1. Wife of Philip II., king of Macedonia, and mother of Alexander the Great. She was the
daughter of Neoptolemus I., king of Epeirus, through whom she traced her descent to Pvrrhus,
the son of Achilles. (Just. 7.6.10; Plut. Alex. 2; Diod. 19.51; Paus.
1.11.1; Theopomp. fr. 232, ed. Didot.) Her temper, naturally vehement and passionate,
led her to engage with wild enthusiasm in all the mystic rites and orgies of the Orphic and
Bacchanalian worship; and we are told that it was on one of these occasions that Philip first
met her at Samothrace, and became enamoured of her. (Plut. l.c. ;
Himerius apud Phot. p. 367a.) But it was not till some time after the
accession of the latter to the throne of Macedonia, B. C. 359, that
their nuptials took place. (Justin. l.c.) The marvellous stories
circulated at a subsequent period of the circumstances connected with the birth of Alexander, B. C. 356, and
which gave rise to, or rather were invented in support of, the idea that the latter was the
son of Ammon and not of Philip, are too well known to require further notice. (Plut. Alex. 2, 3 ; Paus. 4.14.7; Just. 11.11, 12.16; Lucian. Alex. 7; Arr. Anab. 4.10.3).
Plutarch and Justin absurdly ascribe to these suspicions the estrangement that subsequently
arose between Philip and Olympias, for which the numerous amours of the former, and the
passionate and jealous character of the latter are amply sufficient to account. It is certain
that the birth of their second child Cleopatra was subsequent to that of Alexander; nor was it until many years after that
event that the marriage of Philip with Cleopatra, the niece of Attalus (B.
C. 337), led to an open rupture between him and Olympias. The latter took refuge at
the court of her brother Alexander, king of
Epeirus, whom she stimulated to engage in war with Macedonia, at the same time that she
continued to foment the intrigues of her son and his partisans at the court of Philip. She
appears to have been the prime mover of the scheme for the marriage of Alexander with the daughter of Pixodarus, which gave
especial offence to Philip ; and it was even generally believed that she lent her countenance
and support to the assassination of the king by Pausanias, B. C.
336. It is, however, that deed in the open manner asserted by some writers. (Plut. Alex. 2, 9, 10; Just. 9.5, 7 11.11; Athen. 13.557c.)
After the death of Philip she returned to Macedonia, where she enjoyed the highest
consideration and influence through the affection and filial reverence of Alexander; of which she soon after took an unworthy
advantage by availing herself of the absence of the young king to put to death her rival
Cleopatra, together with her infant daughter; an act of cruelty which excited the vehement
indignation of Alexander. (Plut. Alex. 10; Just. 9.7 ; Paus. 8.7.7). It is, indeed, a remarkable trait in the character of
the latter that while he was throughout his life conspicuous for his warm attachment to his
mother, he did not allow himself to be blinded to her faults : during his campaigns in Asia he
maintained a constant correspondence with her, and lost no opportunity of showing her respect
and attention; but her frequent complaints and representations against his personal friends,
especially Hephaestion, remained unheeded, and he strictly forbade her to interfere in
political affairs, or encroach upon the province of Antipater in the government of Macedonia.
In this respect, however, his injunctions were ineffectual; Olympias and Antipater were
continually engaged in the bitterest feuds, and their letters to Alexander in Asia were uniformly filled with
complaints and recriminations against each other. Whether the representations of Olympias
concerning the ambitious character and dangerous designs of the regent had really produced any
effect upon the mind of the king, or that he deemed it best to put an end to these bickerings
and jealousies by the separation of the parties, it is certain that Craterus had been
appointed to succeed Antipater in the regency of Macedonia, while the latter was to conduct an
army of fresh levies to Babylon, when the death of Alexander himself (B. C. 323) caused an entire change of
arrangements. (Arr. Anab. 7.12Plut. Alex. 39, 68; Diod. 17.32, 114, 118 ; Just. 12.14.) By that event Antipater was placed
in the undisputed control of affairs in Macedonia and Greece, and Olympias deemed it prudent
to withdraw herself beyond the sphere of his power : she accordingly took refuge in Epeirus,
where she urged her cousin Aeacides to join the league of the Greeks against Antipater. (Pais.
1.11.3.) But the Epeirots refused to follow their king, and the victory of Antipater and
Craterus over their confederates for a time crushed the hopes of Olympias. Her restless
ambition and her bitter hatred to the Macedonian regent soon prompted her to fresh schemes.
Leonnatus, in whom she had hoped to raise up a rival to Antipater, had fallen in the Lamian
war [LEONNATUS], and she now turned her views towards Perdiccas, to
whom she offered the hand of her daughter Cleopatra, in order to withdraw him from his
projected union with Nicaea, the daughter of Antipater. (Arrian, apud Phot. p. 70a.) Perdiccas, however, did not judge it prudent as yet to break off the
proposed alliance, though he secretly determined to marry Cleopatra : but his death in Egypt
the following year (B. C. 321), put an end to all hopes from that
quarter. Olympias, in consequence, continued to live, as it were, in exile in Epeirus until
tiie death of her old enemy Antipater (B. C. 319) presented a new
openingfto her ambition, Her vey name as the mother of Alexander, still carried much weight with the
Macedonians, and her alliance was now eagerly courted uy the new regent Polysperchon, who
stood in need of her support against Cassander ; and he sent her an honourable embassy,
imploring her to return to Macedonia, and undertake the charge of the young prince Alexander, the son of Roxana. She, however, followed
the advice of Eumenes, that she should remain in Epeirus until the fortune of the war was
decided, and contented herself with interposing the weight of her name and authority in favour
of Polysperchon in Greece, and of Eumenes in Asia. (Diod. 18.49,
57, 58, 62, 6.5.) For a time, indeed, fortune appeared to be
unfivourable : the disasters of Polyspercholi in Greece, and the alliance concluded by
Eurydice with Cassander, gave a decided preponderance to the opposite part. But in B. C. 317, Olympias determined to take a more vigorous part in the
contest, and took the field in person, together with Polysperchon, at the head of an army
furnished by the king of Epeirus. Eurydice met them with equal daring ; but when the mother of
Alexander appeared on the field, surrounded by
a train in bacchanalian style, the Macedonians at once declared in her ftvour, and Eurydice,
abandoned by her own troops, fled to Amphipolis, where she soon after fell into the hands of
her implacable rival, and was put to death, together with her unfortunate husband, the puppet
king Arrhidaeus [EURYDICE]. Not content with this unnecessary act of
cruelty, Olympias followed up her vengeance by the execution of Nicanor, the brother of
Cassander, as well as of an hundred of his leading partisans among the Macedonian nobles, and
even wreaked her tury upon the lifeless remains of his brother Iollas. (Diod. 19.11; Just. 14.5; Athen.
13.560,f. ; Paus. 1.11.4; Plut.
Alc. 77; Ael. V. H.13.35.) But her sanguinary triumph was
of'short duration : her cruelties alienated the minds of the Macedonians, and Casander, who
was at that time in the Peloponnese, hastened to raise the siege of Tegea, in which he was
engaged, and turn-his arms against Macedonia. Olympias on his approach threw herself (together
with Roxana and the young Alexander) into Pydna, where she trusted to be able to hold out
until Polysperchon or Aeacides should come to her relief; but Cassander succeeded in cutting
off all succours from without, and kept the city closely blockaded both by sea and land
throughout the winter. At length in the spring of 316, after suffering the utmost extremities
of famine, Olympias was compelled by the increasing discontent of the garrison to surrender to
Cassander, stipulating only that her life should be spared. But notwithstanding this promise,
the conqueror caused her to be arraigned before the assembly of the Macedonians for her late
executions, and condemned to death without being allowed a hearing. Olympias in vain protested
against the sentence, and demanded to be heard in her own defence. Cassander feared the effect
which her personal appearance might produce, and despatched a body of soldiers to put her to
death. Even these men, awed by her daring and majestic carriage, hesitated to fulfil their
orders, but the friends of the Maceoonians whom she had so lately put to death, rushed in and
despatched her with many wounds. She met her fate with a fortitude and dignity worthy of the
mother of Alexander. Cassander is said to have
denied the rites of sepulture to her remains. (Diod. 19.35, 36, 49_51;
Just. 14.6; Paus. 9.7.2; Polyaen. 4.11.3 ; Ael. NA 12.6;
Euseb. Arm. p. 155.) Of her character it is unnecessary to speak, after
the events above related : she was certainly not without something of the grandeur and
loftiness of spirit which distinguished her son, but her ungovernable passions led her to acts
of sanguinary cruelty that must for ever disgrace her name. Her life was made the subject of a
separate biography by Amvntianus, a writer in the reign of M. Aurelius. (Phot. Bibl. p. 97a.)