Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

PHILIP’S EURYDICE IN THE PHILIPPEUM AT OLYMPIA 41
gesture of reconciliation toward Alexander, also establishing the new
wife’s position in the dynasty. What the Greeks made of this manifestation
of Philip’s polygamy in a Panhellenic sanctuary we do not
know. The fact that the two female portraits were seen by Pausanias
inside the Heraeum shows that the arrangement was short-lived. It is
very likely that after Philip’s death Alexander removed Cleopatra/
Eurydice’s portrait to the Heraeum, perhaps on the occasion of the
exiles’ decree that was announced at Olympia during the Games of
324 (Diod. 18.8.3–5). Olympias’ portrait could have been removed by
Cassander during his campaign in the Peloponnese in 317. 43 The juxtaposition
in the Heraeum of the portraits of the two rivals, Olympias
and Cleopatra/Eurydice, both exiled from Philip’s side for eternity
would have been fate’s fi nal irony.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Beth Carney for inviting me to this conference, and to
Brian Bosworth for his advice and suggestions.