Mythologization and rationalization of the image of the famous Queen of Macedonia

Abstract

One of the famous women of ancient history – Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great – is represented in the sources as a cruel, vindictive and domineering woman. Traditionally, it is believed that the formation of such an image was influenced by the peculiarities of the sources: the non-Greek origin of the authors, the writing of works in later times, misunderstanding of Macedonian customs and mores. The purpose of this work is to consider some well-known facts from the life of the Olympiad in a mythological context. Highlighting the characteristic features that influenced the image of this famous queen that has developed in historiography will allow us to change modern ideas about her. The study used traditional methods and approaches for ancient history. The principle of historicism is necessary for understanding cause-and-effect relationships, the principle of consistency is important for systematization of preserved data about this queen. The general philosophical methods of analysis and synthesis are supplemented by special ones: comparative historical, the method of retrospection. The novelty of this research lies in the author's attempt to show the influence of mythological images and symbols on Hellenistic historiography and highlight the rationalistic constructions of ancient authors. As a result of the research, the author concludes that the image of the Olympiad, which has become entrenched in historiography, was influenced not only by the negative attitude of ancient historians towards it, but also by their attempts to rationally explain events based on knowledge of the consequences. However, the mythological consciousness also left its mark on their work. The life of Alexander the Great was overgrown with myths, and all the people close to him also fell into the sphere of mythological representations. Therefore, in the sources, the image of the queen is not just greatly distorted, but is endowed with symbolic characteristics characteristic of myths.