True, Plutarch ( Alex. 2.4) does tell a tale (one that endured for many centuries) in which the sight of a snake sleeping with Olympias so disturbs Philip that he rarely has sexual relations with her again, fearing either spells or that the snake was a god. Some scholars consider this serious evidence about their relationship, although it clearly derives from the period of Alexander’s belief that he was the son of Zeus Ammon and deserves no more credence than the assertion earlier in the same passage ( Alex. 2.2) that the night before her marriage Olympias dreamed that her womb was struck by lightning. Even if we reject Plutarch’s implausible claim that Philip’s impulse to marry Olympias was erotic ( Alex. 2.1) rather than political, it could be true that the relationship early on had an erotic charge—here were two able and absolutely ruthless young people with strong characters and passions. If so, then Olympias might, in the early years of her marriage, have experienced sexual jealousy when Philip’s attention turned to other women and men, but after nearly twenty years of that sort of thing (including a possible sexual relationship between her husband and her brother; see below), it was unlikely to be a factor in Olympias’ reaction to the threat posed by his last marriage.
As elsewhere in Greece, elite males had sexual relationships with both men and women. This seems to be true of both the kings and members of the elite. There are a number of indications, however, that masculine
Olympias, wife of Philip II 27
sexuality was differently constructed in Macedonia than in southern Greece and that the distinctively Macedonian take on sexual norms for elite males often played a critical role in the life of the court and in political events.42 At least four Macedonian kings, including Philip,43 are known to have had sexual relationships with other males and, in the case of each king, at least some of these relationships occurred or at least persisted into the adulthood of the king. Sexual relationships between males were often important in the context of assassination plots against the kings; in some they seem at least partially causative. It is unlikely that Olympias (or any other wife) would have felt herself to be in competition with Philip’s male lovers and not implausible that she could have allied herself with one of his male lovers or former lovers. As Philip’s assassination demonstrates, sexual tensions were an intrinsic part of court intrigue, and Olympias had years to learn to cope with them.
In any event, whatever their relationship had been earlier, dealings between Philip and Olympias were clearly filled with suspicion in the last year or two of his reign (see below for further discussion). Nonetheless, the fact that Philip effected a public reconciliation with Alexander and Olympias and arranged the marriage between Olympias’ daughter and brother in the context of a grand panhellenic religious festival suggests that, in a formal and public way, on the day of Philip’s death, Olympias was once more his dominant wife, if not his most trusted one.
Conventional wisdom says that Olympias was close to her son;44 indeed, it often implies that the relationship was unhealthily close, that it explains Alexander’s supposed lack of interest in women, that the world conqueror was a “mama’s boy.”45 The truth is more complex and not easily fitted to popular psychological stereotypes. Alexander demonstrably had some interest in women, more in men (like many elite Greek males, including his own father), but limited interest in sex in general and more in power.46 It is very likely that Alexander was closer to his mother than to his father, but the reasons for this circumstance were largely practical and functional. In the competitive polygamous situation described above, a king’s son inevitably drew closer to his mother than to his father because the former was his succession advocate since her status derived from his success whereas his father probably had other sons and might prefer them. Plutarch (Mor.
178e) actually relates an anecdote in which Alexander complains to Philip because he is producing children by multiple women, and Philip replies by claiming that a contest for the succession would be good thing, demonstrating that he was worthy to inherit. Though the anecdote is probably not literally true, it recognizes a reality of royal father–son relations. A king’s son had reason to distrust his father or at least to worry that he might not be able to count on his father’s favor, whereas his mother’s support was guaranteed out of her own self-interest.47
A fact of life in monarchy exacerbated this distrust: a son who reached or neared adult years was, in effect, waiting for his father to die, and royal
28 Olympias, wife of Philip II fathers would always feel the breath of the heir just behind them.48 Philip’s constant departures on campaign inevitably increased this distance between father and son.49 When serious trouble between Alexander and Philip developed in 338 or 337, it became apparent that Alexander could and did trust his mother and did not and could not trust his father to the same degree.
Once Alexander became king, his relationship with his mother grew more complex (see Chapter 3), but its essence did not change: in a court riddled with suspicion, hostility and danger, these two could trust each other and watch each other’s back. This fact may explain why, though he certainly honored his Argead ancestor Heracles and emulated his deeds, it was his mother’s heroic ancestor who was Alexander’s more compelling model. In a patrilineal world, his identification of himself as an Aeacid (and the tendency of our sources so to identify him) is striking. Arrian (1.11.8), for instance, has Alexander say that he was descended from the genos (clan, family) of Neoptolemus.50
What little the sources preserve about Olympias’ relationship with her only daughter, Cleopatra, relates to the period after the death of Philip.
Indeed, information about relationships between mothers and daughters in general, granted the male voice of most Greek written sources and Athenian reluctance to mention respectable women is public, is not easy to come by.
Nonetheless, mother–daughter relationships may well have been closer than our largely male sources allow us to demonstrate. What little literature written by women we do possess focuses on the difficulty of leaving home; for young women, home meant, more than anything, their mother. The
“returnable” quality of Greek women means that many, widowed or divorced young, might have returned to their mother’s household. The centrality of the Demeter/Persephone myth and its role in women’s festivals like the Thesmophoria that would have reunited mothers and married daughters is suggestive.51 There is some evidence that Olympias and her daughter were close, at least at times. Later in life they demonstrably acted in concert. That her daughter became the wife of a Molossian king (Olympias’ brother) probably intensified the relationship as another marriage might not have.
Cleopatra’s status was also tied to that of her brother, so to some degree these three formed a sub-unit, a succession unit, within the royal family. Once Alexander was king, he paid more attention to Cleopatra than to his half-sisters. Unlike Alexander, Cleopatra would most likely have stayed at her mother’s side until her marriage.52
Olympias’ most complex family relationship was probably that with her brother, Alexander of Molossia. Unfortunately, it is the one about which we have the least evidence, particularly because of the chronological uncertainties of the sources. He was probably younger than Olympias, though possibly not much younger.53 At some point after Olympias’ marriage, he arrived at Philip’s court (where he may have been one of the Royal Youths) and Justin (Just. 8.6.3–6) insists that he also became Philip’s lover. His arrival at court could demonstrate Olympias’ influence over her husband and concern for
Olympias, wife of Philip II 29
her brother’s safety54 as he neared adulthood or it could simply signify that Philip continued to be interested in close ties to Molossia. Philip may already have been planning to replace Arybbas with Alexander of Molossia (as Justin 8.6.4–5 implies). Such a plan would doubtless have pleased Olympias, but her pleasure may have had nothing to do with Philip’s actions. If Philip chose to put Alexander on the throne, he must have had considerable confidence in his control over him. I
n this context, the story that the young Molossian prince became his lover makes sense,55 though this does not guarantee that it happened.
In our world, coping with the fact that one’s husband and brother had a sexual relationship would be bizarre and painful.56 In the Greek world, where sexual relationships between males, especially elite males, were widely accepted, it may not have been so unusual. Sexual relationships between males were probably not unknown at the Aeacid court and thus not unfamiliar to Olympias even before her arrival in Macedonia.57 She could possibly have understood her brother’s sexual relationship with Philip as confirmation of the prestige and influence of her family. On the other hand, it could have made her jealous or left her with a sense that her family had been humiliated.58 I believe that Olympias’ view and that of her brother would have depended on whether, having established the relationship, Philip then showed his esteem for Alexander by giving him honors. In Macedonian history, as in the case of Philip’s assassin and the assassins of Archelaus (Arist. Pol. 1311b), failure to provide honors, support, and gifts to the beloved compromised the honor of the young man and might lead to violence. Since Philip did, in effect, give young Alexander Molossia, he would seem to have conducted what in context was an honorable relationship.
In any event, Alexander’s arrival in Macedonia almost certainly signifies that relations between Philip and Arybbas had begun to deteriorate. After some military hostilities, Philip finally drove Arybbas into exile and put young Alexander of Molossia on the throne (Just. 8.6.7–8; Diod. 16.72.159).
This fact would complicate the situation that developed at the end of Philip’s reign, when trouble with Philip drove Olympias’ son and Olympias herself to her brother’s court. On the other hand, initially it could only have increased Olympias’ prestige at court.
In all likelihood, at least three other Aeacids (other than Olympias’ brother) played roles in the Macedonian court. Doubtless they were there because of the importance of Philip’s Molossian alliance, but their presence probably meant that Olympias, in addition to the female attendants who doubtless accompanied her, had other allies at court.60 Though Alexander’s wet nurse was a member of the Macedonian elite,61 his earliest chief tutor was an Aeacid named Leonidas (Plut. Alex. 5.4).62 Much more important was a royal bodyguard named Arybbas (Arr. 3.5.5); no source says that he was a kinsman of Olympias, but it is quite likely he was.63 If so, his presence would surely have been helpful to Olympias since his was a position of great prestige. In addition, it is likely that the Neoptolemus whom Arrian calls an
30 Olympias, wife of Philip II Aeacid (Arr. 2.27.6) was already present in Philip’s court, perhaps as a Royal Youth who accompanied Olympias’ brother when he came to court.64
Other court figures may have had kinship ties to Olympias. The Aeacids and Argeads both had close connections to elite Thessalians, and the Aeacids may well have intermarried with some of the princely houses of Upper Macedonia.65 In sum, Olympias would not have had as many kinsmen and supporters at court as royal wives from within Macedonia itself, but neither was she entirely isolated and without any kind of support network of close kin.
It is more difficult to determine what, if any, influence she had in the larger court. Later in life she and her daughter trusted Eumenes, probably Philip’s secretary. The beginning of this close political tie may well have been forged during the reign of Philip. Late in his reign, Philip sent several of his son’s closest associates into exile. During her son’s reign, the sources portray Olympias as jealous and suspicious of Alexander’s associates, but in this early period she may have associated herself with the men who endured exile for her son’s sake. (As we shall see, features of the “Pixodarus incident” might confirm this deduction.) From early in Alexander’s reign until his own death, Antipater, general and diplomat for Philip and later regent for Alexander, was her arch enemy. This enmity lasted into another generation and evolved into a feud between the Antipatrid and Aeacid clans. Nonetheless, since Antipater aided Alexander in his youth and probably did much to ensure his succession at the time of Philip’s murder, the troubles between Olympias and Antipater likely did not begin in her husband’s reign but rather in her son’s. The sources indicate some tension between Alexander and the family of Philip’s best general, Parmenio. A marriage alliance to Attalus, guardian of Philip’s last bride Cleopatra, the man who threatened to deprive Alexander of the throne, would also suggest that Olympias would not have been close to him and his, but no direct evidence then or later confirms it. Within the world of women, Olympias developed some renown because of her public leadership role in some cults (see Chapter 5) and she may also have worked out accommodations of sorts with some of Philip’s other wives.
In general, however, no evidence intimates that Olympias played a prominent or important role in her husband’s court, at least not until the last two years of his reign.66
It would be satisfying to provide some physical context for the life of Olympias and her co-wives or, more generally, for the court of Philip.
Unfortunately, virtually none exists. No literary source describes the living circumstances of royal women or clarifies their physical accessibility to the court as a whole, particularly to male courtiers. Archaeology does not solve the problem, even if the palace at Vergina (ancient Aegae) dates to the reign of Philip, as has recently been suggested.67 The complexity of the remains of the palace at Pella prevents any clear conclusions.68 Granted that recent scholarship has argued that the “women’s quarters” of ordinary southern Greek women had no physical existence,69 it seems unwise to assume that
Olympias, wife of Philip II 31
royal Macedonian women, whose actions were demonstrably less circumscribed than women in poleis to the south, dwelled in something like the Oriental harem of nineteenth-century Europeans’ imaginings. More likely they had households and suites of their own, possibly even separate buildings.70 Both sons and daughters, until at least the age of six, would probably have been part of their mothers’ households, although sons would begin to be introduced into the wider court and integrated into their father’s company sooner and to a much greater degree than their sisters. However, Olympias and her daughter knew and corresponded with numerous elite Macedonian males, a circumstance that implies that, like Homeric royal women, they appeared in public at court, as well as at the kind of public occasions at which all women appeared.71 Perhaps royal women of earlier generations actually performed domestic tasks, but the size and complexity of fourth-century Macedonian palaces suggest that they were run by an extensive staff, probably partly slave, and that royal women could, at most, have had only a supervisory role. Olympias and her daughter seem to have owned slaves and employed various staff members of their own. In one letter preserved in Athenaeus (14.359f), Olympias urges her son to buy a slave in her possession who has special skills in ritual cooking. Childcare, as we have seen, was also delegated to some degree. Royal women may, like Penelope, have done fine work in cloth, but most of the fabric used in the royal household would have been the work of others. Olympias and her daughter were probably literate and certainly would have been familiar with Homer and Attic drama (see Chapter 1).72
Let us now turn to the event that destroyed the comparative security and prestige that Alexander and his mother had enjoyed for a number of years.
It is only with this event that we can do more than comment on her general situation because we can, to a limited degree, see Olympias taking specific actions: actions that imply certain priorities. In summer or perhaps early autumn of 337,73 Philip married his last wife, a young woman named Cleopatra74 whose guardian, her uncle, was named Attalus.75 Though doubtless all of Philip’s marriages caused some renewal of tension and uncertainty among his other wives and children,76 until the male drinking party after the wedding Alexander (and therefore Olympias) had little reason to feel concern about this latest union. Any son born as a result of it would be far too young to threaten Alexander’s chances at the throne, and
only months before Philip had entrusted to his teenage son a critical position at Chaeroneia, the battle that brought Philip control of Greece. After the battle, Philip reconfirmed the importance of Alexander by sending him, along with the experienced Antipater, to negotiate with the defeated but still vital Athenians. No wonder that Alexander attended the symposium celebrating his father’s most recent marriage.
Three accounts of events at the wedding symposium survive. According to Plutarch ( Alex. 9.4–5), Attalus told the Macedonians to beg the gods for a legitimate successor to the monarchy. Alexander, enraged, asked Attalus
32 Olympias, wife of Philip II if he, Alexander, seemed to be a bastard, and then threw a wine cup at him.
Philip rose and turned his sword against his own son, but his drunkenness made him fall. Alexander, after mocking his father for his failure to cross from one couch to another when he hoped to cross from one continent to another, then left Macedonia, leaving Olympias in Epirus and himself going on to his father’s enemies, the Illyrians. Satyrus’ version of the incident, as preserved in Athenaeus (13.557d–e) is similar but not identical. Attalus boasted that now legitimate, not bastard, princes would be born. Not only did Alexander throw a cup at Attalus, but Attalus then threw one back.
Satyrus mentions the departure of Olympias for Molossia and Alexander for the Illyrians, but says nothing of Philip’s reaction to either Attalus’ words or Alexander’s actions, though one could consider the absence of any reaction significant. Justin’s account (9.7.3–6) puts responsibility for the beginning of the drunken argument on Alexander’s quarrelsomeness because of his fear that a son born of the marriage would eclipse him, but it also stresses Philip’s enmity to his son. Justin’s Philip first quarrels with his son and then tries to kill him but is prevented not by his own drunkenness but by the pleas of his friends. Again Alexander takes his mother to his uncle and then goes on to Illyrian territories.
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