🐍 357 BC | The Life of Alexander the Great: Part I — Olympias What you’re seeing: The story of Olympias of Epirus, queen of Macedon, before her son Alexander was born. Plutarch tells us she was a devotee of Dionysus who kept tame serpents, that she dreamed a thunderbolt struck her womb, and that on the night Alexander was born, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus burned to the ground. Where is this? Pella, the Macedonian capital (modern northern Greece), and Ephesus, a Greek city in the Persian Empire (modern western Turkey). Key figures: Olympias of Epirus, princess of the Molossian royal house and queen of Macedon. A devotee of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, ritual madness, and divine possession. Philip II, king of Macedon. Aristander of Telmessus, Philip’s seer. The Magi, Persian Zoroastrian priests at Ephesus. Why does this matter: Plutarch presents Olympias as the origin of Alexander’s divine paternity claim. Her dreams, her serpents, and the omens around his birth set up the ...