Deidameia
(Δηϊδάμεια).
1. A daughter of Bellerophontes and wife of Evander, by whom she became the mother of Sarpedon. (Diod. 5.79.) Homer (Hom. Il. 6.197) calls her Laodameia.
2. A daughter of Lycomedes in the island of Scyrus. When Achilles was concealed thire in maiden's attire, Deidameia became by him the mother of Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus, and, according to others, of Oneirus also. (Apollod. 3.13.7; Ptolem. Hteph. 3.)
3. The wife of Peirithous, who is commonly called Hippodameia. (Plut. Thes. 30; comp. Hippodameia.) [L.S]
(Δηϊδάμεια).
1. Daughter of Aeacides, king of Epeirus, and sister of Pyrrhus. While yet a girl she was betrothed by her father to Alexander, the son of Roxana, and having accompanied that prince and Olympias into Macedonia, was besieged in Pydna together with them. (Plut. Pyrrh. 4; Diod. 19.35; Justin, 14.6.) After the death of Alexander and Roxana, she was married to Demetrius Poliorcetes, at the time when the latter was endeavouring to establish his power in Greece, and thus became a bond of union between him and Pyrrhus. (Plut. Demetr. 25, Pyrrh. 4.) When DIemetrius proceeded to Asia to support his father against the confederate kings, lie left Deidameia at Athens; but after his defeat at Ipsus, the Athenians sent her away to Megara, though still treating her with regal honours. She soon after repaired to Cilicia to join Demetrius, who had just given his daughter Stratonice in marriage to Seleucus, but had not been there long when she fell ill and died, B. C. 300. (Plut. Demetr. 30, 32.) She left one son by Demetrius, named Alexander, who is said by Plutarch to have spent his life in Egypt, probably in an honourable captivity. (Plut. Demetr. 53.)
2. Daughter of Pyrrhus II., king of Epeirus, after the death of her father and the murder of her uncle Ptolemy, was the last surviving representative of the royal race of the Aeacidae. She threw herself into Ambracia, but was induced by the offer of an honourable capitulation to surrender. The Epeirots, however, determining to secure their liberty by extirpating the whole royal family, resolved to put her to death; she fled for refuge to the temple of Artemis, but was murdered in the sanctuary itself. (Polyaen. 8.52; Justin, 28.3, by whom she is erroneously called Laudamia Pats. 4.35.3.) The date of this event cannot be accurately fixed, but it occurred during the reign of Demetrius II. in Macedonia (B. C. 239-229), and probably in the early part of it. Schorn (Gesch. Griechenl. p. 86) supposes Deidameia to be a daughter of the elder Pyrrhus, not the younger, but this is certainly a mistake. [E.H.B]
- intrigue of Achilles with: Apollod. 3.13.8
- mother of Pyrrhus(Neoptolemus) by Achilles: Apollod. 3.13.8
- given by Neoptolemus in marriage to Helenus: Apollod. E.6.11
- Paus. 4.35.3