Deidamia II of Epirus

Deidamia or Deidameia (Greek: Δηϊδάμεια) or Laodamia (Greek: Λαοδάμεια) (died c. 233 BC^[1]) was a Greek princess, daughter^[2] of Pyrrhus II of Epirus, king of Epirus. After the death of her father and that of her uncle Ptolemy, she was the last surviving representative of the royal Aeacid dynasty in Epirus.^[3] She had a sister, Nereis, who married Gelo of Syracuse. During a rebellion in Epirus her sister sent her 800 mercenaries from Gaul. Part of the Molossians^[4] supported her, and with the aid of the mercenaries she briefly took Ambracia. The Epirotes, however, determined to secure their liberty by extirpating the whole royal family, resolved to put her to death; she fled for refuge to the temple of Artemis, but was murdered^[5] in the sanctuary itself by Milo, a man already responsible of matricide, who shortly after this crime committed suicide.^[6] The date of this event cannot be accurately fixed, but it occurred during the reign of Demetrius II in Macedonia (239–229 BC), and probably in the early part of it.

Another Deidamia^[7] was a daughter of Lycomedes, king of Scyros, and mother of Pyrrhus by Achilles.

References

• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Deidameia (2)", Boston, (1867)

Notes

1. Robert Malcolm Errington, A History of Macedonia (1990), p. 174.
2. Pausanias, Description of Greece
3. Errington, A History of Macedonia, p. 174.
4. M. B. Hatzopoulos, Epirus, 4000 Years of Greek History and Civilization (1997, ISBN 960-213-377-5), p. 80.
5. Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière, The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7, Part 1 (Hammond, 1970: ISBN 0-521-23445-X), p. 452.
6. Polyaenus, Stratagems, viii.52; Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, xxviii. 3; Pausanias, Description of Greece, iv. 35
7. Apollodorus, Library

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 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.