Olympias

by Elizabeth Carney

  19 See Hamilton 1969 for a commentary on Plutarch’s life of Alexander; Stadter 1965, Badian 2003, and Pelling 2002 for his skills as an historian. See also Stadter 1992.

  20 So Carney 1997b: 29. On broader categories of women in Plutarch, see Le Corsu 1981; Blomquist 1997. All these discussions, however, tend to focus largely or exclusively on the lives.

  21 I am not as inclined as some (see Jouanno 1995: 214, n. 8) to attribute Plutarch’s negative picture of Olympias in the Alexander to his sources. He read widely and chose from his readings. Propaganda from Olympias’ day doubtless existed and survived, but that does not explain why Plutarch preferred it for the Alexander but not necessarily for the Moralia.

  22 Plutarch’s Eumenes includes references to Olympias (12.2, 13.1) dealing with her public activities in connection to Eumenes. These passages accept Olympias’ political activity in a matter-of-fact way and do not comment on it.

  The first passage testifies to Eumenes’ loyalty as shown by his insistence on swearing oaths to Olympias and the kings and in the second a letter from Olympias, hoping to safeguard her grandson against plots on his life, invites him to come to Macedonia, take charge, and rear Alexander IV.

  23 While I would agree that many of Olympias’ actions reported by Plutarch in the Alexander can be interpreted as attempts (if extreme ones) by Olympias to safeguard her son’s interests (indeed, I have often done that), Jouanno 1995: 215 does not persuade when she suggests that Plutarch means to suggest this view without explicitly stating it. As we have seen, he describes her several times over as an unpleasant troublemaker, not an obsessive mother.

  24 So also Blomquist 1997: 80.

  25 The essay is devoted to advice for bride and groom.

  26 Plutarch’s essays also contain a quotation ( Mor. 747 F) of a two-line elegy for Olympias. Its origin is unknown. Since Plutarch does not comment on these lines and quotes them for technical purposes, they do not aid the current discussion. See brief discussion in Chapter 6.

  27 Blomquist 1997; Asirvatham 2001: 100.

  28 Asirvatham 2000: 104–12 and 2001: 95, 100. She focuses on the topic of religion and the need to make Alexander seem Hellenic, but one could extend her point to other areas.

  29 For instance, 2.1, 4, 5, 3.1, 77.5. See Badian 2003: 27–9.

  30 For instance, he cites (3.2) Eratosthenes for the story that Olympias told the departing Alexander the secret of his birth but then he mentions a contradictory story by unnamed others.

  31 Badian 2003: 27–9 considers this practice an indication that he is “hedging”

  about the veracity of entertaining or morally useful stories. Asirvatham 2001: 97 sees it as a distancing device, for somewhat different reasons, a practice known in Arrian and other writers as well. However, Cook 2001 argues, against the conventional view, that Plutarch’s usage is not at all intended to cast doubt on included material, thus rejecting the notion that Plutarch was either “hedging” or distancing himself.

  32 See Heer 1979: 55–7 on Pausanias’ treatment of women.

  33 Habicht 1998: 95–109 discusses Pausanias’ dependability and his condemnation of Philip’s policies (109). Palm 1959: 63–74 thinks that Pausanias did blame Philip for the beginning of the process that led to Roman conquest.

  34 Habicht 1998: 98 believes that Pausanias worked from memory and employed many sources.

  196 Notes

  35 Blomquist 1997: 79.

  36 Carney 1993b: 29, n. 1.

  37 For instance, see Mossman 1988.

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