Deidamia II of Epirus


Deidamia or Deidameia or Laodamia was a Greek princess, daughter of Pyrrhus II of Epirus, king of Epirus. After the death of her father and that of her uncle Ptolemy, she was the last surviving representative of the royal Aeacid dynasty in Epirus. She had a sister, Nereis, who married Gelo of Syracuse. During a rebellion in Epirus her sister sent her 800 mercenaries from Gaul. Part of the Molossians supported her, and with the aid of the mercenaries she briefly took Ambracia.
When the Epirots sued for peace as suppliants, she granted it only on condition that they acknowledged her hereditary rights, and the honours of her ancestors. But some of the Epirots plotted against her and bribed Nestor, one of Alexander's guards, to murder her. Nestor returned without accomplishing his purpose and she fled for refuge in the temple of Artemis Hegemone, but was murdered in the sanctuary by Milon, a man already responsible of killing his own mother Philotera who shortly after this crime committed suicide. According to Polyaenus, she said to Milon before he murder her: "Slaughter, thou matricide, on slaughter raise".
The date of this event cannot be accurately fixed, but it occurred during the reign of Demetrius II in Macedonia.