Barsine
Barsine (Greek: Βαρσίνη; c. 363–309 BC) was the daughter of a Persian father, Artabazus, satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia and a Greek Rhodian mother, who was the sister of mercenaries Mentor of Rhodes and Memnon of Rhodes.[1] Barsine became the wife of her uncle Mentor, and after his death married her second uncle, Memnon.
Barsine | |
|---|---|
| Born | 363 BC |
| Died | 309 BC |
| Known for | Mistress of Alexander the Great |
| Children | Heracles of Macedon |
In 334 BC, the year of Alexander's invasion of Asia, she and her children were sent by Memnon to the king Darius III as hostages for his fidelity; and in the ensuing year, when Damascus was betrayed to the Macedonians, she fell into the hands of Alexander, by whom it is argued that she became the mother of Heracles.
On Alexander's death in 323 a claim to the throne on this boy's behalf was unsuccessfully urged by Nearchus. From a comparison of the accounts of Diodorus and Justin, it appears that he was brought up at Pergamum under his mother's care, and that she shared his fate when in 309 BC Polyperchon was induced by Cassander to murder him.[2]
Barsine is sometimes confused with Stateira II, wife of Alexander, and who also may have been called "Barsine".[2]
Notes
- Carney, Elizabeth Donnelly (2000). Women and Monarchy in Macedonia. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 101. ISBN 9780806132129.
- Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Alexander", 21, "Eumenes", 1; Diodorus, Bibliotheca, xvii. 23, xx. 20, 28; Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni, iii. 13, x. 6; Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, xi. 10, xiii. 2, xv. 2; Pausanias, Description of Greece, ix. 7
References
- Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Barsine (1)", Boston, (1867)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Barsine". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. p. 464.