#cynnane

[wishesofeternity]

“Alexander the Great had three sisters - Cynnane, Cleopatra, and Thessalonice - and all three were eventually murdered. Since both' of Alexander's sons met similarly violent ends, it may appear at first glance that little distinguishes the pathetic life and death of each of these three royal sisters from the more pathetic and yet shorter lives of their nephews. Indeed, even earlier in the century, before the long and troubled demise of the Argead house had begun, very few male Argeads managed to die at home in bed.

On reflection, however, the very fact that a long dynasty was coming to an end should have meant that the sisters of the last king would have a better chance of survival than the minor male heirs of that king. After all, once the father is dead, the heirs are for practical purposes (assuming they are well below the age of maturity) no man's sons, and can do no would-be dynast any more than short-term good, whereas the king's sisters can be married and thus legitimize the seizure of royal or quasi-royal power. Better yet, a king's sister may produce children of the blood of the old royal house, as well as the new.

But two of Alexander's sisters did not realize the potential advantage seemingly inherent in their situation and ultimately all three died exactly because they were Philip II's daughters and Alexander's sisters. This failure to realize the potential to be the bridge between two dynasties is most surprising in the case of Alexander's full sister, Cleopatra. Analysis of the careers of Alexander's relatively obscure sisters, worthwhile as an end, in itself, should answer the question of why the Successors proved to prefer murder to marriage (in two of the cases) as well as produce important information about the nature of Macedonian monarchy in a period of great and rapid change. The significance of the similarity in ultimate fate of the three sisters and their nephews has been ignored for too long.  

“...   Calling Alexander's sisters his "relicts" is meant to convey two truths about  them: their similarity to the other relics of Alexander (his corpse, his tent, and,  of course, his empire) and their manipulation by various of the Successors  and (by means of allusion to the older meaning of "relict" as a female survivor  of some related and now departed male, with its implication of the lack of a  separate existence for such women) their peculiarly property-like quality in the  period after the death of Alexander. The answer to the question posed initially - why did Alexander's sisters fare so poorly and so similarly to their nephews - should now be clear. Alexander had no successor. Even Antigonus, although interested in the same land area as Alexander, was not a true successor to the curious monarchy Alexander had invented - a traditional national monarchy onto which a curious sort of personal monarchy had been grafted - Antigonus was, like the other generals, on the way to creating a personal monarchy. Thus even he did not really need Cleopatra. Cassander, with his marriage to Thessalonice and at least superficial attempt to imitate the traditions of Macedonian monarchy, could not really be Philip's heir because he could not be an Argead; he had murdered Argeads and would probably have liked to murder more. Until the death of Alexander, Macedonian kingship had been tied to one dynasty. This was so much the case that the kings used no title, but simply signed themselves as so and so, son of an Argead. Trying to decide whether Philip's or Alexander's reputation was greater after 323 is ultimately devoid of any real political meaning; neither had any real successors and thus Alexander's sisters and Philip's daughters, representing as they necessarily did continuity with what had come before, could have no future.  

Cynnane died in an ill-advised attempt to take royal power by military and quasi-military means; the army did not save her. Thessalonice died in the death throes of the pseudo-dynasty Cassander had fabricated, her death demonstrating that even her son did not need to see himself as the heir to the  Argeads. Cleopatra died making one last attempt to function as a symbol of continuity, and for that she was murdered. The sisters were expendable because continuity was neither needed nor genuinely desired.”

Elizabeth Carney, “The Sisters of Alexander the Great: Royal Relicts”

*I disagree that Cynnane's attempt to take royal power was ill-advised. As Carney herself points out in another book, "although this daring plan ultimately proved fatal for Cynnane, it succeeded in its object and was brilliantly conceived".

[heroineimages]

The Meh of Sparta

So on Friday I found an old Athens save on the Wrath of Sparta campaign for Total War: Rome 2 and spent part of Friday and Saturday playing through it. As far as I can see, it’s probably the weakest campaign in Rome 2. 

Granted, I love playing Hellenic factions. And I had a lot of fun giving my girl Aspesia her own hoplite phalanx and letting her run rampant over Sparta and their allies. And it was entertaining when my Ionian allies finally showed up late game and helped offset the stalemate in the Peloponnese. But two-sided wars aren’t what Ancient Greek politics are about. 

Historian Philip Matyszak offers the term ‘viper pit’ when discussing Ancient Greek politics. A perceived weakness on the part of a neighbor was the all the reason most city-states needed to invade, and the promise of goods, gold, slaves, and other spoils was sufficient motivation to get their hoplites riled up for war. A well-designed strategy campaign based on Ancient Greece needs this element in it’s politics. 

I frankly feel like there are a couple better uses for the Aegean campaign map. One option might be to start a few centuries earlier, when hoplite phalanxes were still the ultimate battle formation and Athens vs Sparta wasn’t even close to the largest or bloodiest rivalry between states. Add more playable factions, including Crete, Rhodes, Halicarnassus, and Byzantium, so that we’re using all of the campaign map instead of Boeotia, Attica, and the Peloponnese. 

Another campaign option I like might be to create a post-Alexandrian campaign, dealing with the fallout from Alexander’s death and the infighting that erupted between the Successor kingdoms as well as the independent city-states. Not only does it bring back in the multi-sided politics missing from WoS, it changes the warfare completely with the deployment of heavy quinquereme warships, sinew-powered artillery, gastrophetes crossbows, and phlangite (pike) phalanxes. This would also allow the inclusion of historical figures like Alexander’s mother Olympia, his warrior sister and niece Cynnane and Eurydice, Antipater, Antigonus the One-Eyed, Selucius, Ptolemy, and countless others locked in the struggle for Hellas. 

Anyway, those are my thoughts. If any of my readers know someone who mods Total War games, you might toss them my suggestions. 

[nehetisingsforhekate]

Amazon Names

With thanks to Adrienne Mayor, who wrote the list out for us in her book Amazons. I have excluded names outside of the Graeco-Roman world because of the focus on my blog.

It is questionable whether these names were ever really associated with actual Amazons, who were most likely part of the hordes of tribes from Skythia, near the Black Sea. Most of them are names the Greeks offered as names of Amazons. Skythia stretched out towards the area we know as Kyrgyzstan, and even as far as China. Adrienne Mayor’s book does a great job describing tales that cross the entire Asiatic range about women who are warriors and queens who led armies.  

Some of these are names for women with full stories, such as Penthisilea. Others we only have them depicted on a stray fragment of a vase. These names can be understood as representing just how little we know, just how little survived of the folklore of the Ancient Greeks.

A few of these names are familiar in other contexts. You’ll find mention of an Amazon named Hekate, and another named Asteria, for example. These are not the same as the Titanesses that bore those names, near as we can tell.

Ainia: “Swift” or “Praise” (from a Greek terra-cotta fragment) Ainippe: “Swift of Praiseworthy Horse” (Greek vase) Alexandre: “Protector” fem. form of Alexander (Greek vase) Alkaia: “Mighty” (Greek vase) Alke: “Mighty” (Latin Anthology) Alkibie: “Powerful” (Quintus of Smyrna) Alkinoe/Alkinoa: “Strong-Willed” (Greek vase) Amastris: Persian princess, founder of Amastris (Strabo) Amazo: “Amazon” (Strabo) Amynomene: “Defender” (Greek vase) Anaxilea: “Leader of the Host or Army” (Greek vase) Anchimache: “Close Fighter” (Tzetzes) Andro: “Manly” (Tzetzes) Androdaixa: “Man-Slayer” (Tzetzes) Androdameia: “Subdues or Tames Men” (Greek vase) Andromache: “Manly fighter” (Tzetzes, Greek vase) Andromeda: “Thinks like a Man” or “Measure of Man” (Greek vase) Antandre: “Resists Men” (Quintus of Smyrna) Antianeira: “Man’s Match” (Tzetzes, Mimnermus fragment 21a, Greek vase) Antibrote: “Equal of Man” (Quintus of Smyrna) Antimache/Anchimache: “Confronting Warrior” (Tzetzes) Antioche: “She who Moves Against” (Hyginus) Antiope: “Opposing Gaze” (Apollodorus, Diodorus, Plutarch, Hyginus, Pausanias, Greek vases) Areto: “Virtue” (Greek vase) Areximacha: “Defending Warrior” (Greek vase) Aristomache: “Best Warrior” (Greek vase) Artemisia: “of Artemis” (Persian? Herodotus) Aspidocharme: “Shield Warrior” (Tzetzes) Asteria: “Starry” (Diodorus) Atossa: “Well-granting” (Iranian, Hellanikos, Justin, Claudian) Aturmuca: “Spear Battle” (Etruscan name for Andromache or Dorymache; vase) Audata: “Lucky”, “Loud”, or in Latin “Daring” (Illyrian, Athenaeus) Bremusa: “Thunder” (Quintus of Smyrna) Caeria/Kaeria: “She of the War Band,” “Timely,” or “Hill/Peak” (Illyrian, warrior queen, Polyaenus) Camilla: fem. form of Camillus, “Noble Youth” (Etruscan, Volschi, Virgil) Calaeno/Kalaeno: “The Dark One” (Diodorus) Chalkaor: “Bronze Sword” (Tzetzes) Charope: “Fierce Gaze” (Greek vase) Chichak: “Flower” (Turkish, Book of Dede Korkut) Chrysis: “Golden” (Greek vase) Cleophis: “Famous Snake” (Diodorus, Curtius) Clete/Klete: “Helper” (Tzetzes on Lychophron 995) Cyme/Kyme: “Billowing Wave” (Diodorus, Stephanus of Byzantium, coins) Cynna, Cynnane, Kynna: “Little Bitch” (Illyrian-Doric, Alexander the Great’s half-sister, Polyaenus) Deianeira: “Man Destroyer” (Diodorus) Deinomache: “Terrible Warrior” (vase) Derimachea: “Battle Fighter” (Quintus of Smyrna) Derinoe: “Battle-Minded” (Quintus of Smyrna) Dioxippe: “Pursuing Mare” (Hyginus) Dolope: Thracian tribal name (vase) Doris: “Bountiful” or “Dorian” (vase) Echephyle: “Defending the tribe” (vase) Enchesimargos: “Spear mad” (Tzetzes) Epipole: “Outsider” (Photius) Eriboea: “Many Cows” (Diodorus) Eumache: “Excellent Fighter” (vase) Euope: “Fair Face” of “Fair Eyes” (vase) Euryale: “Far Roaming” (Valerius Flaccus) Eurybia: “Far Strength” (Diodorus) Eurylophe: “Broad Crest” as of a helmet, “Wide Hill” or “Broad Neck” (Tzetzes) Eurypyleia/Eurypyle: “Wide Gate or Mountain Pass” (Arrian cited by Eustathius, vase) Evandre: female form of Evandrus, “As Good as a Man” (Quintus of Smyrna) Glauke/Glaukia: “Blue-Grey Eyes” (Apollodorus, Hyginus, Scholia Iliad 3.189, Callimachus, vase) Gortyessa: from Gortyn, possibly meaning “enclosure”, town in Crete (Tzetzes) Gryne: an Anatolian town (Servius on Aeneid 4.345) Harmothoe: “Sharp Spike” (Quintus of Smyrna) Harpe: “Snatcher” or “Sickle-Dagger” (Silius Italicus) Hegeso: “Leader, Chief” (vase) Hekate: “Far-darting” (Tzetzes) Hiera: “Sacred” (Philostratus) Hippe: “Horse” (Athenaeus) Hippo: “Horse” (Callimachus, vase) Hippolyte: “Releases the Horses” (Euripides, Apollodorus, Diodorus, Pausanias, Quintus of Smyrna, Plutarch, Hyginus, Jordanes, vases) Hippomache: “Horse Warrior” (vase) Hipponike: “Victory Steed” (vase) Hippothoe: “ Mighty Mare” (Quintus of Smyrna, Hyginus, Tzetzes) Hypsicratea: “High or Mighty Power” (Valerius Maximus, Plutarch, Greek inscription) Iodoke: “Holding Arrows” (Tzetzes) Iole: “Violet” (vase) Ioxeia: “Delighting in Arrows” or “Onslaught” (Tzetzes) Iphinome: “Forceful Nature” (Hyginus) Iphito: “Snake” (vase) Isocrateia: “Equal Power” (Stephanus of Byzantium, Eustathius) Kallie: “Beautiful” (vase) Kleptomene: “Thief” (vase) Klonie: “Wild Rushing” (Quintus of Smyrna) Klymene: “Famous” (Hyginus, Pausanias, vase) Knemis: “Greaves” (Tzetzes) Koia: “Hollow” as in sky, “Inquisitive” female form of Koeus (Stephanus of Byzantium) Koinia: “of the People” (Stephanus of Byzantium) Kokkymo: “Howling/Battle Cry” (Callimachus fragment 693, a daughter of the queen of Amazons) Korone: “Crown” (vase) Kreousa: “Princess” (vase) Kydoime: “Din of Battle” (vase) Lampedo/Lampeto/Lampado: “Burning torch” (Callimachus, Justin, Orosius, Jordanes) Laodoke: “Receives the Host or Army” (vase) Laomache: “Warrior of the People or Host” (Hyginus) Larina: “Protector” (companion of Camilla, Virgil) Lyke: “She-Wolf” (Valerius Flaccus, Latin Anthology, vases) Lykopis: “Wolf Eyes” (vases) Lysippe: “Lets Loose the Horses” (Pseudo-Plutarch) Maia: “Mother” (Callimachus fragment 693, a daughter of an Amazon queen) Marpe: “She seizes” (Diodorus) Marpesia: “Snatcher or Seizer” (Justin, Orosius, Jordanes) Maximous: “Daughter of the Greatest” (Hellenized Latin) Melanippe: “Black Mare” (scholia on Pindar) Melo: “Song” (vase) Melousa: “Ruler” (vase) Menalippe: “Steadfast or Black Mare” (Jordanes) Menippe: “Steadfast Horse” (Valerius Flaccus) Mimnousa: “Standing in Battle” (vase) Molpadia: “Death or Divine Song” or “Songstress” (Plutarch) Myrine: “Myrrh” (Homer, Diodorus) Oistrophe: “Twisting Arrow” (Tzetzes) Okyale: “Swift” (Hyginus, vase) Okypous: “Swift-Footed” (vase) Orithyia: “Mountain Raging” (Justin, Orosius) Otrera: “Quick, Nimble” (Apollodorus, Hyginus) Palla: “Leaping, Bounding” (Stephanus of Byzantium, Eustathius) Pantariste: “Best of All” (vase) Parthenia: “Maiden, Virgin” (Callimachus, another daughter of an Amazon queen) Peisanassa: “She Who Persuades the Queen” Pentasila: Etruscan version of Penthesilea Pharetre: “Quiver Girl” (Tzetzes) Philippis: “Loves Horses” (Diodorus) Phoebe: “Bright, Shining” (Diodorus) Pisto: “Trustworthy” (vase) Polemusa: “War Woman” (Quintus of Smyrna) Polydora: “Many Gifts” (Hyginus) Prothoe: “First in Might, Swift” (Diodorus) Protis: “First” (Callimachus, daughter of an Amazon queen) Pyrgomache: “Fortress Fighter” (vase) Rhodogyne: “Woman in Red” (Aeschines, Philostratus, Persian queen) Sisyrbe: “Shaggy Goatskin” (Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium) Skyleia: “Spoiler of Enemies” (non. Greek word on a Greek vase) Stonychia: “Sharp point, Spear” (Callimachus, daughter of an Amazon queen) Tarpeia: “Funeral urn” (Greek-Latin, Virgin) Teisipyle: “Gate or Mountain Pass” (vase) Tekmessa: “Reader of marks, signs, or tokens” (Diodorus, Homer) Telepyleia: “Distant gates or mountain pass” (vase) Teuta: “Queen” (Illyrian, Appian, Polybius) Thermodosa: “From Thermodon” (Quintus of Smyrna) Thero: “Wild Beast” or “Hunter” (vase) Theseis: “Establisher” female form of Theseus (Hyginus) Thoe: “Quick, Nimble, Mighty” (Valerius Flaccus) Thoreke: “Breastplate” (Tzetzes) Thraso: “Bold, Confident, Courageous” (vase) Toxaris: “Archer” (vase) Toxis: “Arrow” (vase) Toxoanassa: “Archer Queen” (Tzetzes) Toxophile: “Loves Arrows” (vase) Toxophone: “Whizzing Arrows” (Tzetzes) Tralla: “Thracian” (Stephanus of Byzantium, Eusthathius) Tulla: “Supporter” (Latin-Volscian, Virgil) Xanthe: “Blonde” (Hyginus) Xanthippe: “Palomino” (vase)

 Sources:

Mayor, Adrienne. Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World, Princeton, 2016.

 Images:

Krater with Volutes in Terracotta, Red Figure vase, Magna Graecia, ca. 330-320 BCE, now in the Musee Royal de Mariemont. Photo by Ad Meskens. Via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mariemont_Greek_krater_03.JPG

[armadasneon]

Just a little rant about warrior ladies from the tumult following Alexander's death

We've all heard about the soap opera-style drama and collapse of the empire following Alexander the Great's death, but I at least was never told about the stories of the amazing women who engaged in the political and even military struggles for power. We always hear about the struggle between the male generals and leaders of the time, but I can never get enough of these strong women fighting to get power in their own right.

Olympias, mother of Alexander, and her daughter Cleopatra both used their political wiles to gain and maintain power in the chaos after Alexander's death. But while they played the political games with the resources open to them as women during their time, searching for marriage alliances and hoping to produce a male heir, other women turned towards the battlefield.

Instead of searching for a man to form an alliance in the political fallout Cynnane, an Illyrian princess and sister to Alexander, and her daughter Adea, who she had trained in military skills since Alexander had her husband murdered to solidify his reign, led a campaign to try and force a marriage between her young daughter and one of the puppet kings, Arrhidaeus who was deemed mentally challenged and unable to rule without a regent. The other king was Alexander's young son, further necessitating a regent. This move would have defied pretty much every faction. But Cynnane was known as a warrior, as Polyaenus writes she led armies and charged ahead of them into battle, even killing a rival warrior queen in combat when she accompanied her father on campaign.

The current regent sent out a force to try and stop her from coming to court. Cynnane was killed in battle but the army was so furious about the death of Phillip's daughter that they forced the arrangement of Adea's marriage to Arrhidaeus, bringing about exactly what the regent had feared. Adea, who took the name Eurydice, continued to raise hell after her mother's death by trying to turn support from the Macedonian army away from the current leaders, and even going as far as trying to bring about the deaths of major generals. She publicly spoke to the army urging them to turn against Antipater, one of Alexander the Great's generals. She was probably in her teens when all of this occurred. 

She amassed an army, determined to fight the current regent. Adea Eurydice eventually faced Olympias, Alexander the Great's mother, on the battlefield but her Macedonian forces switched sides and she was captured. Olympias had her imprisoned, leaving her with a sword, a noose, a cup of hemlock, and the orders to choose her own death.