity, there was debate about whether Alexander drank too much, with detractors and Roman-era rhetoricians using him as an exempla of Drinking is Bad (especially in rulers), while apologists (like Aristobulos) claimed he didn’t overdrink, he just liked conversation so he stayed late, lingering over his wine.

Hmmm. I’m going with Door Number Three: yes, sometimes he drank too much, especially as stresses piled up, but if he’d been an actual alcoholic, even a functional one, he probably couldn’t have accomplished everything he did. For one thing, availability of alcohol on the march would’ve been sporadic, so I suspect those famous drinking parties were what happened when they got their hands on some wine, in between long stretches where they probably didn’t have much, if any.

[girls-are-weird]

Philαlexαndros

╚ an Alexander the Great and Alexander/Hephaestion Discord server

(reposting because i finally figured out how to make a permanent invite link lol)

description should be self-explanatory, but the basic requirements for joining the server are:

you must be over 18 years of age, and

be at least open to the idea that alexander and hephaestion's relationship might have been romantic and/or sexual. (you don't have to actively ship them if that's not your thing, but don't go around arguing with people who do. we don't straightwash alexander in this house.)

** interested? join via this invite link, or feel free to DM me here or on discord (@cpinillad)! **

(and PS: always looking for mods, so if you have experience moderating discord servers and would like to volunteer, DM me as well!)

i'd really appreciate it if y'all would please reblog this post for more exposure! hope to see you all there. =)

[bucky-misses-steve]

“You’re everything I care for. And by the sweet breath of Aphrodite, I'm so jealous of losing you to this world you want so badly.” - Hephaestion to Alexander

[leonxlykos]

Leon x Lykos, Chapter XIX cover page

Hephaistíon

[aryastark-valarmorghulis]

3! :)

Hiiii, thank you so much for asking ❤🤗 (I can’t wait to read your new fic, btw)

3- Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write? Definitely Lethe and Breathing in your dust, because I dipped my toes into two new fandoms. 

End Of Year Fic-Writer ask meme