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Macedonian (Elite) Women

This was originally an "ask" but it seems to have disappeared. I have TON in my box (why they're temporarily off), but at least I'd copied the ask itself (as I often do, as I write these offline).

I was thinking that too little is talked about the strong women in ATG's family (& their tragic endings): Olympias, Cleopatra, Roxane, Thessalonike, Eurydice (and I guess also her mother, Cynane), they all met a tragic end. And in a way, I guess that means that eliminating them was quite important to get to the prize (even when they then followed up the assassination with sumptuous funerals to conceal their involvement. Props to Olympias for her own ruthlessness when it came to political killings, no need to dissimulate afterwards ;) ) Who do you think would deserve more historical recognition among them? And whose story do you find more tragic? For me, I'd say probably Cleopatra (but it's a tight battle! Thessalonike's one is pretty brutal, too) Do you also have any recommendations for further reading on these women? I’m familiar with Carney’s Olympias, but I don’t know much about the others. (Or perhaps you have any recs for historical fiction about them? The only one I’ve read is Renault’s Funeral Games, where some of them are quite prominent.)

I’m not sure who deserves more historical recognition. I like them all in quite different ways. Olympias was just kick-ass. Kleopatra was (I think) the clever one (and I have a soft spot for her), Thessalonike the loyal one, and who managed to live the longest although she was forced to marry Kassandros and then was killed by her own son. Kynanna was her own measure of kick-ass (she figures in Rise), as was her daughter. Even Roxana wasn’t anybody to mess with. But maybe my favorite Macedonian woman of all time? PHILA, Antipatros’s daughter (Krateros’s second wife and Demetrios’s last).

I think, if anybody deserves a historical novel, it’s Phila. Yes, over Olympias. In part because she lived through at least a decent part of Philip’s reign, all of Alexander’s, and much of the Successor Wars that followed, first in Macedonia, then traveling with her first husband Balakros (one of Philip’s Somatophylakes) to Asia Minor after he was made satrap of Cilicia. Then she was (briefly) married to Krateros—long enough for him to knock her up, anyway.😊 Then Antigonos more or less strong-armed his pretty, dimwitted son Demetrios Poliorketes to marry her, even though she was old enough to be his mother (if barely). Of all the powerful Macedonian women, she’s among the few lauded by various ancient authors from Diodoros to Plutarch, writers often hostile to other women at the court. I find it interesting because she’s also said to have been exceptionally bright and wise, especially the former wasn’t normally a “virtue” to traditionalist male authors.

She gets a little cameo in Rise. 😉 Assuming I can continue the books, you’ll see more of her.

I don’t, alas, have any good historical fiction recs for the women. I’ve told Beth Carney that, now she’s retired, she should write a novel about Olympias. Not sure she ever will. Some years back, there was The Conqueror’s Wife by Stephanie Thornton, but I don’t care for it personally. Before that, back in the late ‘60s, there was a trilogy, later republished in the early ‘70s by Playboy as one long novel called just Roxane. Despite the publisher, it wasn’t that racy and had a lot of problems. Very much a product of the (late) sword-and-sandals movie era, with a cover to match. The two Romances don’t have a lot in common except that Alexander’s the bad guy in both.

Judy Tarr did one on Olympias prior to Alexander’s birth called Bring down the Sun, plus an earlier one called Queen of the Amazons. In general, I’m a fan of Judy’s, but these are not my favorites of hers. I thought the fictional Meriamon of Lord of the Two Lands was more compelling.

But otherwise, nobody has taken on the women. (I think there was a novel following Olympias called Son of the Bracelet, or something like that, but I never read it.) This doesn’t count gender-swaps like Kate Elliott’s Sun Chronicles.

Clearly somebody needs to get writing! LOL