The Athenians had reasons of their own for cultivating the oracle.35 Olympias employed her control of the famous shrine to advance her power and prestige (and that of her family36) in central Greece.
Passages from Plutarch imply that Olympias brought with her to Macedonia other quasi-religious experiences, magic,37 and the use of snakes in ritual and perhaps domestically. His testimony should be treated with caution since it derives from his general hostility to Olympias and his more specific objections to some forms of religiosity,38 but it cannot be ignored, if only because it provides an important part of the basis for much of his sexual stereotyping of Olympias. He ( Alex. 2.4) reports the story that Philip lost most of his erotic interest in Olympias because he saw a snake sleeping by her side, whether from fear of her magic and pharmaka (drugs or spells39) or from his conviction that her sleeping partner was really divine. He then proceeds to discuss Olympias’ Orphic and Dionysian experience (see below), but his diction ( Alex. 2.5) reveals that he considers this experience related to her magical ones. Much later in his life of Alexander, Plutarch includes the claim (77.5) that Olympias used pharmaka to destroy Philip Arrhidaeus’
mental capacity.40 The first Plutarch passage implies that Olympias arrived in Macedonia with habits exotic to Macedonians related to snakes and knowledge of spells. Aelian ( N.A. 15.11) reports that Epirotes had a bad reputation as poisoners and casters of spells.41
Sorting the historical from that which is not and distinguishing contemporary propaganda from later accretions in these passages are not easy.
Plutarch includes these stories about Olympias and magic but does not say that he believes them.42 Clearly Philip’s alleged suspicion that Olympias was having sexual relations with a god in the form of a snake is a product of Alexander’s reign since it relates to Alexander’s claims of divine sonship (see below).43 While real Macedonians and Molossians practiced magic, the reference to Olympias’ use of magic or spells, particularly in connection to Philip Arrhidaeus’ mental problems, likely derives from the succession rivalry between the mothers of Philip II’s two sons, Olympias and Philinna, Philip
Olympias and religion 93
Arrhidaeus’ mother.44 Accusations of witchcraft are common, cross-culturally, in polygamous situations, and the northern Greek origin of both women probably facilitated such charges and counter-charges.45
While one must regard Plutarch’s references to Olympias’ practice of magic as dubious at best, her fondness for snakes, whether kept in her living space or used in ritual, deserves more belief.46 Snakes played a prominent role in many cults, often with phallic significance.47 As we have seen, Plutarch specifically associates Olympias’ use of snakes with Orphic and Bacchic rites.
The phallic connotation of the snake in Plutarch’s tale could fit a Dionysiac context, too.48 Moreover, Plutarch describes her provision of snakes for baskets and wands used in Macedonian women’s Bacchic activity in terms that suggest that the use of snakes in this context was an innovation of Olympias.49 The popularity of snake imagery on Dodona votives and the use of living snakes in Epirus in a prophetic cult of Apollo (Ael. N.A. 11.2) may mean that Molossians used them in Dionysiac worship and that Olympias imported the practice to Macedonia.50 Olympias could have kept snakes for personal as well as ritual purposes.51
Before we turn to Olympias’ religiosity after her marriage, two issues already alluded to in a more political context (see Chapter 1), her name change and the significance of her initiation at Samothrace, need to be addressed more specifically in terms of religion. As we have seen (Plut. Mor.
401a–b), Olympias probably changed her name from Polyxena to Myrtale prior to her marriage to Philip, at which point it may well have changed again, to the name by which she is generally known, Olympias.52 Name changes typically relate to changes in identity. A bewildering variety of cults and cult-related experience employed the myrtle plant,53 the apparent source for Olympias’ new name.
It seems reasonable to connect her name-change to a religious ritual somehow connected to an alteration in status or identity prior to her marriage.
However, neither of the solutions so far proposed is persuasive. One suggestion links “Myrtale” to Olympias’ betrothal and the mysteries at Samothrace.
Aphrodite may have had a role in the cult at Samothrace, at least by a later period, but it is not certain.54 According to this view, Olympias’ new name was linked to her Samothracian initiation (see below) and/or her betrothal.55
But nothing links myrtle with the Great Gods of Samothrace,56 and myrtle’s association with marriage or betrothal is not common.57 Evidence does exist that associates the Samothrace cult at a later period with the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, and thus, perhaps, with marriage in general.58 Philip and Arybbas, by opting to stage the betrothal at Samothrace, certainly chose to associate the cult and the betrothal, but their reasons may well have been practical and political, not religious.
The alternative hypothesis59 suggests that Olympias took the name Myrtale as part of a coming-of-age ceremony (common enough elsewhere in Greece), in this case dedicated to Aphrodite. Since myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite and strongly associated with sexuality,60 and, by the third century, a temple
94 Olympias and religion
to Aphrodite had been established at Dodona, this suggestion is more convincing than the first. However, no evidence of such a rite in Molossia, connected to Aphrodite, exists. Granted the growing association between myrtle and mystery cults and beliefs about rebirth, Olympias’ new name may suggest initiation into an as yet unidentified mystery cult, perhaps in association with her coming of age.61 In any event, Olympias’ name-change implies the acquisition of a new, additional identity, connected to Dodona, Samothrace, or some other cult.62
Although one should regard the romantic details about the betrothal of Philip II and Olympias (Plut. Alex. 2.1) with great skepticism (see Chapter 1), Plutarch’s account of their initiation into the mysteries of the Great Gods of Samothrace and the location of her betrothal deserve greater acceptance.63
Initiate lists indicate that group initiations—of family members, citizens of the same polis, passengers on the same boat—were common,64 and Plutarch’s account indicates that Arybbas, Olympias’ uncle and guardian, had accompanied her to Samothrace. Elite women, probably including members of Olympias’ own family (see Chapter 1), traveled considerable distances to major shrines. On the other hand, as we have seen, the choice of this particular sanctuary implies that Philip II chose the location since he was its main developer, likely responsible for the first stone building at the site,65 and it continued to be patronized by the Argead and later dynasties.
It is possible that the betrothal occurred in the very public context of an annual festival held at Samothrace in mid-June.66 The cult permitted initiation at times other than the festival, but a connection between the betrothal and the festival is particularly appealing because, at least in Hellenistic times and quite possibly earlier, the festival included a re-enactment of the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia.67 Much later in his life, Philip combined his daughter Cleopatra’s marriage with a religious festival (Diod. 16.92.1). As we shall see, he may have associated his wedding to Olympias with another festival, so it is tempting to think he might have chosen to connect this betrothal to a religious festival.
Nothing tells us what young Olympias’ feelings were about initiation into what would have been an unfamiliar cult for a Molossian. Apart from the difficulty for Molossians to reach the island sanctuary,68 one must also note that it focused on providing safety for those who traveled by sea (not much of a Molossian problem69), though protection from other sorts of danger, perhaps even after death, was also offered.70 Unfortunately, initiates of the Great Gods of Samothrace so thoroughly kept the secrets of the rites that discussion of the nature of the cult is highly speculative at best, particularly what, if any, relationship it had to the Cabiri.71 Though the names of more male initiates survive, women, even by themsel
ves, did join the cult, and two women, one of them a royal Macedonian woman of a later generation, paid for two large structures at the site.72 Olympias’ known interest in Dionysiac experiences might suggest that cults with similar qualities would appeal to her in a personal way, if, indeed the cult at Samothrace had such qualities.
Olympias and religion 95
Curtius (8.1.26) actually has Alexander condemn his father for his focus on the cult, on grounds that it delayed his plan to invade Asia. Nonetheless, a building program did continue at Samothrace during Alexander’s reign.
Nothing indicates who managed or paid for this work, though it may well have been funded by wealth from the Asian conquests. It could have been Olympias, though Philip Arrhidaeus is also a possibility.73 Certainly an inscription demonstrates that, after the death of Alexander, both Philip Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV, Olympias’ grandson, dedicated a building there.74
The third of the additional names Plutarch ( Mor. 401b) says were employed about Alexander’s mother was, of course, Olympias. This name, rather than commemorating the victory of her husband’s chariot team at Olympia,75 more likely relates to a Macedonian festival in honor of Olympian Zeus at which Olympias’ marriage to Philip was celebrated.76 Like Myrtale, this name correlated to an important change in Olympias’ life and status and to a cult, one much patronized by the Macedonian royal family.77
If Olympias’ new name implies that she played a conventional female role in terms of her marriage and religious issues, then evidence from the reign of her son would appear to confirm this view. Olympias so frequently did things unprecedented for women that it is easy to miss the fact that she did a number of quite conventional things as well; although, being Olympias, they were done on a grand scale and attracted attention. Olympias may have made an inquiry at an oracle of Apollo in Asia Minor about the success of her son’s Asian campaign that received a positive response.78 A letter from Olympias sent to Alexander urged him to buy from her a cook who was experienced in sacrifice, specifically Alexander’s ancestral rites, both Argead and Bacchic, and those that Olympias rendered (Athen. 559f–660a). Since the specialist chef belonged to Olympias, one must conclude that she made certain sacrifices herself and that (at a minimum) she had some supervisory role in dynastic as well as Dionysiac ritual.79 Like many ordinary Greek women, Olympias played her part in family cult but also in ritual associated with more public cults. (See below on her fondness for Dionysus.) Her two known dedications resemble those of other women (if on a grand scale) but probably also relate to Olympias’ political aims. As we have already noted, she made a dedication of a phiale (a shallow libation cup or bowl, most often made of terracotta but sometimes of precious metal) to the cult statue of Hygieia in Athens (Hyp. Eux. 19). Hygieia, the daughter of Aesclepius and often associated with him in cult, personified health.80
Almost certainly Olympias’ offering was made on behalf of her much wounded and sometimes unhealthy son.81 Women frequently patronized the healing deities,82 looking for protection of their children’s health.83 The phiale was a typical female dedication,84 primarily because women usually held the phiale before a man took it, then a woman poured liquid into it before the man poured the libation on the ground.85 The dedication of a phiale seems to stress the submissive, secondary role of women in this form of worship.
96 Olympias and religion
Nonetheless, Euxenippus was held accountable in an Athenian court for allowing Olympias to make this dedication. Even if, as Hyperides implies ( Eux. 19, 27), the charge was specious, primarily intended to do harm to Euxenippus by manipulating current Athenian hostility to Alexander and Olympias, that it could be made at all indicates the political aspect of religious pilgrimage and dedication, as did Olympias’ complaints to the Athenians about Dodona. It is also likely that Olympias arranged for a dedication at the great pan-Hellenic shrine at Delphi of golden crowns ( SIG 252 N, 5–8, with n.3). Since she gave the sanctuary 190 darics (Persian gold coins), she quite possibly paid for this gift from the plunder Alexander had dispatched to her after the siege of Gaza (Plut. Alex. 25.4).86 Hyperides’
language implies that Olympias may have traveled to Athens to make her dedication in person,87 but Olympias’ indirect method of arranging for Apollo’s crowns could suggest that she did not do so. On the other hand, it could signify simply that she was rushed.88 While one cannot establish an exact chronology for either these dedications or her arrival in Molossia, all three events must have happened within a comparatively short time period.89
Apparently, whether in person or indirectly, Olympias moved to establish her presence and prestige in central Greece about the time she removed herself to Molossia. Her dedications appear to have a political connection.
Olympias’ employment of religious ritual and belief to shape her own public image (something her husband, son, and many male political figures also did) does not necessarily mean that she (or they) lacked genuine piety: self-interest and sincere belief are hardly incompatible. As we have seen, Olympias’ religious activities generally resembled those of other Hellenic women, albeit on a grander scale. Female members of the royal oikos were both more and less free than ordinary women. Their involvement in ritual offered the same chance to express, in comparatively unrestrained ways, their feelings and yet exercise a leadership role, as elite women did throughout the Greek world. On the other hand, as we have already observed, political concerns could complicate their religious activities. As we turn to consideration of Olympias’ Dionysiac religiosity, perhaps the most individualized of her cult activities, we should expect to find, once more, both sincerity and the pursuit of self- (and family) interest.
Comparatively little evidence, all of it from literary sources, supports the general belief that Dionysus (and associated cults) played a central role in Olympias’ religious experience and activity. One we have already mentioned (Athen. 559f–660a): the letter to her son in which Olympias tries to sell a cook experienced in Alexander’s ancestral rites, both Argead and Bacchic. This letter does not even connect Olympias directly or personally to these rites, though the fact that she owns a slave with such skills implies an indirect connection.90
Another passage in Athenaeus (13.560f) offers more intriguing evidence.
The author cites Duris of Samos for the statement that the first war between women was that between Olympias and Adea Eurydice. Duris claimed that
Olympias and religion 97
Adea Eurydice went forth to battle dressed as a Macedonian soldier, having been trained in matters of war by her mother Cynnane, and Olympias marched out like a Bacchant, to the beat of a tympanum (a drum used in Dionysiac rites). As our earlier discussion indicated (see Chapter 4), Duris’
picture of Adea Eurydice, even if she had never previously participated in combat, fits the public image she and her mother had constructed. The woman buried in the antechamber of tomb II at Vergina had a warrior’s burial;91 that woman, as is increasingly obvious, was probably Adea Eurydice.92 We cannot know in any absolute way that she went into battle dressed as a soldier (though I think she did) but, minimally, Duris’ story conforms to the persona she had created. Indeed, it sums it up.
Much the same can be said about his description of Olympias: she may actually have appeared in front of the army dressed as a Bacchant (since, as I have argued, she certainly did not plan to fight, such garb would not have been inconvenient), but even if she did not literally dress as Duris insists, his description sums up the persona she had created as a Dionysiac worshiper, by implication a leader in such worship. The army, of course, went over to Olympias for a number of reasons, but her Dionysiac image, irrespective of whether Duris was right to have her acting it out on the scene of the battle, probably helped to sway them because of the popularity of the cult, as we shall see.
Plutarch ( Alex. 2.5) provides the most extensive description of Olympias’
Dionysiac activities. The description appears in the midst of the passage already discussed in te
rms of Olympias’ alleged fondness for snakes, and in the context of Alexander’s claim to be the son of a god. Let us begin with a purposefully literal translation of the section about Olympias and Dionysus: Concerning these matters there is another tale that goes like this. All of the women in this region, since ancient times, were inclined to Orphic rites and to the secret rites93 of Dionysus and have the name Klodones and Mimallones94 and performed many rites similar to the Edonian women and the Thracian women around [Mount] Haemus, from whom, it seems, the word threskeuin came to be used for intense [or immoderate]
and superstitious [or odd in an excessive way] religious services [or sacrifices]. Now Olympias who, more than the other women, strove after95 these inspirations and carried out these frenzies more barbarically, introduced to the celebrating groups great tame serpents who, often raising their heads from the ivy wreaths and sacred baskets or twining around the wands and garlands of the women, astonished [or terrified]
the men.
Despite Plutarch’s obvious hostility to Olympias in particular, northern Greeks, and women in general, and his need to emphasize Olympias’
non-Hellenic qualities in order to highlight Alexander’s Hellenic ones (a need pursued, as we shall see, at the expense of literal truth; see Appendix), the
98 Olympias and religion
passage provides specific information about Olympias and Dionysiac worship in Macedonia (and elsewhere). Dionysiac and Orphic rites (see below on their association) were particularly popular among women in northern Greece.
Olympias Page 17
