Olympias (inGreek Ὀλυμπιάς,pronounced[olympiás]; lived 3rd century BC) was a Greekqueen consort and regent of Epirus.

She was the daughter ofPyrrhus, king of the Greek kingdom ofEpirus and his first wifeAntigone. She was the wife of her own paternal half-brotherAlexander II.

After Alexander's death around 242 BC, she assumed the regency of the kingdom on behalf of her two sons,Pyrrhus II andPtolemy; and in order to strengthen herself against theAetolian League, she gave before 239 BC her daughterPhthia in marriage toDemetrius II, king ofMacedonia. By this alliance, she secured herself in the possession of the sovereignty, which she continued to administer till her sons were grown to manhood, when she resigned it into the hands of Pyrrhus II.

But the deaths of Pyrrhus II (circa 238) and his brother Ptolemy (circa 235) followed in quick succession, and Olympias herself died of grief for her double loss,^[1] according toJustin. By another account, Olympias had poisoned aLeucadian damsel named Tigris, to whom her son Pyrrhus was attached, and was herself poisoned by him in revenge.^[2]

• Smith, William (editor);Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,"Olympias (2)",Boston, (1867)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Olympias (2)".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

• Ancient Greek regents
• Ancient Greek queens consort
• 3rd-century BC Greek people
• Deaths by poisoning
• Murdered royalty
• 3rd-century BC women regents
• 3rd-century BC regents
• Daughters of kings

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages with Greek IPA
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the DGRBM
• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the DGRBM without a Wikisource reference
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the DGRBM
• Year of birth unknown
• Year of death unknown