Eucleia, the ancient Greek female personification of glory and good repute, is the youngest of the Charites. She was the daughter of Hephaestus and Aglaea, the goddess of splendor and adoration. Alternatively, Greek biographer Plutarch tells that Eucleia was the daughter of Heracles and Myrto, daughter of Menoetius from Opus (one of the Argonauts), who died a virgin and came to be venerated as a goddess. In the fifth century Athenian vase paintings, Eucleia is often seen among the attendants of Aphrodite, reflecting the good status of a chaste bride or performing stereotypically feminine tasks.
Eucleia’s images and altar were worshipped in Locris and Boeotia, Greece, where brides and grooms would perform a sacrifice. There was also a sanctuary dedicated to Eucleia at Aegae, the original capital of Macedonia which also served as the burial-place of the Macedonian kings. At least two statue bases in the sanctuary were votive offerings by a woman named Eurydice. Two inscriptions were found and one of these inscriptions, dating back to 340 BC, reads “Eurydika daughter of Sirras to goddess Eukleia.” Eurydice is the paternal grandmother of Alexander the Great. But she was not the only Eurydice of Macedonia. Her great-granddaughter, a niece of Alexander the Great, was also named Eurydice. Both women were as far removed from the stereotypical docile and subdued image that Eucleia was supposed to represent.
Eurydice, Matriarch of the Kings
In about 390 BC, possibly in an effort to secure allies against the Illyrians after they defeated him in 393 BC, King Amyntas III of Macedon married a young princess named Eurydice, the daughter of Sirras of Lyncestis and grand-daughter of Arrhabaeus of Upper Macedonia. Born around the 407 BC, Euridyce would have been around the age of 17 years by the time of her marriage.
Ten years after their marriage, King Amyntas III was forced to give away a portion of his kingdom to the Greek Chalcidians who had extended their control to include Pella, the capital of Macedonia by 382 BC. Sparta, the most powerful of the Greek states at that time, intervened and restored Amyntas to his capital in 379 BC on the condition that Macedonia had to accept subservience to Sparta.
Through her marriage, Eurydice had four children. Her eldest son was Alexander II, who became the king of Macedonia immediately after the death of his father Amyntas III in 371 BC and reigned until his own assassination. The murder of Alexander II was instigated in 369 BC by Ptolemy of Aloros, alleged lover of Eurydice, as well as husband of her daughter Eurynoe, to gain control of the kingdom.
Eurydice’s second son Perdiccas III became king after Alexander II with Ptolemy serving as regent for the first four years of his rule until Perdiccas had him killed in 365 BC. Perdiccas then ruled in his own right until 360 BC when he was also killed. Perdiccas was supposed to have been succeeded by his son, Amyntas IV. As Amyntas IV was only an infant at the time, the throne was soon taken over by Perdiccas’ younger brother Philip II who ruled Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. It is through her youngest son Philip that Eurydice became the paternal grandmother of Alexander the Great.
The minimal mention of Eurydice’s only daughter, Eurynoe, provides a clue to the fate of a less ambitious Macedonian woman in history. Eurynoe was barely mentioned in history except by the Roman historian Justin who calls her by name as the person who prevented the assassination of her father Amyntas, by her husband Ptolemy and her mother Eurydice, by revealing their scheme to her father. This also illustrates Eurydice’s ambition and aggression in the political arena of the Macedonian court.
Apart from Eurydice, Amyntas had another wife named Gygaea who had three children by him. In ancient Macedonia, it was the norm for rulers to use polygamy as a political tool. With the practice of polygamy in monarchies, the likelihood of a king producing more sons increased compared to a monogamous king. The added advantage of this system would have been that women in polygamous relationships would be focused primarily on producing an heir to raise their own profiles and maintain their legacies. In many cases, the impending need to produce an heir created a competitive atmosphere among the wives as each woman intended to have her son crowned as heir. This would have left these women with little time for other pursuits and thus kept them away from the public life. Eurydice was one of the exceptions to this rule as she evidently played an influential part in the Macedonian public life.
Eurydice’s portrait-statue, together with those of her husband Amyntas III, her son Phillip II, Philip II’s wife Olympias and her celebrated grandson Alexander the Great, were depicted in ivory and gold by the Athenian sculptor Leochares. The statues were placed in the Philippeion, a circular building within the Altis at Olympia which was erected by Philip II in celebration of his victory at the Battle of Chaeronea. This indicated her and Olympias’ influence in the kingdom.
Perhaps due to being a part of a culture that relied on oral history by nature and where literacy was not considered fundamental to knowledge, Eurydice’s literacy was significant as it indicated that it was essential for her to be able to read to fulfill her role in the kingdom. This was a rarity for a woman, especially those who had the financial means and leisure to have someone read to them when necessary.
Conspiracy Of Eurydice And Ptolemy
It should be mentioned that, despite the second-century Roman historian Justin’s less than flattering depiction of Eurydice as a scheming queen who would plot to murder her own kin, other ancient historians seem to disagree. Aeschines (389 – 314 BC) described Eurydice as a loyal defender of her sons while Plutarch (46 – c. 119 AD) describes Eurydice as a good role model for children’s education.
Roman historian Justin alleged that Eurydice conspired with her son-in-law Ptolemy of Aloros, who was also her lover, to kill her husband Amyntas. However, Eurynoe (her daughter and Ptolemy’s wife) ruined her plan by revealing it to her father Amyntas. Perhaps because of their common children, Amyntas spared Eurydice from punishment. Amyntas III died in c. 370 BC, and his eldest son Alexander II succeeded him. Aeschines also agrees that Eurydice proceeded to marry Ptolemy after he had arranged for the murder of her son Alexander II (no further mention of Eurynoe, her daughter and his wife). However, no other sources mentioned this event. If indeed Eurydice married Ptolemy, it may not have been her own choosing. It was likely that Eurydice could have married her eldest son’s murderer to ensure the succession of her remaining sons. Pelopidas, a Theban statesman and general, forced Ptolemy to agree merely to be regent for Alexander’s two younger brothers, Perdiccas III and Philip II, instead of taking the throne for himself.
If indeed Eurydice married Ptolemy, she seems to have played a bigger role in politics during this marriage. When a new pretender of the throne named Pausanias was attracting support in Macedonia, it was Eurydice who asked the Athenian general Iphicrates (418 – 353 BC) to protect the throne for her two remaining sons. There is no evidence or suggestion that Ptolemy or anyone other than Eurydice influenced Iphicrates, who later succeeded in driving out Pausanias. This successful intervention in political and military affairs by a woman was bold and unprecedented, an extraordinary act for a royal lady.
Perdiccas III had Ptolemy killed in 365 BC and claimed the throne as the sole ruler of Macedonia. Concerned perhaps by the possibility that Ptolemy’s followers would riot, the elite families of Macedonia again called in Pelopidas to negotiate peace. As part of the peace settlement, Pelopidas took Philip II as a hostage to Thebes. Perdiccas reigned until 359 BC. However, weakened by struggles against Athens, he confronted the Illyrian ruler Bardylis and died along with 4,000 of his men in battle. He left behind his infant son, Amentys IV. Eventually, it was his youngest brother Philip II who took control of the kingdom.
Eurydice, The Rebellious Great Granddaughter
Three generations later, there was another very influential Eurydice in Macedonia. She was born with the name Adea shortly before the accession of Alexander the Great. She was the daughter of Amyntas IV, son of Perdiccas III, and Cynnane, daughter of Philip II and his first wife Audata, making her the great-granddaughter of Eurydice the Matriarch.
After Perdiccas died in his effort to defend his realm from the Illyrian invasion, his infant son Amyntas IV was acknowledged as Macedonia’s monarch for a very brief period. However, there was no denying that Amyntas was nothing more than a baby at this time and the intensity of the crisis brought on by the Illyrian devastation forced the Macedonians to be led by his uncle, the militarily adept adult Philip II. Philip quickly proved himself worthy of his elevation by defeating the Illyrians and others who attempted to take advantage of Macedonia’s temporary collapse. As part of the peace treaty with Illyria, Philip married Audata, the daughter of Bardylis, Philip’s now defeated Illyrian adversary. This was Philip’s first of seven marriages. This marriage produced a daughter, Cynnane who later became Eurydice’s mother.
Those who were newly elevated to the throne of Macedonia usually disposed of all potential rivals to the throne. Therefore, one would have understood if Philip would have had his infant nephew Amyntas IV executed. However, Phillip never executed Amyntas. Instead, he had Amyntas raised at his court. Even after 356 BC, when his wife Olympias gave birth to Alexander, Philip and Amyntas remained close. Their relationship was evidently close enough for Amyntas to eventually marry Philip’s oldest daughter Cynanne, as soon as they were old enough to do so. From their union, Adea (who would later be known as Eurydice or Adea Eurydice) was born in either in 337 or 336 BC.
Name changes seem to have been a norm in the Macedonian court. According to Plutarch, Olympias (Alexander the Great’s mother) had three other names – Polyxena, Myrtale, and Stratonice. Although it is uncertain at which stages in her life Olympias assumed these names, the name Olympias could have been associated with Philip’s first Olympic victory in 356 BC, which was also the year of Alexander’s birth. Bearing in mind that despite all her name changes, there was never a time when Olympias assumed the name Eurydice, one can then assume that the name Eurydice did not function as a regnal name in Macedonia. Additionally, Antipater, a Macedonian general and statesman under both Phillip II and Alexander the Great, named one of his daughters Eurydice without arousing suspicion that she aspired to royalty. Of course, this Eurydice later became Queen of Egypt through her marriage to Ptolemy I Soter, but there was no record of her name ever being an issue in Macedonia.
Eurydice And Alexander The Great
Soon after the birth of Eurydice, Philip II was assassinated just days before he was set to embark on an invasion into Asia. Philip’s son Alexander III (who would later be known as Alexander the Great) took over the Macedonian throne and completely overhauled the existing relationships within the royal house. By proving himself worthy of Macedonia’s throne by expelling enemies from his land and by keeping the young Amyntas by his side, Philip had been able to consolidate his hold on the throne before Amyntas was old enough to understand and put forth any royal claim of his own. But Alexander had a different view. The now older Amyntas threatened his cousin’s accession. Not only was Amyntas older and more experienced than Alexander III, in his youth Amyntas had probably actually been recognized, at least for a brief period, as the rightful heir of the Macedonian kingship. In contrast, although Alexander had held important positions under Philip, he had yet to prove his competence as an independent ruler. Alexander acted decisively to seize the kingship and had Amyntas executed.
Immediately after the death of Amyntas, Alexander who had succeeded his father as the head of the royal house and therefore controlling marriages of all of those closely related to him, decided to marry Amyntas’ widow Cynnane to a minor prince named Langarus from Paeonia, northeast of Macedonia. Alexander’s purpose of this union was to tie Langarus’ loyalty more closely to himself, by marrying him to his half-sister. Another purpose was that, by marrying Cynnane to a figure beneath her status, he would eliminate the possibility of her marrying a greater threat to his interests. Nevertheless, when Langarus died before the marriage occurred, Alexander gave up on seeing Cynnane remarried and Cynnane abandoned the Macedonian court to take refuge in a country estate where she brought up her daughter Eurydice in the fashion of Illyrian aristocratic women. In other words, in a military manner.
As most of Alexander’s reign was spent in his conquest of Persia (334–323 BC), Macedonia was largely left under the joint control of Antipater (who at this time held the position of general for European Affairs), his mother Olympias and his sister Cleopatra.
Ambitious Eurydice
When Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, he had three official wives and none of them had given birth to any children before he died. However, his first official wife, Roxane, was five months pregnant when Alexander died. This was unprecedented in the 300 years of Alexander’s family dynasty. With the sudden death of Alexander, there was none in his immediate family who could reasonably assume the Macedonian throne. Since about 650 BC, Macedonia had been ruled by the men of the Argead house (Alexander’s family lineage). As kingship in the dynasty occasionally skipped from one collateral branch of the family to another, the only absolute requirement for a would-be Macedonian king was that he was a male of the royal house.
The only living male in Alexander’s family at the time of his death was his half-brother, Arrhidaeus. Arrhidaeus was another son of Philip II by other wife Philinna. Although he was almost of Alexander’s age, Arrhidaeus was considered mentally incompetent and unable to take up the rigorous demands placed upon Macedonian kings. He was therefore overlooked as a suitable candidate for the kingship. The solution was that an interim regency composed of the high-ranking Macedonian officers would rule until Roxane gave birth. If the child were male, he would then be acclaimed king to be guided by these regents for years until he came of age.
This arrangement was immediately unpopular with the army’s rank and file. They demanded that Arrhidaeus be hailed as king. The stage was therefore set for a split between most of the Macedonian officers at Babylon and their men which threatened to break out into open revolt until a compromise was reached for the establishment of a dual monarchy consisting of Arrhideus and the future son of Alexander.
Agreeing to this arrangement, Arrhidaeus was promoted to the throne at once. It was also agreed that if Roxane had a son, he would share the throne with his uncle. When Roxane gave birth to her son Alexander IV, Macedonia had its first ever dual monarchy, although it was a monarchy in which neither king was competent to act in the kingdom’s best interest.
With this dual kingship, the unity of Macedonia was at stake. Antipater began to forge an alliance by marrying his daughters, Nicaea and Eurydice, to the foremost of his contemporaries which included Perdiccas, the supreme commander of the imperial army. Understanding that two kings meant two potentially volatile factions, each of which could develop strong reasons for eliminating its opposition. When Cynnane learned that the unmarried and incompetent Arrhidaeus (now renamed as Philip III) had been proclaimed king, she plotted to have her daughter Eurydice marry Philip III and gaining control over the kingdom for her daughter and herself.
In Asia, anxious to prevent Eurydice’s marriage to the new king, Perdiccas sent his brother Alcetas to arrest the two women. Cynnane was killed in the confrontation that ensued with Alcetas. When Perdiccas’ army learned of Cynnane’s death, they were horrified that a royal lady, daughter of Philip II, had been killed by a Macedonian intruding into the politics of royal succession. Rebelling against his opposition to the match, the army forced Perdiccas to allow the marriage. Thus, the still very young Eurydice married her uncle Philip.
Upon her marriage to Philip III, Eurydice who at this time was still known as Adea, assumed the throne name Eurydice. This is a clear indication of her own ambition. The last Eurydice in her family had been the mother of Philip II who, in her time, had saved the throne of Macedonia against Ptolemy’s schemes and the pretender Pausanias. The younger Eurydice now planned to do the same for hers by having children by Philip III who would displace the line of Alexander III as Macedonia’s future monarchs. With this new name, Adea then claimed to be the true successor of the previous Eurydice as being twice her descendant through Perdiccas III and Philip II. Although Olympias had given birth to Alexander the Great, Alexander’s son was not yet fit to be a ruler and could not combine the claims of both Perdiccas’ and Philip’s lines as Eurydice could through her line.
Shortly after Perdiccas’ death, Eurydice staged an almost successful mutiny to give her sole control over her mentally incompetent husband. Before Antipater had made his peace with Perdiccas’ army and claimed the kings, Eurydice announced that she and her husband had no need for an aristocratic guardian, since with her guidance Philip was capable of ruling on his own behalf. Understanding the army’s unrest over delayed payments and using this to her own advantage, Eurydice was able to rouse the Macedonians on hand against those who would mobilize the troops against the interests of the established royal dynasty as represented by herself and her husband.
When Antipater approached their camp, he found Eurydice almost inciting a full-scale riot. Just in the nick of time, Antipater and Antigonus were able to gain control of the situation. The two men asserted their status as established generals, while convincing the army that this young queen was only a novice in the complicated game of politics. Thus, Eurydice’s effort was aborted. Antipater made his way back to Macedonia where he managed the kings strictly until his death in 319.
After the death of Antipater, the kingdom was openly split into two factions, each led by Olympias and Eurydice. In the subsequent conflict, Olympias invaded Macedonia from the west with an army she had mustered from Epirus and Eurydice raised an army of her own in defense. As the two armies approached each other Olympias, perhaps having a better feel for what the soldiers considered ‘appropriate behavior’ for a woman, dressed herself in the robes of a devotee of Dionysus. In contrast, Eurydice went to battle dressed as a man.
But before the first ever battle in Greece to be commanded by two opposing women commenced, the Macedonians were unable to follow a war-like Illyrian queen into battle against the mother of Alexander the Great. Therefore, they surrendered to Olympias and betrayed both Philip III and Eurydice. Philip was starved to death within weeks and Eurydice was forced to commit suicide. The triumphant Olympias ruled in her grandson’s stead for at least a decade.
Martini Fisher 