The Tomb of Olympias

Discuss Alexander's generals, wives, lovers, family and enemies

Moderator: pothos moderators

Post Reply
Alexias
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1100
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:16 am

The Tomb of Olympias

Post by Alexias »

Is this of interest to anybody?

A friend recently gave me a copy of an article in Hesperia 1949 in which Charles Edson argues for the identification of Pydna with the modern village of Makriyialos (5 kilometres north-east of Kitros which I believe is the modern identification of Pydna). He discusses two inscriptions found in the village, of which the following are probable reconstructions.

1. “Aeacid is my race, my father Neoptolemus, my name Alcimachus, of those (descended) from Olympias. As a child whose intelligence was equal to that of men, Fate placed me at the age of three a corpse beneath this tomb.” 1st cent BC

2. “As you pass (the memorial) of (Neop)tolemus, (stranger, stay, that) you may see the tomb (of famed) Olympia(s. Hel)enus, (bewailing) the race of impetuous A(eacides), buried (his son in the bosom of) measureless (earth.)”

A third inscription seen at Kitros by Heuzey contained the name Neoptolemus and the apparent phrase “thou liest at the well-walled”.

Edson suggests that that though Cassander would not grant Olympias a burial, the locals may have interred her body, and then either king Demetrius (294-288 BC) or Pyrrhus of Epirus (who ruled that part of Macedonia in 288-285 BC), may have given her a royal tomb.

He argues that a family of the Aeacides descended from Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and thus claiming kinship with Olympias, were living at Pydna. He thinks there are two possibilities for how they came to be living there.

1. About 229 BC the dynasty in Epirus was overthrown by a popular revolution and the royal family executed. Phthia, the wife of the Macedonian king Demetrius II, was an Aeacid princess, so if any members of the Epirote royal family (eg young children) survived, Demetrius may have settled them in Pydna because of the association with Olympias’s tomb.

2. After the battle of Pydna in 168 BC when the Romans broke the back of Macedonian power, the Macedonian nobles and their children of more than 15 years of age were transported to Italy. The Aeacids of Pydna would have been included amongst these, unless there was a young boy under 15 who continued the family. Alternatively, the Romans offered an amnesty to any of the Macedonians who had fled with king Perseus to Samothrace, so Edson suggests that a Royal Page or a noble may have taken advantage of the Romans’ offer.
ruthaki
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:31 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by ruthaki »

Back in the mid 90's I was in Pynda on a research trip and happened to meet the archaeologists working there -- one who had discovered the trench dug around the old fortress by Kassandros - who was then looking for Olympias' tomb. He told me that they would have buried her first there but that later on her body would have likely been moved, perhaps to the royal tombs at Aigai. So perhaps, if this is true, it could have been her final resting place. I don't know if they ever managed to identify any tomb at Aigai as Olympias' although there is that one tomb (unidentified) that had wall paintings that I have always wondered if it was hers.
Rubén Alejandro
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:44 am
Location: city of Buenos Aires, Argentina .
Contact:

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by Rubén Alejandro »

hello ,
ruthaki : could you be sending to me or posting here pictures of the
wall paintings found in the possible tomb of Olympia ?
thank you if you can so do , - alex77alex2001@yahoo.com.ar -

regards ,
Alejandro .
Alexias
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1100
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:16 am

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by Alexias »

Thank you, Ruthaki. Any idea what date that unidentified tomb is? Or what date they are likely to have re-interred Olympias?
ruthaki
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:31 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by ruthaki »

Regarding the 'unidentified tomb' at Aigai which has wall paintings on it, I don't have any photos of that unfortunately. Not sure if there is anything on line. The paintings were all pastel and depicted scenes from myths.

As for the dates I am also uncertain. Re the tomb they were searching for at Pydna, which the archaologist thought would have been temporary, would obviously have been dated to Olympias' death. He thought they would have moved her to Aigai to the Royal Tombs later on but who knows when that might have been because her enemy Kassandros was in control there for quite awhile. I guess it's all speculation and I haven't heard anything new. It was about in 1996 or so that I was up in Pydna doing research and was lucky enough to meet with the archaeologists there. I've been to Aigai to the Royal Tombs on a number of occasions but not in the last couple of years so I don't know what new findings they have there.
athenas owl
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 401
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:07 am
Location: US

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by athenas owl »

Ruthaki, are you referring to the tomb with the free standing columns that has been nearly destroyed?

Or the tomb with the painting of the rape of Persephone on the wall? The one many believe is the actual tomb of Philip?
ruthaki
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:31 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by ruthaki »

Oops I accidently saved my response as a draft.Yes it was the tomb with the paintings of Persephone. And, as many times as I have been there I have never once heard it referred to as possibly the tomb of Philip which the Greeks have designated as the tomb with the golden caskets and I believe that is his tomb too. (I saw the bones when they were on display in Thessaonliki before the tombs were discovered and truly believe they where his to the to scarred skull bone to the broken leg. I did wonder if this tomb with persephone might have been Philip's mother's as they found the monument to her there at Aigai and when I was visiting the tombs just after they first opened I was directed by an archaeogiilst to the little shed where they were restoring things to get them to show me Eurydike (Philip's mother) They had a statue of her they had found and were replacing the head on it. It was in a wooden box in the shed. So I felt myself privileged to have been able to view it before it was put on public display.
athenas owl
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 401
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:07 am
Location: US

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by athenas owl »

Ruthaki...that's interesting that the Persephone tomb would be considered for Eurydike. If memory serves, there were the remains of a man, a woman and an infant, the last not something I'd associate with a mature woman, but I certainly could be wrong.. I was reading something somewhere where Borza and Olga Palagia had shown convincingly that that Tomb II belonged to Arrhidaeus and Adea Eurydice.

That's a wonderful experience for you though. I'd love to see the tombs.
ruthaki
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:31 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by ruthaki »

I was not aware that they found anything inside that tomb but perhaps they did. I have been to the tombs a couple of times and didn't see anything on display in regards to that tomb's contents, but perhaps they were not on display as yet.
The tomb of Philip fits very well to everything (including the things that had been burned above it) and the small casket in the other part of the tomb has been identified as one of Philip's Illyrian or Thracian wives (likely the one he married after Olympias who she had murdered.) I haven't been back there for a couple of years so not sure if they have changed this identification. Personally, I go along with Philip and his young wife and not Arridhaeus and Eurydike who had been executed by Olympias. But who really knows? Only the ghosts.
athenas owl
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 401
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:07 am
Location: US

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by athenas owl »

Here's an article where Borza discusses it.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... eat_2.html

The wife that Olympias murdered was Cleopatra/Eurydike..a thoroughly Macedonian girl. Who was killed with her child (though whether it was a boy or a girl seems to be quite in question and makes for interesting debates).

As for Tomb I, the "Tomb of Persephone":
Tomb I, which is usually referred to as the Tomb of Persephone, is a large cist grave. Because of looters, all that is left are bones belonging to a male, a female and an infant.
http://proteus.brown.edu/greekpast/4818

Not to bring modern politics and national pride into it, but Andronikos, whiile his work was monumental and worthy of great praise, might have let his own feelings lead him into the idea that Tomb III had to be Philip's. Much like Schliemann blasting right past Troy VI and VII to find the Troy he labeled as "the" Troy of the War. That it is the tomb of Philip has been institutionally accepted. I doubt that the PTB at Vergina would change that, it would perhaps to their eyes be dishonouring Andronikos. Of Course, Philip II is so much more glamourous than Philip III.

I do confess that i like the idea that the tomb belongs to III. The chance that some of the artifacts belonged to Alexander is gone if it is II.

I still find the 4th tomb or whatever it was, the ruined one with the free standing columns the most fascinating.
ruthaki
Strategos (general)
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:31 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: The Tomb of Olympias

Post by ruthaki »

If only the ghosts could talk!
Post Reply