Abstract

A particular rite of mourning, rarely attested in Greek sources, is to shave the manes of horses — and sometimes mules — upon the death of a high figure. This practice appears among the measures of mourning decreed by Alexander following the death of Hephaistion in 324 BC, which ancient writers — and modern ones, following them — added to the list of excessive and barbarian behavior displayed by the Macedonian conqueror at the end of his reign. A survey of the origins of this rite shows that it is a fine example of fifth-century cultural transfers between the Persians and the Greeks, with favorable reception in Thessaly and a more mixed reception in southern Greece. This practice sheds light on what Greeks called a mega penthos (great mourning) and on the political use that Alexander tried to make of this in 324.