literature

What it means to conquer

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Sammur-amat's avatar
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Literature Text

I read about them
And lived-
  in his mighty arms
  and his passionate gaze
  and their tragic romance
  and fulfilled promise of never being
     one without the other

  Death can never be seen
     as the end
     to the undying eros

How I pray with all my might
  that the oracles that spoke to you
  were right,
  that he has become a hero and
     you will once again
     meet in
     the afterlife

  For you have been destined for godliness
     therefore your realms must once again
     tangent and intersect
        and intertwine

No queen nor goddess nor titaness
May ever purify, rectify
What has been melded
  by fire
  by a soul's desperate endurance
     a coherence not even
        Homer's Iliad could
        so ravishingly portray

  How I wish I was your Hephaestion
     Where you would
     leave your empire,
     this world
        Only to chase after my soul,
        your world
Alexander had a close emotional attachment to his companion, cavalry commander (hipparchos) and childhood friend, Hephaestion. He studied with Alexander, as did a handful of other children of Macedonian aristocracy, under the tutelage of Aristotle. Hephaestion makes his appearance in history at the point when Alexander reaches Troy. There the two friends made sacrifices at the shrines of the two heroes Achilles and Patroclus; Alexander honouring Achilles, and Hephaestion honouring Patroclus. Aelian in his Varia Historia (12.7) recounts that Hephaestion "thus intimated that he was the eromenos ["beloved"] of Alexander, as Patroclus was of Achilles."
No contemporary source states that Alexander and Hephaestion were lovers; historian Paul Cartledge writes that: "Whether Alexander's relationship with the slightly older Hephaestion was ever of the sort that once dared not speak its name is not certain." Alexander and Hephaestion were, in Fox's words, "exceptionally deep and close friends" until Hephaestion's death, after which Alexander mourned him greatly and did not eat for days. Alexander held an elaborate funeral for Hephaestion at Babylon, and sent a note to the shrine of Ammon, which had previously acknowledged Alexander as a god, asking them to grant Hephaestion divine honors. The priests declined, but did offer him the status of divine hero. Alexander died soon after the receipt of this letter; Mary Renault suggests that his grief over Hephaestion's death had led him to be careless with his health.


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doughboycafe's avatar
I don't have much of a comment to offer other than I loved it. My favorite 'line' was actually the whole last stanza - not that the rest of the poem isn't great (it is) but just that last stanza sums it all up so well and it makes the whole piece come together beautifully.

You always have so much to say about love, and say it so well.