Arsinŏē

1. In Greek myth, daughter of Phegeus and first wife of Alcmaeon.

2. The name of several princesses among the ruling Ptolemies of Egypt (who were of Macedonian descent). The most important was Arsinoe II (c.316–270 BC), daughter of Ptolemy I and Berenice, who married first Lysimachus, one of the generals and successors of Alexander the Great, secondly her step-brother Ptolemy Ceraunus, and thirdly her brother Ptolemy II Philadelphus, thus becoming queen of Egypt. Her influence contributed to the brilliance of court life and the great expansion of Ptolemaic power overseas, and she and her husband were both deified in their lifetime. Her death was lamented in an elegy by Callimachus.

3. Greek settlement founded by Ptolemy II in the Faiyum (an oasis some 80 km. (50 miles) south of Cairo in Egypt), of which extensive ruins survive. It was the first source in modern times of papyri of Greek texts (see PAPYROLOGY).