Did you know that Alexander the Great's mother claimed he was the son of a god?
Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly and today's video is all about
Olympias, second wife to Philip II of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great. Don't forget,
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Olympias, born with the name Myrtle, was the daughter of Neoptolemus, the king of Epirus,
which was a Greek kingdom southwest of Macedonia. It is widely believed Olympias met Philip II of
Macedon on Samothrace - an island in the Aegean Sea between Troy and Macedonia. Philip was on the
island to promote an alliance, and when he saw the young Olympias, who was both beautiful and
had a fiery nature, Plutarch says that although Olympias was young and an orphan, Philip fell in
love with her and betrothed himself to her. It was not uncommon for kings to marry multiple times,
especially since they were often for diplomatic alliances, and in 357 BCE, the 18-year-old
Olympias became Philip's second wife; he was about 28 at the time. Once again, it is Plutarch who
writes that the night before their wedding night, Olympias had a dream that her womb was struck by a
thunderbolt, which started a fire and then burst into flames and spread everywhere before dying
down. Pair this omen with Philip's dream that he was pressing a seal on his wife's womb and that
the emblem on the seal was the figure of a lion, and the great future of their son was foretold.
Olympias and Philip had two children - a son who would become Alexander the Great and a daughter
Cleopatra. But after Philip saw Olympias sleeping with snakes, he no longer visited her bed chamber.
The practice of handling snakes may have been because of Olympias' long devotion
to the cult of Dionysos - which many of the Macedonian people were unimpressed with. On
the 20th of July, 356 BCE, Olympias gave birth to her son Alexander, who would be the heir to
Philip's throne. There was another potential heir to the throne - Phillip Arridaeus - who
was born to a commoner named Philinna, and there is evidence that Olympias was always jealous
and she didn't want Phillip Arridaeus to be a threat to Alexander, so according to Plutarch,
Phillip Arridaeus' mind became ruined when he was poisoned by Olympias.
Once Alexander was born, Olympias' primary goal in life was to make him king, and so she doted on him
and told him of his lineage - which connected him with the Trojan hero Achilles. She made
sure he was educated well with her relative, Leonidas of Epirus, tutoring and mentoring the
young Alexander, before bringing in the Athenian philosopher Aristotle to finish his education.
Olympias' goal to get Alexander on the throne, though was threatened by Philip's marriage to
Cleopatra-Eurydice, the daughter of Attalus - one of Philip's commanders. Potentially fuelled by the
talk that Alexander was only half Macedonian and the people wanted the king to marry a Macedonian
woman, Philip divorced Olympias and went so far as to claim that Alexander wasn't his son,
and his marriage to Cleopatra-Eurydice not only had the potential to kick Alexander out of top
spot for the throne, but since Olympias' brother - also named Alexander - was put on the throne
of Epirus and betrothed to Philip and Olympias' daughter -and his niece - Cleopatra, Olympias
wouldn't even be needed as a diplomatic tie to Epirus. Things were not looking good for Olympias.
During the marriage banquet of Philip and Cleopatra-Eurydice,
Attalus called upon the people of Macedonia to pray to the gods for a legitimate heir;
so he basically called Alexander a bastard and suffice to say, Alexander was unimpressed.
Alexander rose in anger and Philip tried to attack Alexander but he was a bit drunk and he stumbled
and fell. Alexander took Olympias back to Epirus - both to get her away from the wrath of Philip,
and also potentially to coax her brother into declaring war on Philip. In 336 BCE,
at the wedding of Olympias' brother Alexander and her daughter Cleopatra, Philip II of Macedon was
assassinated by Pausanias of Oretis and suspicion immediately fell on Olympias, who many believed
had encouraged Pausanias to kill Philip. After Philip's death, Alexander became King of Macedon,
and on Olympias' orders, Cleopatra-Eurydice and her young daughter, and potentially young son,
were put to death. Olympias was securely the mother of the king. Before Alexander embarked on
his arduous campaigns of conquest, Olympias told him that his father was not Philip but the god of
the sky, and king of the Greek pantheon; Zeus, and that he should act courageously according to his
divine birth. This was the last time Alexander saw his mother, but they were in constant
correspondence, often with Olympias offering Alexander advice and Alexander ignoring it.
Alexander left Antipater behind to rule Greece and Macedonia in his absence, and letters from
Antipater to Alexander were full of complaints and accusations, and while Antipater called Olympias
a 'shrew', Olympias claimed that Antipater was acting far more like a king than a governor.
After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, Olympias summoned his wife Roxanne and
their child Alexander to Pella, in order to keep them safe. When Antipater died in 319,
Polyperchon became the new regent and then was forced out by Cassander, the son of Antipater.
Olympias realised that under the governor Cassander, her grandson Alexander IV would never
become king, so she joined forces with her cousin Aeacides, who was the king of Epirus at the time,
and the remainder of Polyperchon's army, and they invaded Macedonia. At Olympias' orders,
Phillip Arridaeus, who was actually king - but only in name, his wife Eurydice, and hundreds of
Macedonians loyal to Cassander were executed in 317 BCE. Olympias' invasion of Macedonia failed
though and she was captured by Cassander, who initially promised to spare her life but changed
his mind and put her to death in 316 BCE. Her grandson and Roxanne suffered the same fate six
years later in 310 BCE. Was Olympias a scheming snake as she has been portrayed by later writers?
Or did she simply do everything in her power to support her son? Let us know what you think in
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