Olympias: Myth and melodrama

Has the mother of Alexander been misunderstood?

As the mother of Alexander the Great it would be understandable for the life and works of Olympias to have been overshadowed by her legendary son, but her story is a little more complex than that. The depiction of the Macedonian queen through history has tended to be very negative and yet there are many reasons to question these attitudes. For a start, much of the history of this period and after her death was written by supporters and sympathisers of Macedon King Cassander, her rival. After his ultimate victory over Olympias in 316 BCE, Cassander’s men had refused to execute the queen and the job was left to relatives of people she had put to death instead. It seems a smear campaign followed, painting Olympias as the person responsible for many deaths and executions of those opposing her power. But were her actions any more violent than those of her husband, Philip II, or son? And could many of them have been performed without the consent of Alexander? She’s a figure who should be read about with some caution and scepticism.