Olympias

Olympias was the daughter of  the king of Epirus, now modern Albania.  According to Plutarch she was descended from the mythical hero Achilles. 

 

The only surviving picture of her is on a coin shown above.  Contemporaries wrote that she was a beautiful woman. She was ruthless and driven.  Above all she had an obsessive love for her son Alexander the Great.

In 359 B.C. Olympias married Philip II of Macedon and Alexander was born three years later. The marriage was doomed due to Philip II's numerous affairs and by the jealous temper of Olympias.

When Philip II took a young wife, Cleopatra (not THE Cleopatra--it was a common name) in 337 B.C., Olympias took Alexander to Epirus and did not return until after the assassination of Philip.  Rumor has it both Olympias and Alexander had a hand in Philip's death since both were afraid Cleopatra's son might be named heir.

When Alexander was 21, he left to conquer the world.  Olympias never saw him again.  

During the absence of her son, with whom she corresponded regularly, Olympias had great influence over Macedon.  It is reported, perhaps unfairly, that her "arrogance and ambition" caused such trouble to Alexander's named regent, Antipater, that on Alexander's death in 323 B.C.,  she found it wise to move to Epirus. 

Olympia raised an army and winning, Olympias became mistress of Macedonia for a short time. Cassander, Antipater's son, took Macedonia back. One of the terms of her surrender had been that her life should be spared.  Cassander went back on his word and had her executed in 316 B.C.  It is said that Cassander hated Olympias so much that he denied her remains the rites of burial.