Didymeia (sister of Seleucus I Nicator)
Encyclopedia
Didymeia was a Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 Macedonian noblewoman. She originally came from an upper Macedonian noble family. Didymeia was the daughter of
Antiochus
Antiochus (father of Seleucus I Nicator)
Antiochus was a Macedonian man that lived during the time of Philip II of Macedon, who ruled from 359 BC-336 BC. He originally came from Orestis, Macedonia....

 and Laodice of Macedonia
Laodice of Macedonia
Laodice was a Greek noblewoman and wife of Antiochus , a general of distinction in the service of Philip II of Macedon. She was the mother of Seleucus, the founder of the Seleucid Empire and Seleucus' sister Didymeia. It was pretended, in consequence of a dream which she had, that Apollo was the...

. Her father served as a military general under King Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon
Philip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...

 and gained distinction as one of Philip’s officers. Her brother Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I was a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great and one of the Diadochi. In the Wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and the Seleucid Empire...

 was one of the Diadochi
Diadochi
The Diadochi were the rival generals, family and friends of Alexander the Great who fought for the control of Alexander's empire after his death in 323 BC...

 of Alexander the Great and her paternal uncle was a Greek soldier called Ptolemy
Ptolemy (son of Seleucus)
Ptolemy ; died 333 BC) son of Seleucus from Orestis or Tymphaia, was one of the select officers called Somatophylaces, or guards of the king's person; he combined with that distinguished post the command of one of the divisions of the phalanx. Ptolemy was from an upper noble family...

.

She had married an unnamed Greek nobleman and had two sons: Nicanor and Nicomedes. Didymeia’s name and the name of her sons were typical Greek names of their time. She may been the Didymeia that is associated with the mythology of Seleucus I. Her mother’s alleged sexual relations with Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 to the allegation that the oracle of the Branchidae that greeted her brother as ‘King’ in 312 BC (see Didyma
Didyma
Didyma was an ancient Ionian sanctuary, the modern Didim, Turkey, containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. In Greek didyma means "twin", but the Greeks who sought a "twin" at Didyma ignored the Carian origin of the name...

).

Sources

  • Grainger 1990, p. 3
  • http://books.google.com.au/books?id=JJ4K1wFZkrsC&dq=Laodice,+daughter+of+Seleucus+Nicator&source=gbs_navlinks_s
  • http://books.google.com.au/books?id=dzwOAAAAQAAJ&dq=Didymeia,+sister+of+Seleucus+I+Nicator&source=gbs_navlinks_s
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