Kynane

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Kynane or Kynna ( Greek Kυνάνη or Kύννα; * around 357 BC; † 322 BC ) was a Macedonian princess from the house of the Argeads . In the course of the struggle of the Diadochi to succeed Alexander the Great , she died about a year after his death (323 BC).

Life

Kynane was a daughter of the Macedonian king Philip II and a half-sister of Alexander the great. Her mother Audata / Eurydice was an Illyrian princess, from whom she is said to have inherited a particularly warlike character.

Philip II married Kynane around 338 BC. BC, towards the end of his reign, with her cousin, King Amyntas IV. Soon after he took office in 336 BC. Alexander had his husband Kynanes murdered because he saw in him a threatening pretender. From her short-lived marriage to Amyntas, Kynane had a daughter named Adea , who later called herself Eurydice. Her half-brother Alexander wanted her in 335 BC. Engaged to the Agrian prince Langaros , who died before the marriage could be concluded. No news of Kynane's life has been received for the next several years. She probably stayed with her little daughter in Macedonia after Alexander left for his campaign in Asia and, like all other members of the royal family, was kept away from the rule by the regent Antipater . She raised Eurydice in a warlike sense.

According to Polyainus , Kynane once took part in a campaign against the Illyrians and is said to have killed the Illyrian queen with her own hands. However, this episode is not fixed in time for Polyainos. The Austrian geographic historian Max Fluß was inclined to believe that Kynane, on the occasion of the revolt of the Greeks and Illyrians, immediately after Alexander's death in 323 BC. Went to war with the Macedonians against the revolting peoples. Helmut Berve , however, classified the episode in the Illyrian Wars of Philip II around 344/343 BC. A, for which Kynane was probably still too young at the time.

About a year after Alexander's death, Kynane gathered a small army around him, with which they were in about the second half of the summer of 322 BC. Moved over the Strymon and Hellespont to Asia Minor to live with their daughter there with King Philip III. Arrhidaius to marry. On the way, an army of Antipater confronted her, who disapproved of this project. Kynane fought her way and crossed the Hellespont. In Asia Minor, on the other hand, an army of the imperial regent Perdiccas , commanded by his brother Alketas , marched towards her . Perdiccas also wanted to prevent this marriage, as he feared his influence on the insane king. He also toyed with the idea of marrying Princess Cleopatra , which would bring him very close to the throne. Kynane was intercepted by Alketas and then murdered. She is said to have accused Alketas of ingratitude shortly before her death. At least she achieved her goal, since she was revered among the Macedonian soldiers for her warlike nature. Due to the irritable mood of the armed forces, Perdiccas did not dare to object to the marriage of Eurydice with Philip III. Arrhidaios.

Kynane was the first member of the Macedonian royal family to die a violent death in the beginning Diadoch Wars . After her, all other family members also fell victim to the fighting. Her daughter and her son-in-law were killed in 317 BC. Murdered by her stepmother Olympias . Along with them, Kynane's body was solemnly buried in the royal tombs of Aigai the following year by Cassander , when he had brought Macedonia under his control . Kassander also honored the memory of the dead by organizing funeral games.

literature

swell

  • Polyainos , Strategika 8, 60.
  • Arrian , Tà metà Aléxandron F1, 22-23.
  • Diodor , Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 19, 52, 5.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Max Fluß : Kynna. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplement VI, Stuttgart 1935, Col. 210.
  2. ↑ Arrian , Tà metà Aléxandron F 1, 22; Satyros at Athenaios , Deipnosophistai 13, 557 c.
  3. ↑ Arrian, Tà metà Aléxandron F 1, 22; Polyainos , Strategika 8, 60.
  4. ↑ Arrian, Tà metà Aléxandron F 1, 23; Polyainos, Strategika 8, 60.
  5. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis 1, 5, 4.
  6. ^ Duris in Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 13, 560 f .; Polyainos, Strategika 8, 60.
  7. ↑ Polyainos, Strategika 8, 60.
  8. ↑ Helmut Berve, The Alexander Reich on a prosopographical basis , 1926, Vol. 2, p. 229, no. 456.
  9. ↑ Arrian, Tà metà Aléxandron F 1, 22-23; Polyainos, Strategika 8, 60; see. Diodor , Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 19, 52, 5.
  10. ↑ Diodor, Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 19, 11; among others
  11. ↑ Diodor, Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 19, 52, 5; Diyllos in Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 4, 155 a.
personal data
SURNAME Kynane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kynna; Kυνανη (Greek); Kυνα (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Half sister of Alexander the great
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 322 BC Chr.