TWO thousand years after her death, Cleopatra’s name and image remain a powerful symbol, used to sell everything from beauty products to magazines. Almost immediately after her death, Cleopatra became a legend. Her story became a wild mix of myths, lies and facts and time only increased the fascination people feel for her. Books, plays and films have been written and made about her. Who doesn’t recall Joseph Mankiewicz’s glamorous “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and Richard Burton as Mark Antony? The cost of the film nearly bankrupted 20th century Fox!
The latest effort to uncover the historical Cleopatra and separate reality from myth comes in the form of an erudite yet easy to read biography, “Cleopatra: The Last Pharaoh.” Unlike previous scholars, the author, Prudence Jones, highlights the fascinating aspects of Cleopatra’s multi-faceted personality. Cleopatra was the first to understand the power of public relations. Well before her time, she knew how to control the public opinion by projecting well crafted images of herself to suit her different audiences.
This new biography is not only well illustrated but it also makes ample use of Greek and Latin sources. In the preface, the author notes that if Cleopatra’s history had not been so much linked to that of Rome, far less of it would have been preserved.
The first fact I was eager to verify in the book was whether Cleopatra was really beautiful. Some pictures of her are not at all flattering but the ultimate word goes back to Plutarch who provides historians with the main facts related to Cleopatra’s physical appearance. In his Life of Antony he tells us that:
“Indeed, her beauty, they say, was not, in and of itself, entirely incomparable, nor was it the sort that would amaze those who saw her; but interaction with her was captivating, and her appearance, along with her persuasiveness in discussion and her character that accompanied all interaction, was stimulating.”
Her prominent nose, a constant feature on portraits made during her lifetime, gradually gives way to paintings showing a classic beauty:
“Indeed in artistic representations from the Renaissance onward, physical beauty becomes the primary source of Cleopatra’s power over men, perhaps because this attribute lends itself to visual expression,” explains Prudence Jones.
It is a true fact that Cleopatra spoke many languages but she was also very well educated. She learned arithmetic, geometry, music, equitation, rhetoric, astronomy, literature and medicine. Furthermore, she was also reputed for her knowledge of cosmetics.
The famous carpet scene in which Cleopatra meets Caesar is not a myth. The historic version given by Plutarch is even more colorful. She entered Caesar’s private quarters by wrapping herself in some bedding secured with a leather strap which was then carried into the palace. This daring encounter organized by a young and charming Cleopatra resulted in Caesar’s total support. There was a thirty years difference between them; she was only 21 year old and he was 53 year old.
Her immense wealth and the luxurious life she led have been well documented. An accurate anecdote claims that Cleopatra once told Antony she could spend 10,000,000 sesterces, a sum equivalent to about 60,000 pounds of gold, on one dinner. Anthony did not believe her and they bet against each other. She held a banquet that, although magnificent, was not outstanding. When Cleopatra felt Antony believed he had won the bet, she announced to her guests that the banquet up to that point was but a fraction of the cost she had planned to spend. She then removed one of her earrings, the pair she was wearing, were known to be the largest pearls in the world, at that time. She dropped it in a cup of vinegar, and when it had disintegrated she drank the solution. The judge of the wager, a certain Lucius Plancus, stopped her from destroying the other earring. He announced that she had won the bet. The remaining pearl was cut in two and eventually adorned the ears of a statue of Venus in the Roman Pantheon. The biography shows us a 17th century painting by Carlo Maratta depicting Cleopatra holding the famous pearl.
The author tells us that Cleopatra had the scientific knowledge required to drink a pearl. She reminds us that Alexandria was a center of scientific research and its museum and library attracted scholars from all over the world.
The manner in which Cleopatra dies is also true . Once again, Plutarch’s version is the most famous. He describes her in her final moment. True to her reputation, she remains regal right until the very end. Dressed in her finest clothes and lying on a golden couch, she is bitten by a cobra hidden in a basket of figs.
“The version of Cleopatra’s death in which she died by the bite of an asp is the most widely spread and is credible for two reasons. Snake venom was known to the Egyptians to provide a relatively painless death... In addition the cobra was one of the royal symbols of the pharaohs and its bite was believed to confer immortality,” explains Jones.
Her death on the Aug. 12 at the age of 39 marks the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and the beginning of a legend which fascinates to this day.
It is still difficult to identify the real Cleopatra. She fits in so many moulds. She was an extravagant monarch, a smart politician and also a ruthless tyrant ready to murder members of her family who stood in her way. But how was she in her private life? The limited sources rob us of an answer.
“Every age reinvents Cleopatra in its own image. In the Middle Ages, she played the courtly lady opposite Antony’s valiant knight; in the Renaissance, she died for love; to the Egyptians, she remains a heroine; in 2003, the New York Times proclaimed her the world’s first career woman. Cleopatra’s remarkable achievements, her legendary charisma and her renewed intelligence assured her place in history; but just what that place is has varied and continues to evolve,” concludes Prudence Jones.
