WARNER BROS PICTURES – INTERMEDIA FILMS
Olympias was the daughter of Neoptolemus the king of Epirus, now modern Albania. According to Plutarch she was descended from Achilles.
The only surviving picture of her is on a coin of the period and there is no doubt that she was a very beautiful woman. She was, however, ruthless and vindictive with an obsessive love for her son Alexander the Great.
In 359 B.C. Olympias married Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great was born in 356 B.C. The marriage was blighted by Philip II’s philandering and by the jealous temper of Olympias.
When Philip II married Cleopatra in 337, Olympias took Alexander to Epirus and did not return until after the assassination of Philip.
Despite the close bond between Olympias and Alexander the Great, he was to leave her in 334 B.C when he was aged twenty-one and was never to see her again.
Alexander appointed Antipater as regent of Macedon during his absence. However, Olympias by her arrogance, ambition and ruthlessness soon made an enemy of Antipater. After the death Of Alexander his half brother Arrhidaeus and his son Alexander IV were proclaimed kings with Cassander, the son of Antipater, as regent. In 316 B.C. Cassander condemned Olympias to death and is said to have denied her the rites of burial.
Olympias
Olympias was the orphaned daughter of the king of Epirus, now modern Albania. According to Plutarch, she was descended from Aeacus, through Neoptolemus. Aeacus was the legendary king of Aegina and the grandfather of Achilles.
The area from which Olympias came was considered barbaric, and her practice of Dionysian rituals did little to convince Philip and other Macedonians otherwise.
She probably had fair skin, and was probably red- or auburn-haired, according to Renault. She was also known to be jealous and vindictive, and very protective of Alexander. She did not appreciate Philip’s polygamy and wanted to see Alexander become heir to the throne. She would usually take Alexander’s side in family disputes, and some writers even claim that she helped inspire Pausanias’ plot to kill Philip.
Olympias and Alexander had deep feelings for each other, perhaps more substantial than normal mother-son connections. She was especially jealous of Hephastion, Alexander’s very intimate friend since boyhood. She felt that he was keeping Alexander from her and a potential wife. Olympias frequently tried to arrange for women to attempt to seduce Alexander, but never succeeded.
A short time after Alexander’s death, Olympias and Alexander’s widow, Roxane, were both murdered by Cassander, a one-time friend of Alexander.
“ALEXANDER THE GREAT” – A Olivier Stone FILM
WERI
Mother,your spirit continue to inspire us, please give us strengh and courage.
DEATH BY WATER
Soldiers besieging Sarajevo cut off the electricity supply, and with it the water pumps; people lining up at wells and stand pipes were easily and routinely picked off by snipers or attacked with mortar fire. It’s been common practice in war zones for belligerents to fill wells with rocks, steal pipes and pumping systems, dynamite dams, and pollute what’s left. A revolt in Iraq was crushed by draining the marshes on which the rebels lived and depended. Millions have died in war zones and refugee camps from water-borne diseases.
And water looks increasingly likely to be a cause of war, because there is simply not enough of it to go round. In the mere 40 years up to 1990, global water-use tripled. Its use is inequitable and profligate where it’s relatively easy to get. A western family can use 2000 litres a day; in Africa a few litres of untreated water each have to be carried, often for long distances or in war conditions. The world population is still growing, while water tables fall, underground aquifers empty, lakes shrink and wetlands dry up.
There are fears for war over the Euphrates, the object of a vast damming operation in Turkey which will cut Syria’s water supply by a third – and Turkey threatened to cut Syria off altogether for supporting Turkish dissidents. There are fears for war over the river Jordan: Israel, bent on self-sufficiency, claims all the water it can; but Syria, Jordan and the Palestinians need supplies too. There are fears for war over the Nile: Egypt is diverting river water to irrigate the desert, to grow crops instead of importing them; eight more countries, including drought-devastated Sudan, are in the queue. President Sadat has said: ‘The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water’