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A painting by Charles Le Brun depicting Alexander and Hephaestion (in red cloak), facing Porus, during the Battle of the Hydaspes

Archaeologists Find Possible Male Lover of Alexander the Great

Winnie McCroy
November 12, 2014


The bones of an honored person, rumored to possibly be Hephaestion, Alexander the Great's close friend and possible lover, were found in a tomb in Amphipolis in Northern Greece.

Discovery News reports at least one archaeologist on a team led by Katerina Peristeri found the human remains in a box-shaped grave. The 10.6 by 5.1-foot limestone burial was found about 5.3 feet beneath the floor of the third chamber in the huge tomb site.

Within the grave, they unearthed the remains of a wooden coffin with iron and copper nails, and bone and glass fragments they believe were decorative elements of the coffin.

"Parts of the skeleton were found scattered within and outside of the grace. Obviously, an anthropological investigation will be carried on the remains," said the Greek Ministry of Culture in a statement.

Dorothy King, an archeologist not involved in the excavation, said that because the bones were found both in and around the sarcophagus, that the tomb was looted. But she said that the fact that a body was buried indicates that it was someone important.

"A burial like this in a sarcophagus, a whole body rather than a box with ashes, is unusual in Macedonia," said King, who noted that only the most important people like Alexander or possibly his lover Hephaestion, would be embalmed like this.

"If the bones are male, they are most likely to be those of someone like Hephaestion," wrote King in her blog. "The remains show that the sarcophagus was very elaborate and made of precious materials, as the sources say his funerary cortege was."

When Hephaestion died in Western Iran in October 324 B.C., Alexander reportedly mourned by shaving his hair, refusing to eat, executing Hephaestion's doctor, and commissioning the expensive funeral pure. Alexander the Great died eight months later.