[The following is in reference to a court intrigue surrounding the planned assassination of Amyntas III of Macedon.]
The king’s wife, Eurydice, had taken a lover, a Macedonian nobleman named Ptolemy, from Alorus. With enviable sang-froid she married off Ptolemy to her own daughter – in order, presumably, to have an unchallengeable reason for keeping him around the house. After a while she got careless, and Amyntas actually caught her in bed with his son-in-law. Unwisely, he did nothing – as usual. He was much attached to his daughter, and anxious to avoid any scandal that might cause her distress. Ptolemy, however, showed little gratitude for this forbearance.
[…]
This fascinating pair now decided to murder Amyntas, and set up Ptolemy as King of Macedonia in his stead:
[…]
Here, however, they reckoned without Eurydice’s daughter, whose Grizelda-like submissiveness clearly drew the line at parricide, and who lost no time in warning her father what was afoot. However, any social embarrassment the situation might have caused at court was obviated by Amyntas promptly dying, perhaps of shock. After all, he was going on eighty.
Source:
Green, Peter. “Philip of Macedon.” Alexander of Macedon: 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Univ. of California Press, 2005. 14. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Justin 7.4.7-8, 7.5.5. The testimonia for this entire period are collected in F. Geyer, Makedonien bis zur Thronbesteigung Philipps II, Historische Zeitschrift, Beiheft 19 (Munich/Berlin, 1930), ch. 5, pp. 105-39.
Further Reading:
Εὐρυδίκη (Eurydice I of Macedon)
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