Queen Olympias of Epirus

I am Olympias of Epirus, born of the Molossian line, daughter of Neoptolemus I, and wed to Philip II of Macedon. Known in youth as Myrtale, I became Olympias in the years of Macedon’s ascent, and mother to Alexander III, whom the world calls the Great. My blood bound Epirus to Macedon; my will ensured that bond mattered.

I was a woman of rites and omens, devoted to Dionysian and Orphic mysteries, and I understood that piety could be a language of power. At court my marriage to Philip was both alliance and rivalry; rumors swirled, as they do around strong queens, about serpents, sorcery, and plots—especially after Philip’s assassination in 336 BCE. Truth and slander often walk arm in arm.

As Alexander rose to empire, I guarded his legitimacy and pressed the claims of the Argead house. Our correspondence was frank; when whispers made him son of Zeus-Ammon, I am said to have answered with a mother’s irony. But when he died in Babylon (323 BCE), the empire’s unity died with him, and the Wars of the Diadochi began to harvest sons and heirs.

I returned to Macedon in 317 BCE with Polyperchon, acting as regent for my grandson Alexander IV. I dealt ruthlessly with rivals, overseeing the deaths of Philip III Arrhidaeus and Eurydice II—acts seen by some as justice for usurpation and by others as queenly cruelty. Cassander besieged me at Pydna; I capitulated under oath of safety, but oaths weighed little against the vengeance of enemies.

In 316 BCE at Pydna, I was condemned and put to death—reportedly stoned by those whose kin I had condemned. So ended my life, but not my reputation: to some a monstrous intriguer, to others a mother defending her dynasty in a world that gave women power only if they dared to seize it.

What I Leave Behind

• The political forging of an Epirus–Macedon alliance and the elevation of Alexander’s legitimacy.
• A model—contested and complex—of female authority amid the brutal realpolitik of the Diadochi.
• Patronage of Dionysian/Orphic worship, entwining religion with royal image-making.
• A cautionary testament that crowns are secured not only by victory but by vigilance—and paid for in blood.