Eurydice
- The wife of Orpheus, who died of the bite of a serpent. Orpheus obtained from Pluto permission to bring her back from the Lower World, under promise that he would not look back at her on the way. But, as he did not keep this promise, she returned to the Lower World, Ov. M. 10, 31 sq.; Verg. G. 4, 486 sqq.; Hyg. Fab. 164.—
- II Daughter of Danaüs, Hyg. Fab. 170.
(Εὐρυδίκη). The most celebrated of the many mythical personages bearing this name is Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. [Orpheus.] There are seven others beside, viz. one of the Danaides (Apollod. 2.1.5), a daughter of Adrastus and mother of Laomedon (Apollod. 3.12.3), a daughter of Lacedaemon and wife of Acrisius (Apollod. 2.2.2, 3.10.3; Paus. 3.13.6), a daughter of Clymenus and wife of Nestor (Hom. Od. 3.452), the wife of Lycurgus and mother of Archemorus (Apollod. 1.9.14), the wife of Creon, king of Thebes (Soph. Antigone), and, according to the "Cypria," the wife of Aeneias. (Paus. 10.26.1.) [L.S]
(Εὐρυδίκη).
1. An Illyrian princess, wife of Amyntas II., king of Macedonia, and mother of the famous Philip. According to Justin (7.4, 5), she engaged in a conspiracy with a paramour against the life of her husband; but though the plot was detected, she was spared by Amyntas out of regard to their common offspring. After the death of the latter (B. C. 369), his eldest son, Alexander, who succeeded him on the throne, was murdered after a short reign by Ptolemy Alorites, and it seems probable that Eurydice was concerned in this plot also. From a comparison of the statements of Justin (7.5) and Diodorus (15.71, 77, 16.2), it would appear that Ptolemy was the paramour at whose instigation Eurydice had attempted the life of her husband; and she certainly seems to have made common cause with him after the assassination of her son. (Thirlwall's Greece, vol. v. p. 164.) But the appearance of another pretender to the throne, Pausanias, who was joined by the greater part of the Macedonians, reduced Eurydice to great difficulties, and led her to invoke the assistance of the Athenian general Iphicrates, who readily espoused her cause, drove out Pausanias, and reinstated Eurydice and Ptolemy in the full possession of Macedonia, the latter being declared regent for the young king Perdiccas. (Aeschin. de Fals. Leg. §§ 8, 9; Corn. Nep. Iphicrat. 3; Suidas, s. v. Κάρανος.) Justin represents Eurydice as having subsequently joined within Ptolemy in putting to death Perdiccas also; but this is certainly a mistake. On the contrary, Perdiccas in fact put Ptolemy to death, and succeeded him on the throne: what part Eurydice took in the matter we know not, any more than her subsequent fate. (Diod. 16.2; Syncell. p. 263b.)
2. An Illyrian by birth, wife of Philip of Macedon, and mother of Cynane or Cynna. (Arrian, apud Phot. p. 70b.; Kuhn, ad Aelian. V. H. 13.36; Paus. 5.17.4.) According to Dicaearchus (apud Athen. xiii. p. 557c.), her name was Audata.
3. Daughter of Amyntas, son of Perdiccas III., king of Macedonia, and Cynane, daughter of Philip. Her real name appears to have been Adea (Arrian, apud Phot. p. 70b.); at what time it was changed to that of Eurydice we are not told. She was brought up by her mother, and seems to have been early accustomed by her to those masculine and martial exercises in which Cynane herself delighted. (Polyaen. 8.60; Athen. 13.560.) She accompanied her mother on her daring expedition to Asia [Cynane]; and when Cynane was put to death by Alcetas, the discontent expressed by the troops, and the respect with which they looked on Eurydice as one of the surviving members of the royal house, induced Perdiccas not only to spare her life, but to give her in marriage to the unhappy king Arrhidaeus. (Arrian, apud Phot. p. 70b.) We hear no more of her during the life of Perdiccas; but after his death her active and ambitious spirit broke forth: she demanded of the new governors, Pithon and Arrhidaeus, to be admitted to her due share of authority, and by her intrigues against them, and the favour she enjoyed with the army, she succeeded in compelling them to resign their office. But the arrival of her mortal enemy, Antipater, disconcerted her projects: she took an active part in the proceedings at Triparadeisus, and even delivered in person to the assembled soldiery an harangue against Antipater, which had been composed for her by her secretary Asclepiodorus; but all her efforts were unavailing, and Antipater was appointed regent and guardian of the king. (Arrian, apud Phot. p. 71; Diod. 18.39.) She was now compelled to remain quiet, and accompanied her husband and Antipater to Europe. But the death of Antipater in 319, the more feeble character of Polysperchon, who succeeded him as regent, and the failure of his enterprises in Greece, and above all, the favourable disposition he evinced towards Olympias, determined her again to take an active part: she concluded an alliance with Cassander, and, as he was wholly occupied with the affairs of Greece, she herself assembled an army and took the field in person. Polysperchon advanced against her from Epeirus, accompanied by Aeacides, the king of that country, and Olympias, as well as by Roxana and her infant son. But the presence of Olympias was alone sufficient to decide the contest: the Macedonian troops refused to fight against the mother of Alexander, and went over to her side. Eurydice fled from the field of battle to Amphipolis, but was seized and made prisoner. She was at first confined, together with her husband, in a narrow dungeon, and scantily supplied with food; but soon Olympias, becoming alarmed at the compassion excited among the Macedonians, determined to get rid of her rival, and sent the young queen in her prison a sword, a rope, and a cup of hemlock, with orders to choose her mode of death. The spirit of Eurydice remained unbroken to the last; she still breathed defiance to Olympias, and prayed that she might soon be requited with the like gifts; then, having paid as well as she could the last duties to her husband, she put an end to her own life by hanging, without giving way to a tear or word of lamentation. (Diod. 19.11; Justin, 14.5; Athen. 13.560f.; Aelian, Ael. VH 13.36.) Her body was afterwards removed by Cassander, and interred, together with that of her husband, with royal pomp at Aegae. (Diod. 19.52; Athen. 4.155a.)
4. Daughter of Antipater, and wife of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus. The period of her marriage is not mentioned by any ancient writer, but it is probable that it took place shortly after the partition of Triparadeisus, and the appointment of Antipater to the regency, B. C. 321. (See Droysen, Gesch. d. Nachfolger, p. 154.) She was the mother of three sons, viz. Ptolemy Ceraunus, Meleager, who succeeded his brother on the throne of Macedonia, and a third (whose name is not mentioned), put to death by Ptolemy Philadelphus (Paus. 1.7.1); and of two daughters, Ptolemais, afterwards married to Demetrius Poliorcetes (Plut. Demetr. 32, 46), and Lysandra, the wife of Agathocles, son of Lysimachus. (Paus. 1.9.6.) It appears, however, that Ptolemy, who, like all the other Greek princes of his day, allowed himself to have several wives at once, latterly neglected her for Berenice (Plut. Pyrrh. 4); and it was probably from resentment on this account, and for the preference shewn to the children of Berenice, that she withdrew from the court of Egypt. In 287 we find her residing at Miletus, where she welcomed Demetrius Poliorcetes, and gave him her daughter Ptolemais in marriage, at a time when such a step could not but be highly offensive to Ptolemy. (Plut. Demetr. 46.)
5. An Athenian, of a family descended from the great Miltiades. (Plut. Demetr. 14; Diod. 20.40.) She was first married to Ophellas, the conqueror of Cyrene, and after his death returned to Athens, where she married Demetrius Poliorcetes, on occasion of his first visit to that city. (Plut. Demetr. 14.) She is said to have had by him a son called Corrhabus. (Id. 53.)
6. A daughter of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, who gave her in marriage to Antipater, son of Cassander, king of Macedonia, when the latter invoked his assistance against his brother Alexander. (Justin, 16.1; Euseb. Arm. p. 155.) After the murder of Antipater [see vol. i. p. 202a.], she was condemned by her father to perpetual imprisonment. (Justin, 16.2.)
7. The sister and wife of Ptolemy Philopator is called by Justin (30.1) Eurydice, but her real name was Arsinoe. [Arsinoe, No. 5.] [E.H.B]
(Εὐρυδίκη). (1) The wife of Orpheus, who, while fleeing before Aristaeus, was bitten by a serpent in the grass and died of the wound. Her disconsolate husband determined to descend to the lower world, to endeavour to procure her restoration to life. Pluto and Persephoné listened to his prayer; and Eurydicé was allowed to return, on the express condition that Orpheus should not look back upon her till they had arrived in the regions of day. Fearing that she might not be following him, the anxious husband looked back and thereby lost her. (See Orpheus.)
(2) The wife of Amyntas, king of Macedonia (Justin, vii. 4, 5). She had, by her husband Alexander, Perdiccas and Philip, and one daughter called Euryoné, who was married to Ptolemy Alorites. A criminal infatuation for her daughter's husband, to whom she offered her hand and the kingdom, made her conspire against Amyntas, who must have fallen a victim to her infidelity, had not Euryoné discovered it. Amyntas forgave her. Alexander ascended the throne after his father's death, and perished by the ambition of his mother. Perdiccas, who succeeded him, shared his fate; but Philip, who was the next in succession, secured himself against all attempts from his mother, and ascended the throne with peace and universal satisfaction. Eurydicé fled to Iphicrates, the Athenian general, for protection. The manner of her death is unknown.
(3) A daughter of Antipater, and the wife of Ptolemy I. of Egypt, by whom she had several children. After the death of Alexander the Great she proceeded to Alexandria for the purpose of rejoining her husband, and brought with her Berenicé, her niece, who proved the source of all her misfortunes; for Berenicé inspired Ptolemy with so strong a passion that he took her as his second wife, and allowed himself to be controlled by her influence ( Pyrr. 4). Eurydicé and her children retired to the court of Seleucus, king of Syria. One of her daughters subsequently married Agathocles, son of Lysimachus; and another, Demetrius Poliorcetes. Ptolemy Ceraunus, the eldest of her sons, seized upon the kingdom of Macedonia. Eurydicé followed him to that country, and contributed to conciliate the minds of the Macedonians towards him, through the respect which they entertained for the memory of her father Antipater. Ptolemy Ceraunus having been slain, B.C. 280, in a battle against the Gauls, Macedonia was delivered up to the ravages of these barbarians, and Eurydicé fled for protection to the city of Cassandrea. In order to attach the inhabitants more strongly to her interests, she gave them their freedom; and they, through gratitude, established a festival called after her, Eurydicea. The rest of her history is not known.
(4) A daughter of Amyntas and Cynané. Her previous name was Adea, afterwards changed to Eurydicé. She married Arrhidaeus, the half-brother of Alexander, and for some time, through the aid of Cassander, defended Macedonia against Polysperchon and Olympias. Having been forsaken, at length, by her own troops, she fell into the hands of Olympias, together with her husband. Both were put to death by that queen (Justin, xiv. 5).
- wife of Ilus: Apollod. 3.12.3
- Paus. 5.17.7
- wife of PtolemyI.Paus. 1.6.8, Paus. 1.7.1, Paus. 1.9.6
- wife of Dryas: Apollod. 2.1.5
- wife of Acrisius, mother of Danae: Apollod. 2.2.1, Apollod. 1.2.1, Paus. 3.13.8
- Paus. 5.17.4
- her statue: Paus. 5.20.10
- dies of snakebite: Apollod. 1.3.1
- sent up from Hades by Pluto but obliged to return: Apollod. 1.3.1,19
- soul of Eurydice called up by Orpheus: Paus. 9.30.6
- Paus. 10.26.1
- mother of Opheltes: Apollod. 1.9.13, Apollod. 3.6.3