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Olympias (in Greek, Ολυμπιάς; ca. 376–316 BC) was an Epirote princess, the fourth wife of the king Philip II of Macedon and the mother of Alexander the Great. A devout worshipper of the Greek god Dionysus, she was said to have kept pet snakes. Olympias apparently was originally named Myrtale (or 'Mistilis'[1] ). Later she may have been called Olympias as a recognition of Philip's victory in the Olympic Games of 356 BC. [1]

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[edit] Life

Olympias was daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus, [2] descent from the lineage of Aeacidae (a very well respected family of Greece). Neoptolemus was the son of Achilles. Her brother was Alexander I of Epirus,[3] a kingdom ruled later by Pyrrhus. When her father died ca. 360 BC, his brother and successor Arymbas (grandfather of Pyrrhus) made a treaty with the new king of Macedonia, Philip II of Macedon. The alliance was cemented with a diplomatic marriage: Arymbas' niece Olympias became queen of Macedonia in 359 BC.

It is said that Philip II had first fallen in love with Olympias when they were among the initiates into the Kabeiria Mysteries of Dionysus in the Greek island of Samothrace. However, their marriage was stormy, and, feeling neglected and angry, Olympias returned to Epirus in the fall of 357 BC, wintering there and having an adulterous affair.[4] Late in spring 356 BC, under pressure from her uncle, the Epirotan king Arymbas, she returned to Pella, the Macedonian capital. Upon her return, she was pregnant, and she bore her son Alexander in late July, 356 BC. Not long afterwards (late spring 355 BC) she also bore Philip a daughter, Cleopatra.

Despite the arrival of his first legitimate son (he had already fathered another illegitimate son, Philip III), Philip II was scorned for having a child not of "pure Macedonian blood". Angry at her husband for not accepting Alexander, Olympias insisted it was Zeus, King of the Gods, who had impregnated her while she slept under an oak tree (which were sacred to him). Alexander appeared to have believed the tale, as he later sought confirmation of his divine descent at the sanctuary of Zeus Ammon (of the sands) in the Siwa Oasis in Egypt.

Olympias was enraged by Philip's marriage to Cleopatra Eurydice, in 337 BC. She was not angry because Philip had chosen a new woman to be his wife—indeed, he had several lovers and multiple wives—but because upon marrying her he divorced Olympias and disowned their son, Alexander. At the wedding banquet, Cleopatra Eurydice's guardian Attalus wished that the new couple would produce "legitimate heirs" together.

ruins of the Temple of Apollo
ruins of the Temple of Apollo

Accompanied by Alexander, Olympias withdrew for approximately a year to Epirus, where her brother Alexander I of Epirus was now king. She and her son returned to Pella after an apparent reconciliation, or at least cessation of hostilities; Philip had cemented his ties to Alexander I by offering him the hand of his and Olympias' daughter Cleopatra in marriage. At the wedding soon afterwards, Philip was murdered; it is unclear whether Olympias had anything to do with its planning or that Alexander, her son, was in on the murder. It is only known for sure that Alexander had the body of Philip's assassin (Pausanias of Orestis) crucified and left on public display as a criminal for many days. The head of the body of Pausanias was found to have on it a golden crown, supposedly put there by Olympias. Pausanias' body was ultimately taken down from the crucifixion cross and placed over Philip's body. The two were cremated together in a typical Macedonian rite. Olympias dedicated a memorial to Pausanias. The sword used by Pausanias to kill Philip was hung in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, per special orders from Olympias herself, under the name Mistilis.[5]


Delphi Sarcophagus
Delphi Sarcophagus

Olympias murdered Caranus, son of Philip and his last wife, Cleopatra Eurydice. She also murdered Caranus's sister, Europa, and forced Cleopatra Eurydice to hang herself. During the absence of Alexander, with whom she regularly corresponded on public as well as domestic affairs, she wielded great influence in Macedon, causing trouble to the regent, Antipater.[6]

Upon Alexander's death in 323 BC, Olympias found it prudent to withdraw again into Epirus. She supported her grandson Alexander, son of Alexander the Great, and in 317 BC, allied with Polyperchon who had succeeded Antipater in 319 BC. Olympias took the field with an Epirote army in an attempt to drive Cassander, Antipater's son, from power in Macedon.

When she engaged Eurydice III (Philip's granddaughter through his wife Audata) in battle, Eurydice's troops defected to Olympias, unwilling to fight against the mother of Alexander. Olympias imprisoned Eurydice and her husband Philip Arrhidaeus; he was executed and Eurydice was forced to hang herself. For a short period Olympias was mistress of Macedonia.

Cassander hastened from Peloponnesus, and, after an obstinate siege, compelled the surrender of Pydna, where Olympias had taken refuge. One of the terms of the capitulation had been that Olympias' life should be spared. In spite of this, she was brought to trial for the numerous and cruel executions of which she had been guilty during her short span of power. Condemned without a hearing, she was put to death in 316 BC by the friends of those whom she had slain, and Cassander is said to have denied her remains the rites of burial.

[edit] Olympias in the modern world

[edit] See also

  • Olympias, reconstruction of Greek trireme.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Brown, Virginia translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, page 125; Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
  2. ^ mother of Alexander, daughter of Neoptolemus, a former King of the Molossians, a tribe in Epirus (in the region of modern Albania)
  3. ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 125
  4. ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 126
  5. ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 126
  6. ^ Brown, op. cit., p. 127

[edit] References