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

48 FATHER, SON, AND COURT
reporting that the mass weddings at Susa were held according to
Persian fashion, says that the brides, including the royal brides, were
present, sat beside their husbands, and were kissed by them. We know
that in the Hellenistic period, following the example of Philip II, royal
weddings became dynastic and religious festivals with long processions,
sometimes by sea. 52
What about other court banquets? Were royal women present
there? In the Greek world in general, respectable women did not
attend symposia, but at family feasts both men and women were present,
though they may have sat separately. Herodotus (5.17–21) tells a
story about a banquet at the Macedonian court in the time of Amyntas
I. Whatever the literal historicity of this Herodotean tale, 53 although it
has usually been understood to say that elite women did not participate
in court symposia, Herodotus actually has Amyntas assert only
that their custom ( nomos) was to separate women and men whereas
the Persians expected their wives and mistresses to sit beside them
(5.18). (The rest of the story, however, seems to imply that the women
may have been in another room since Amyntas had to send for them.)
Indeed, Hoepfner pictured royal women banqueting separately but
equally from men, in parallel banqueting rooms. 54 Some court events
may have been understood as family occasions of the sort that both
men and women attended. The view that royal women occasionally
participated in royal banquets and symposia 55 remains attractive, if
currently unprovable.
Whether seen in the distance or in closer proximity at a banquet,
the trappings of royal women would have publicized their presence
but, at the same time, partially concealed it. Kings employed costume
to demonstrate their power and distinction, as well as their wealth:
Philip’s white cloak worn in the procession on the day of his murder
(Diod. 16.93.1); Alexander’s double plumed helmet (Plut. Alex. 16.4);
his use of mixed eastern and western attire (Plut. Alex. 45.1–3) and
Demetrius Poliorcetes’ famous cloak showing the heavenly bodies
(Plut. Demetr. 41.4–5). As with Macedonian disapproval of Alexander’s
eclectic dress (Plut. Alex. 45.3) or negative reaction to Demetrius’
over-the-top royal wardrobe (Plut. Demetr. 41.5), a king could
miscalculate the effect of costume choices. 56 Nonetheless, to be king,
one had to dress the part. The same generalization certainly applies
to royal women.
Passages about the Hellenistic period associate royal women with
luxurious royal garments and litters (Plut. Arat. 17.2–5; Polyaen.
8.57). 57 For the Argead period, of garments, we have only the
gorgeous purple and gold fabric used to wrap the woman’s bones in
the antechamber of Tomb II at Vergina, though traces of purple dye