Olimpíade la mimálona

In a well-known passage of the Life of Alexander, Plutarch describes the participation of Olympias of Epirus in Orphic and Bacchic rites, typical of the Thracian women Mimalones, Clodones and Edonides. This information has been the central source on which most authors have based their interpretation of Olympias as a highly religious woman, and in so doing, they have also conditioned the perception of her actions in the History of Alexander. Here, however, we will argue that Plutarch’s account on this rites is not in chronologically ordered, and works as an exemplum with which the text introduces the character of Olympias and her character Plutarch wants the reader to suppose. However, the fragment in question would probably be referred to the battle of Evia (317 BC) between Olympias and Adea Eurydice.