Overview

"Eurydice (c.410-340s BCE) played a significant part in the public life of ancient Macedonia, the first royal Macedonian woman known to have done so, though hardly the last. She was the wife of Amyntas III, the mother of Philip II (and two other short-lived kings of Macedonia), and grandmother of Alexander the Great. Her career marks a turning point in the role of royal women in Macedonian monarchy, one that coincides with the emergence of Macedonia as a great power in the Hellenic world. This study examines the nature of her public role as well as the factors that contributed to its expansion and to the expanding power of Macedonia. Some ancient sources picture Eurydice as a murderous adulteress willing to attempt the elimination of her husband and her three sons for the sake of her lover, whereas others portray her as a doting and heroic mother whose actions led to the preservation of the throne for her sons. While the latter view is likely closer to historical reality, both the ""good"" and ""bad"" Eurydice traditions portray her as the leader of a faction, an active figure at court and in international affairs. Eurydice's activity, sinister or not, directly related to the fact that, at the time of her husband's death, the eldest of her three sons was barely old enough to rule and enemies, foreign and domestic, threatened. Two of Eurydice's sons were assassinated and the third died in battle. Eurydice functioned not only a succession advocate for her sons but she also played a part in the construction of the public image of the dynasty, both because of her own actions and because of the ways in which her son Philip II chose to depict and commemorate her. Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries and all surviving literary evidence, this portrait illuminates the life of a remarkable queen at the birth of a celebrated epoch."

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Reviews

As with most of Carney's body of work, this book is a pleasure to read. Whereas much research on the fourth century can be mired in technical debates, Carney manages to highlight numerous source-based issues while avoiding losing the reader in what is supposed to be a more widely read work. This means scholars, students and the general public will find this work easy to engage with and learn from. * Richard Evans, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * This book is a pleasure to read.... Carney has once again done justice to a fascinating figure who deserves a place of recognition within Hellenistic history, for good and bad, as one of the key reasons the Macedonian kingdom became the dominant power in the late fourth century BC. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * This lucidly written book provides an illuminating analysis of the significance of one of the principal figures of Macedonian history, and an excellent introduction to the problems faced by historians of Macedon... Highly Recommended * S. M. Burstein, CHOICE * Carney's book makes a splendid effort to bring attention to the role of a royal woman in the narrative of the transformation of Macedonia into a major power in the course of the first half of the fourth century BCE... She also considers extensively the dedications made by Eurydice and her connection to various buildings at Vergina, emphasizing the fact that she is mentioned on her own, without reference to her male royal relatives or husband. * Kostas Vlassopoulos, Greece & Rome * Elizabeth Carney's Eurydice sheds light on a complex and transformative period of history; like Carney's biography of Olympias, Eurydice shows us a woman negotiating the dangers of a man's world, striving to maintain the security and primacy of her progeny in an era of violent dynastic instability. * Sheila Ager, University of Waterloo * In Eurydice Carney has tackled one of the most intriguing figures in Argead history. No one will agree with all of her arguments, but this is the work of a master well acquainted with all of the evidence presently at hand and all of the scholarship. Carney should now be recognized as the current (and possibly all time) queen of Macedonian studies. * William Greenwalt, Santa Clara University *

Author Information

Elizabeth Donnelly Carney is Professor and Carol K. Brown Scholar in Humanities, Emerita, at Clemson University. She is the author of Women and Monarchy in Ancient Macedonia, Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great, Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedonia, and King and Court in Ancient Macedonia.

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