Hephaestion's isolation at court was originally mentioned by Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman, but the large numbers of Alexander's officers who were related to each other, not just by blood but by marriage too, is very noticable in Heckel's book.

I cannot quite make up my mind about the nature of Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship - so I prefer to think that though Alexander might have prefered to be dominate, he wasn't always the dominant one, or Hephaestion's self-respect might have suffered.