Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/123

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EURYDICE.
EURYDICE.
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adorned it with beautiful marbles. (Pans. ii. 3. §5.) [P. S.]


EU'RYCLES (Εὐρυκλῆς), a Greek physician or grammarian, who must have lived in or before the first century after Christ, as he is mentioned by Erotianus. (Gloss. Hippocr. p. 308.) He appears to have written a commentary on Hippocrates, de Articulis, which does not now exist. [W. A. G.]


EURY'CRATES (Εὐρυκράτης) I., was the 11th king of Sparta in the Agid house: his reign was coincident with the conclusion of the first Messenian war. (Paus. iii. 3. § 3.)


II. Grandson of the above, called also (Herod. vii. 204) Eurycratides, was 13th of the same line, and reigned during the earlier and disastrous part of the war with Tegea (Herod. i. 65), which his grandson Anaxandrides brought to a happy issue. (Pans. iii. 3. § 5.) [A. H. C.]


EURYCY'DE. [Endymion.]


EURY'DAMAS (Εὐρυδάμας). 1. A son of Irus and Demonassa, was one of the Argonauts. (Hygin. Fab. 14.) Apollonius Rhodius (i. 67; comp. Orph. Arg. 164) calls him a son of Ctimenus.


2. One of the suitors of Penelope, who was killed by Odysseus. (Hom. Od. xviii. 297, xxii. 283.) There are two more mythical personages of this name (Apollod. ii. 1. § 5; Hom. Il. v. 148), which Ovid (Ib. 331) uses as a surname of Hector in the sense of "ruling far and wide." [L. S.]


EURYDA'MIDAS (Εὐρυδαμίδας), son of Agis IV., king of Sparta. At the death of his father he was yet a child. According to Pausanias, he was poisoned by Cleomenes with the assistance of the ephors, and the royal power of his family transferred to his brother Eucleides. The truth of this story is, however, questionable. (Paus. ii. 9. § 1, iii. 10. § 6; Manso, Sparta, vol. iii. 2, p. 136.) [C. P. M.]


EURY'DICE (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. ii. 1. § 5), a daughter of Adrastus and mother of Laomedon (Apollod. iii. 12. § 3), a daughter of Lacedaemon and wife of Acrisius (Apollod. ii. 2. § 2, iii. 10. § 3; Paus. iii. 13. § 6), a daughter of Clymenus and wife of Nestor (Hom. Od. iii. 452), the wife of Lycurgus and mother of Archemorus (Apollod. i. 9, § 14), the wife of Creon, king of Thebes (Soph. Antigone), and, according to the "Cypria," the wife of Aeneias. (Paus. x. 26. § 1.) [L. S.]


EURY'DICE (Εὐρυδίκη). 1. An Illyrian princess, wife of Amyntas II., king of Macedonia, and mother of the famous Philip. According to Justin (vii. 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 (vii. 5) and Diodorus (xv. 71, 77, xvi. 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 with 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. xvi. 2; Syncell. p. 263, b.)


2. An Illyrian by birth, wife of Philip of Macedon, and mother of Cynane or Cynna. (Arrian, ap. Phot. p. 70, b.; Kuhn, ad Aelian. V. H. xiii. 36; Paus. V. 17. § 4.) According to Dicaearchus (ap. Athen. xiii. p. 557, c), 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, ap. Phot. p. 70, b.); 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. viii. 60; Athen. xiii. p. 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, ap. Phot. p. 70, b.) 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, ap. Phot. p. 71; Diod. xviii. 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