Background
In about 249 British Columbia, she was married to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince, soon after her father died. However, after coming to Cyrene he became the lover of her mother Apama.
In about 249 British Columbia, she was married to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince, soon after her father died. However, after coming to Cyrene he became the lover of her mother Apama.
In a dramatic event, she had him killed in Apama"s bedroom, but Apama lived on afterwards. She had no children with Demetrius. Their children were: Ptolemy IV Philopator, Magas, Lysimachus, Alexander, Arsinoe III and Berenice.
Berenice is said to have participated in the Nemean Games (between 245 and 241 British Columbia) and to have competed in Olympic games at some unknown date.
Nevertheless, a decree “issued delineating the cult for the newly deified queen Berenike II…specified that men and women singers were to sing all day in front of the statue of Berenike.”
During her husband"s absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return, and placed it in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium. The hair having by some unknown means disappeared, Conon of Samos explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars.
The name Coma Berenices or Berenice"s hair, applied to a constellation, commemorates this incident. Callimachus celebrated the transformation in a poem, of which only a few lines remain, but there is a fine translation of it by Catullus.
The city of Euesperides was refounded by her and received her name, Berenice (near the location of Benghazi).
The asteroid 653 Berenike, discovered in 1907, is also named after Queen Berenice.