My dear Sanjana,
Of course you may call me Shyamala Aunty. I am glad that you have given up your maun vrat and decided to speak up! In the future, when you read and like any post of mine, do hit the Like button, so that I know that you have been there!😉
I agree with the central thought in your post: that noble women do not commit crimes against others for the sake of power or position, no matter what trials and tribulations they have to undergo.
I wrote somewhere here yesterday, perhaps on this thread itself, that I would not want to come within a mile of Olympias or Roxanne, and that is true.
Morally speaking, Olympias is a monster, whose only saving grace, besides her intelligence and decisiveness, is her unconditional love for her son.
That love is the all encompassing element in her life. With her, it is not really just being power hungry. She feels humiliated that her Greek relatives in effect buy peace with Philip by handing her over to him, and she wants her son to restore what she sees as her lost pride. But she loves her son more than she is ambitious on his behalf, which is why, when the Delphi High Priestess warns her that Alexander should not go to India ( I am talking her of the Sony Olympias, not the real one!), she pushes for that as hard as she can. She does not want name and fame for herself, she only wants her son to come back safely to her. Incidentally, the Olympias-Alexander farewell scene was remarkably beautiful and deeply emotional.
But this apart, Olympias has no red lines in her moral compass, she will do anything, kill anyone, and that too cruelly,like burning Filina and others. The only thing that can be said in her defence is that many of those she killed were as murderous as she was, and had she not killed them, she and Alexander would have been their first targets. The times were like that.
Jaywantibai and Jijabai, though I don't know much in detail about the latter, did not face such situations. However, it is true that their makeup was totally different, and they would probably have died rather than commit such crimes even in self defence. But if it came to protecting their children from a threat from others, I don't know what they would have done.
Roxana is not quite like Olympias, nor did she face the trials Olympias did. She enchanted Alexander at first sight, and he married her in the teeth of all round opposition, from his generals and even his soldiers. She had tremendous and at times unhealthy influence over him. She was expecting their child. She was thus secure in her life, and did not need to get rid of any competitor till Alexander died.
Then, things changed for the worse in an instant. It is true that Roxana killed the other two wives of Alexander. That was murder pure and simple, and thus abhorrent. But it was also a fact that the Persians in Babylon would surely, now that the situation had become fluid, try to eliminate Roxanne and her unborn, and possibly male child, to clear the way for their princess Barsine and her (presumed) child. One could thus make a case for Roxana's crime being seen as a preventive act, a form of self defence.
Even in such circumstances, not all can do such things. Roxana could. She was hard and fierce and she acted without hesitation and without remorse. She was, as they say, like that only!
Alexander was in love with Roxana from day 1. She was apparently his first and only love. But I have read that Barsine was gentle and accommodating, which must have been a pleasant change for Alexander from the imperious and demanding Roxana. So I suppose that by degrees, Alexander had grown to care for her. He had arranged a Macedonian tutor for her, which shows a great deal of interest in equipping her to become his queen If he had lived longer, he would surely have expected Roxana and Barsine to adjust to each other and leave him in peace!😉
He married both Barsine and Parysatis for political reasons. He wanted to be fully accepted by the Persian nobility and by the people as the new ruler of Persia, and what better way to ensure that than to marry the former ruler's daughter? This was the same reason for which, after the defeat of Dhananand, when Chandragupta Maurya became the king of Magadha, Chanakya made him marry Dhananand's daughter Dharini so as to win over the Nand loyalists.
Parysatis was the daughter of King Artaxerxes III, the cousin of Darius III, so by marrying her and Barsine, Alexander cemented his ties with both branches of the Persian Achaemenid empire. But though both marriages were basically for political reasons, it seems, as noted above, that Alexander grew to care for Barsine/Stateira II.
You mentoned Darius' mother. That was Sisygambis. She loved Alexander so much that she not only wept on receiving the news of his death, but she shut herself up in her rooms and starved herself to death. Can you imagine a love as deep as that for a young man who was not of her blood? There must have been something remarkably appealing about Alexander, because of which both she and, earlier, Queen Ada of Caria adopted him as their son.
This is a rambling post, my dear, and I hope it makes sense and answers your questions. Good night!
Shyamala Aunty
Originally posted by: sanjana757
@ shymala aunty
Hello aunty, I hope u don't mind calling me this, I am silent reader, at last thought to post here, I always loved ur posts , very informative👏, read ur post about Ruxana this s the same I read about her, it's true rt? She killed barsine when she was pregnant, that's really inhuman, , agree with u both ruxana and olympia were monsters, therefore what happened with them later s not something to be sympathized.
Aunty just curious about somethings what's ruxana and barsine positions in alex life?
I read ruxana was most beautiful woman and alex married her, she's important in alex life, this much I know, what about barsine? Alex treated her family with most respect that darius mother even cried on hearing his death, s that true alex appointed special Macedonia tutor for barsine and was preparing to be his queen, but why? Ruxana was his 1 wife so y was he preparing barsine s it because barsine was royal blood while other was not, s it because Alexander knew his people ll not accept her, any idea about their positions aunty?
In my opinion aunty olympia r ruxana were not strong women, ifact for me they were power hungry and insecure people to extent one burned her cowife and step daughter other murdered pregnant woman, this not strong I think they were weak and insecure, for me strong women were jijiya bai mother of sivaji, jayvanta bai mother of maharana pratap both faced many challenges , were not loved by their husbands despite being their first wife's and mother of heirs, their husbands preferred other wife's and sons, but still never murdered their co wifes and step sons but brought up their sons with dignity and instilled Gud values in them and history knows what these two sons became, they don't need to kill their step sons to get their right ful throne, but people themselves accepted them because of what they became, I feel this s what I call STRONG, never killed anyone but faced challenges with dignity, Not this just two many were there like them who never chosed killing
Edited by sashashyam - 7 years ago
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