| Eurydice I | |
|---|---|
| Queen ofMacedon | |
| Tenure | 393–369 BC |
| Born | ca. 410–407 BC |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Amyntas III of Macedon |
| House | Argead |
| Father | Sirras |
| Mother | Irra, daughter ofArrhabaeus |
| Religion | Ancient Greek religion |
Eurydice (Greek:Εὐρυδίκη – from ευρύςeurys, "wide" and δίκηdike, "right, custom, usage, law; justice", literally "wide justice") was anAncient Macedonian queen and wife of kingAmyntas III of Macedon.[1][2]
She was the daughter ofSirras and through her mother, Irra, she was the grand-daughter of theLynkestian kingArrhabaeus, member of theDoric GreekBacchiadae family. Eurydice had four children:Alexander II,Perdiccas III,Philip II, all of whom would be crowned kings, a daughter Eurynoe, and through her son Philip, she was the paternal grandmother ofAlexander the Great.[2][3] Literary, inscriptional and archaeological evidence indicates that she played an important public role in Macedonian life and acted aggressively in the political arena.
Eurydice's political activities mark a turning point inMacedonian history. She is the first known royal woman who actively took political action and successfully exerted political influence.[1]
Eurydice was born at approximately 410–407 BC.[4][5] Her father was the nobleSirras, who was either anIllyrian chieftain or aprince-regent ofLynkestis under kingArrhabaeus.[6][4][7][8][9][10] Sirras' origin is disputed, mainly between an Illyrian and aLynkestian descent, not mutually exclusive.[6][4][5][11][12][13][14] Her mother was the daughter of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus, who claimed membership to theDoric GreekBacchiadae family.[4][15][16]
KingAmyntas III of Macedon married the young princess Eurydice in about 390 BC, probably in a Macedonian effort to strengthen the alliance with both theIllyrians and Lynkestians,[17] or to detach the Lynkestians from their historical alliance with the Illyrians,[18][19][20] after he was defeated by Illyrians or an Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition in 393 BC.[21][22] Ten years later king Amyntas III was forced to entrust a portion of his kingdom to theGreekChalcidians, who refused to relinquish it, and by 382 BC had extended their control westward, includingMacedon’s capitalPella.Sparta, the most powerful of the Greek states at that time, intervened and restored Amyntas to his capital in 379 BC, but Macedonia had to accept subservience to Sparta.[22]
Amyntas had another wife, a fellow kinswoman named Gygaea, who had three children. At some point during her husband's reign, Eurydice became the dominant wife.[1] Still it cannot be determined whether this development was immediate or gradual, linked with her family and relations, her higher status, the ages of her sons or a combination of these factors. Nevertheless, for the first time events in the life of a royal woman were also central to the political arena of Macedonia in that period and Eurydice was, however, the most important factor in the change.
Eurydice was literate, although she learned to read rather late in life,[23] probably due to being part of a culture that still was heavily oral in nature and where literacy was not fundamental to knowledge, even more in the case of those who had the wealth and leisure to be read to.[1]
Her life career is full of controversy. According to theRoman historianJustin, Eurydice conspired with her son-in-lawPtolemy of Aloros to kill Amyntas, then marry Ptolemy, and then give the throne to her lover. But the queen's daughter, Eurynoe, foiled the plot by revealing it to her father, Amyntas, who, nevertheless, spared Eurydice from punishment because of their common children.[3][1] Eventually in 370/369 BC, Amyntas III died, and his eldest son,Alexander II succeeded him. In 368 BC, Ptolemy of Aloros killedAlexander II, despite an earlier settlement between them, worked out byPelopidas, aTheban statesman and general. Then Ptolemy was forced by Pelopidas to agree merely to be regent for Alexander's two younger brothers,Perdiccas III andPhilip II.[24]
Later on Eurydice married Ptolemy.[25] It is unlikely that Eurydice voluntarily married her eldest son's murderer, most probably she acted to ensure the succession of her remaining sons. A new pretender of the throne,Pausanias was very popular and was attracting support in Macedonia. Queen Eurydice asked the Athenian generalIphicrates (their father's adoptive son) to protect the throne for her two sons. Iphicrates drove out Pausanias. There is no evidence thatPtolemy had any role in this matter, or suggests that anyone other than Eurydice would have influenced Iphicrates. Even if she was prompted by Ptolemy, her successful intervention in political and military affairs remains remarkably bold and without any known precedent, an extraordinary act for a royal woman.[1] Eurydice took the unprecedented step of seeking international help when she believed the succession of her remaining sons was in jeopardy and her attempt was successful.
In 365 BC Perdiccas III avenged his brother's murder by murdering Ptolemy and taking the throne. This caused a stir amongst the families of Macedon, which called in Pelopidas to re-establish peace. As part of the peace settlement, Philip II was taken as a hostage toThebes. Perdiccas reigned until 359 BC, and already weakened by struggles againstAthens, he confronted theIllyrian rulerBardylis and died along with 4000 of his men in a disastrous battle. Eventually his youngest brother Philip II took control of the kingdom.[22]
Eurydice was also very active in the cult activities. She may have funded the construction of the temple ofEucleia cult atVergina. She had made a dedicationpolietisi (πολιετισι) to or for women citizens, and perhaps to theMuses, grateful for her acquired education.[1]
Eurydice's portrait-statue, together with those of her most celebrated sonPhilip II, Philip II's wife,Olympias, her grandson,Alexander the Great, and her husband, Amyntas III, were realized by theAthenian statuary andsculptorLeochares in ivory and gold. They were placed in thePhilippeion, a circular building in theAltis atOlympia, erected by Philip II of Macedon in celebration of his victory at theBattle of Chaeronea (338 BC).[26][better source needed][27]
Eurydice's tomb was found and identified by the Greek archaeologistManolis Andronikos in 1987 in Vergina (ancientAigai), aUNESCO World Heritage Site, along with other royal Macedonian tombs.[28]In the summer of 2001, between August 13 and September 9 the tomb of Eurydice was robbed and seven marble figurines had been taken.[28] Eurydice's tomb had facedrobbery and was partially plundered sinceantiquity, probably soon after queen's burial, but thelooters had probably failed in their mission, as evidenced by two skeletons found there.[28] An inscribed pot fragment, dating 344/3 BC was found inside the tomb,[28] whereas two inscriptions, one of which dated in 340 BC, have been found in Vergina ofEurydika daughter of Sirras to goddessEukleia.[29][30]
In order to defend Eurydices' son Philip II from ancient allegation that Macedonians were non-Greeks,Aeschines had publicly described Phillip as being "entirely Greek".[31]Strabo claims that, through her mother, Eurydice descended from a branch of theDoric GreekBacchiadae clan, originally ofCorinth,[15] which historically established itself as the ruling dynasty of Lynkestis in the 5th century BC.[32] The Bacchiad claim of her Lynkestian maternal grandfatherArrhabaeus, king of Lynkestis, is generally accepted by modern historians.[4][5][33][34]Plutarch explicitly states that Eurydice was anIllyrian,[35] so doesLibanius and thus is stated in the massive 10th centuryByzantine encyclopaedia,Suda.[4][36] Some modern historians see this characterization as "slander",[37][38] arguing that it originated fromAthens, which sought to discredit her son, Philip, by defaming him as having non-Greek ancestry.[5] Other modern historians regard this characterization as historically accurate, arguing that the alliance between her grandfather Arrhabaeus and the Illyrians was well known, and given the propensity of the elite class to secure political alliances throughroyal intermarriages, it seems quite probable that the Lynkestian king's granddaughter was also partly Illyrian.[39][40] Some, in particular, consider that Eurydice's fatherSirras was Illyrian, though others argue that he wasLynkestian.[41][39][40]
As for Sirras,Eugene N. Borza, A. B. Bosworth and Kate Mortensen, among modern scholars and historians, support an Illyrian ancestry, whileRobert Malcolm Errington,N. G. L. Hammond, andCharles F. Edson support aLynkestian ancestry.[4] In aninductive analysis of the historical information over Sirras, through ana posteriori argument, Elias Kapetanopoulos says that Sirras must have been a Lynkestian – and thus Eurydice as well – though he also hypothesizes a native Macedonian orOrestian origin.[4] Ian Worthington also makes a case for her Lynkestian ancestry by stating the following argument concerning the Illyrian hypothesis: "However, this is unlikely in light of a comment that Attalus made at the wedding of Philip in 337, intended as a slur on Alexander's legitimacy, for his mother (Olympias) was from Epirus. Attalus presumably would not have wanted to draw attention to Philip's illegitimacy if his mother were non-Macedonian",[42] and also writes that, "Attalus' taunt, incidentally, goes some way to determining whether Philip's mother, Eurydice, was Lyncestian or Illyrian. If she had been the latter, then Attalus' remark would, by implication, make Philip also illegitimate. ... Hence Philip's mother was probably Lyncestian."[43]
Stories of Eurydice's plots against her husband and her sons are at odds with other historical evidence and may be fabricated. Recent scholars have noted the many implausibilities inJustin’s narrative and have acknowledged Eurydice's near-contemporary evidences of Aeschines towards her.[1] Aeschines described Eurydice I as the loyal defender of her sons,[44] whereas aPlutarch's passage describes Eurydice as a good model in the education of children.[23]
Philip's mother is traditionally regarded as Illyrian ... She may have been from the royal house of Lyncus in Upper Macedonia
We do not really know why Eurydice, the daughter of the Illyrian (?) Sirrhas and the grand-daughter of Arrhabaeus of Lyncus, was preferred as the mother of his successors.
Sirrhas has been identified as either a Lyncestian or an Illyrian. Two ancient sources call Eurydice an Illyrian (...) and a third, a passage preserved in Plutarch's essays (...), probably does so as well. Such an ethnic designation could refer to her general line of descent and not specifically to Sirras. ... Given the current state of evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude that Eurydice had both Illyrian and Lyncestian (through her grandfather) blood and that, though her father may well have been an Illyrian allied with the Lyncestians, his ethnicity remains uncertain.
οἱ δὲ Λυγκῆσται ὑπ᾽ Ἀρραβαίωι ἐγένοντο, τοῦ Βακχιαδῶν γένους ὄντι· τούτου δ᾽ ἦν θυγατριδῆ ἡ Φιλίππου μήτηρ τοῦ Ἀμύντου Εὐρυδίκη, Ἴρρα δὲ θυγάτηρ
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