Eurydice (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Εὐρυδίκη), born Cleopatra (

: Κλεοπάτρα) was a mid-4th century BC

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

ian noblewoman, niece of

Attalus Attalus or Attalos may refer to: People *Several members of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon **Attalus I, ruled 241 BC–197 BC **Attalus II Philadelphus, ruled 160 BC–138 BC **Attalus III, ruled 138 BC–133 BC *Attalus, father of Ph ...

, and last of the seven wives of

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon (; 382 BC – October 336 BC) was the king (''basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

, but the first Macedonian one.

Biography

Cleopatra was a maiden whom Philip II married either in 338 or 337 BC and was his seventh wife. Eurydice was significantly younger than her husband but her exact age at the time of her marriage is unknown. While Cleopatra was Philip II's seventh wife, she was his first Macedonian wife, and was wed as an alliance between the king and his general, Cleopatra's uncle,

. Other sources say the main reason was not simply a political alliance but that Philip had fallen madly in love with the young woman. As Philip's wife, Cleopatra was given the name "Eurydice". Although Philip was a

polygamist Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

, his marriage to Cleopatra greatly upset

Olympias Olympias (; c. 375–316 BC) was a Ancient Greeks, Greek princess of the Molossians, the eldest daughter of king Neoptolemus I of Epirus, the sister of Alexander I of Epirus, the fourth wife of Philip of Macedon, Philip II, the king of Macedonia ...

, his fourth wife and the mother of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

, and threw Alexander's inheritance into question. It was at Eurydice and Philips wedding banquet that her uncle insulted her stepson Alexander by making a toast to the newlyweds hoping that Cleopatra would give birth to a legitimate male heir to Philip. This was seen as a direct insult to Alexander and without Philip defending him was what led Alexander to go into exile. According to both

Justin Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

and Satyrus, Cleopatra Eurydice and Philip produced two children, Europa, a girl, and Caranus, a boy. Following Philip's assassination, both children were murdered by

, whereupon Cleopatra took her own life, or her murder by Olympias was made to look like suicide. An alternate course of events is that Eurydice with her infant daughter Europa in her arms were burned alive by being dragged onto a hot brazen oven on the orders of Olympias. Peter Green strongly suggests that Alexander ordered the death of Caranus, but that the deaths of Europa and Cleopatra were the result of Olympias's vindictiveness. Attalus would also be killed in the aftermath of this succession.

References

Notes

*Green, Peter; ''Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C. A Historical Biography''; Berkeley & Los Angeles;

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

; 1991.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleopatra Eurydice Of Macedon 4th-century BC births 4th-century BC deaths Suicides in ancient Macedonia Wives of Philip II of Macedon