Eurydice (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Εὐρυδίκη), born Cleopatra (

: Κλεοπάτρα) was a mid-4th century BC

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an Classical antiquity, ancient monarchy, kingdom on the periphery of Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. Th ...

ian noblewoman, niece of Attalus, and last of the seven wives of

Philip II of Macedon Philip II of Macedon ( grc-gre, Φίλιππος ; 382 – 21 October 336 BC) was the king ('' basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ...

, but the first Macedonian one.

Biography

Cleopatra was a maiden whom Philip married either in 338 or 337 BC and was his seventh wife. While Cleopatra was Philip's seventh wife she was his first Macedonian wife, and was wed as an alliance between the king and his general, Cleopatra's uncle, Attalus. As Philip's wife, Cleopatra was given the name "Eurydice". Although Philip was a

polygamist Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

, his marriage to Cleopatra greatly upset Olympias, his fourth wife and the mother of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

, and threw Alexander's inheritance into question. According to both

Justin Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Rom ...

and Satyrus, Cleopatra Eurydice and Philip produced two children, Europa, a girl, and Caranus, a boy. Following Philip's assassination, both children were murdered by Olympias, whereupon Cleopatra took her own life, or her murder by Olympias was made to look like suicide. Peter Green strongly suggests that Alexander ordered the death of Caranus, but that the deaths of Europa and Cleopatra were the result of Olympias's vindictiveness. Attalus would also be killed in the aftermath of this succession.

References

Notes

*Green, Peter; ''Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C. A Historical Biography''; Berkeley & Los Angeles;

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

; 1991.

External links

WCD Wiki Classical Dictionary - Cleopatra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleopatra Eurydice Of Macedon 4th-century BC births 4th-century BC deaths Ancient Macedonian queens consort Ancient Macedonians who committed suicide Wives of Philip II of Macedon