Olympias

Olympias (in Greek old Ὀλυμπιάς / Olympiás ), born towards 375 av. J. - C., died in 316, is the girl of Néoptolème, king of Épire of the tribe of the Molosses, member of the dynasty of the Éacide S. Épouse Philippe II of Macedonia, it gives rise to Alexandre Large the and Cléopâtre.

Biography

Olympias was undoubtedly born towards 375 av. J. - C. It marries Philippe II of Macedonia in 359 av. J. - C., which it met on the island of Samothrace during its initiation to the mysteries of the Large Gods. It was indeed priestess of Zeus before marrying Philippe. She had been informed with the temple of Dodone as of childhood. From this union Alexandre Large the in 356 av. J will be born . - C. But this marriage quickly becomes conflict between the repeated inaccuracies of Philippe and the ambitious character, authoritative, acariâtre and without pity of Olympias.

In 337 av. J. - C., it is withdrawn in his/her father in Épire when Philippe II éprend of Cléopâtre, niece of the chancellor Attale and marries it. In August 336 av. J. - C., Philippe II is assassinated. Without it being possible to be completely affirmative, it appears probable that Olympias soaked in this assassination which arranges well the businesses of his/her Alexandre son (even if this one would not be implied in this murder). While his/her son is in the north of his kingdom in order to ensure his septentrional border, it makes assassinate Cléopâtre and its son.

During forwarding in Asia of her son (whom it will re-examine never again), it enters to many resumptions in conflict with the regent Antipater and must be even exiled in Épire (331 av. J. - C.) which it controls in the name of one of its grandsons, born from his daughter Cléopâtre and her brother Alexandre Molosse, king d' Épire. The death of Alexandre in 323 av. J. - C. does not put fine at its thirst for being able. She seeks to marry her Cléopâtre daughter, become widowed, with Léonnatos then with Perdiccas. With died of Antipater in 319 av. J. - C., it is combined to the new regent Macedonia, Polyperchon, which with need for its authority to overcome Cassandre, the son of Antipater.

Together they are victorious of the half-brother of Alexandre the Large one, Philippe III Arrhidée, which is put at died with his wife Eurydice (317 av. J. - C.). The hatred of Olympias against its adversaries is unbounded and they are eliminated without pity. But Cassandre is a soldier aguerri and it besieges Olympias in Pydna with Roxane and the son whom the latter had of Alexandre. Constrained to go against the promise of a safe life, Olympias is delivered by Cassandre to the parents of its victims. She is assassinated after a show of judgment (316 av. J. - C.)

Olympias through the literature

Olympias finds its place in the literature around the character of Alexandre: thus in the Romance of Alexandre of pseudo-Callisthène, where Olympias occupies a central place. The beginning of the novel thus tells the adventure (fictitious) of the queen with the deposed Pharaon Nectanébo, taken refuge in Macedonia after the invasion of the Egypt by the Perses. This one predicts to him that it will be pregnant of Ammon, the god of the gods, and is made the instrument of the divine will. Thereafter, Olympias seems the model of the maternal love.

Olympias through the cinema

• Olympias found incarnation in the film Alexandre of Oliver Stone in the person of the actress Angelina Jolie, who plays there - in spite of her age, similar to that of the actor who interprête his son - Olympias truer than natural, powerful, devastator, loving and machiavelic.

• Danielle Darrieux also incarnated Olympias in Alexandre Large the ( Alexander the great ) of Robert Rossen in 1955

Sources

• Arrien, Anabase , III, 6,5; IV, 10,2; V, 1,4-5; VII, 12,5-6;

• ; XVII, 32,1-2; 114,3; 118,1-2;
• , IX, 7,10;
• , Alexandre , 2-3;
• Fifth-Curce, History of Alexandre , V, 2,29; VI, 3,5; X, 5,30.