Wie trouwde met Pyrrhus van Epirus?

Pyrrhus I of Pyrrhos I (Grieks: Πύρρος, Purrhos), geboren rond 318 v.Chr. en gestorven in Argos in 272 v.Chr., was koning van Epirus en wordt gezien als een van de beste generaals uit zijn tijd.

Pyrrhus had net als zijn neef Alexander de Grote erg grote ambities. Hij was een van de meest te duchten tegenstanders uit het begin van het oude Rome. Nadat hij het grondgebied van Epirus uitgebreid had, werd hij koning van Macedonië en Thessalië, maar gaf deze gebieden later weer op. Daarna ging hij op expeditie tegen de Romeinen, tegen wie hij de Slag bij Heraclea (280 v.Chr.) en de Slag bij Asculum (279 v.Chr.) won. Hij marcheerde naar de stad Rome zelf, en bereikte bijna de capitulatie van de stad. Ondertussen werden de Grieken op Sicilië echter bedreigd door de Carthagers, en ze riepen zijn hulp in. Ook hier had Pyrrhus veel succes, maar uiteindelijk besloot hij om zijn veldtocht tegen de Romeinen verder te zetten. De Slag bij Beneventum (275 v.Chr.) eindigde echter onbeslist en Pyrrhus keerde terug naar Epirus. Toen hij een veldtocht tegen Sparta begon, werd hij teruggedreven van de stad en gedood in Argos.

Lanassa (Greek: Λάνασσα) was a daughter of king Agathocles of Syracuse, Sicily, Magna Graecia, perhaps by his second wife Alcia. In 295 BC, Agathocles married Lanassa to King Pyrrhus of Epirus. Agathocles himself escorted his daughter with his fleet to Epirus to her groom. Lanassa brought the island of Corcyra as dowry into the marriage. The couple had one son, Alexander. However, Lanassa could not accept her husband's polygamous lifestyle, and so she left Pyrrhus in 291 BC, went to Corcyra, and offered this island as dowry to Demetrius I Poliorcetes, then king of Macedonia, if he would become her new husband. The courted diadoch came to Corcyra, married Lanassa, and occupied the island. After the death of Agathocles (289 BC) Pyrrhus, as former husband of Lanassa, asserted hereditary claims to Sicily. On the basis of these claims, the inhabitants of Syracuse asked Pyrrhus in 279 BC for assistance against Carthage.

Antigone (Greek: Ἀντιγόνη, born before 317 BC–295 BC) was a Macedonian Greek noblewoman. Through her mother's second marriage she was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and through her marriage to Pyrrhus she was queen of Epirus.

Antigone was the daughter and the second child of Berenice, a noblewoman from Eordeaea, and her first husband Philip. She had an elder brother called Magas and a younger sister called Theoxena. Berenice's mother was the niece of the powerful regent Antipater and was related to members of the Argead dynasty.

Antigone's father, Philip, was the son of Amyntas by a mother whose name is unknown. Based on Plutarch (Pyrrhus 4.4), her father was previously married and had children, including daughters. He served as a military officer in the service of the Macedonian King Alexander the Great and commanded one of the Phalanx divisions in Alexander's wars.

About 318 BC, Antigone's father died of natural causes. After Philip's death, Antigone's mother took her and her siblings to Egypt where they were a part of the entourage of her mother's cousin Eurydice. Eurydice was then the wife of Ptolemy I Soter, the first ruler and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

By 317 BC, Ptolemy I had fallen in love with Berenice and divorced Eurydice to marry her. Through her mother's marriage to Ptolemy I, Antigone was a stepdaughter to Ptolemy I and lived in her stepfather's court. Her mother bore Ptolemy I three children: two daughters, Arsinoe II, Philotera and the future Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

In 300 BC or 299 BC, Pyrrhus of Epirus was sent as a hostage to Egypt by Demetrius I of Macedon as part of a short-lived rapprochement between Demetrius I and Ptolemy I. In 299 BC/298 BC, Ptolemy I arranged for Pyrrhus to marry Antigone.

Pyrrhus obtained a fleet of ships and funding from Ptolemy I and set sail with Antigone for his kingdom in Epirus. Pyrrhus came into an agreement with his relative Neoptolemus II of Epirus, who had usurped the kingdom, to jointly rule Epirus.

Antigone bore Pyrrhus two children: a daughter called Olympias and a son called Ptolemy. Antigone possibly died in childbirth, as she seems to have died the same year as her son was born.

As a posthumous honour to his first wife, Pyrrhus founded a colony called Antigonia, which he named after her.