Arsinoe of Macedon

Arsinoe of Macedon (Ancient Greek: Ἀρσινόη; lived 4th century BC) was an ancient Macedonian noblewoman and the mother of Ptolemy I Soter (323 – 283 BC), king of Ptolemaic Egypt.

Arsinoe was of the Argead dynasty, and originally a concubine of Philip II, king of Macedon, and it is said she was given by Philip to Lagus, a Macedonian nobleman, while she was pregnant with Ptolemy I Soter, but it is possible that this is a later myth fabricated to glorify the Ptolemaic Dynasty.^[1] Alternately, Ptolemy's lineage to the Argead dynasty was found through his mother, Arsinoe, in this case Arsinoe is daughter of Meleager, who was a cousin of Amyntas III and son of Balacrus, son of Amyntas, son of Alexander I of Macedon. Contemporary and modern research concludes the latter claim much more valid than Philip II as Ptolemy’s father, now dismissed as a myth.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Notes

1. Alexandre le Grand. Librairie Droz. 1962. p. 155. ISBN 9782600044141.
2. Carney, Elizabeth; Ogden, Daniel (2010-06-24). Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives. Oxford University Press. pp. 127–129. ISBN 9780199745517.
3. Stephens, Susan (January 2012). "Writing.Alexandria.as.the.(Common)place" (PDF). Princeton/Stanford.Working.Papers.in.Classics: 9.
4. Carleton, George Washington (1882). Carleton's Condensed Classical Dictionary: Being Brief But Succinct Information Concerning the Prominent Names in Classical History and Mythology, Together with the Most Conspicuous Incidents Associated with Them. G. W. Carleton & Company. p. 83. arsinoe daughter of meleager.
5. Worthington, Ian (2014-05-02). By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 312. ISBN 9780199929870.
6. Tarn, W. W. (1933). "Two Notes on Ptolemaic History". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 53 (1): 57–68. doi:10.2307/627247. ISSN 2041-4099. JSTOR 627247. S2CID 163238913.

References

• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Arsinoe (1)", Boston, (1867)

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