Thursday, April 13, 2023

What Did Cleopatra Look Like?

 


Cleopatra continues to fascinate after two millennia. What did she look like, this fabled woman who seduced not only Julius Caesar but also Mark Antony, and bore them both children? Was she beautiful?

Popular imagination and the halcyon silver screen portray Cleopatra as a seductively winsome Egyptian Queen in the style of Luxor or Giza. In today's enlightened and decolonized movies she's depicted like this:


such idiocy

Who knows, maybe Julius Caesar was attracted by her glittery Ukrainian eye makeup, perhaps Mark Antony was captivated by the Nubian side of things. But no, hardly. Cleopatra, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ, "Cleopatra the father-beloved" was Greek, a Macedonian Ptolomy, and she looked like this:


bust portraits of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, 1 C AD (Berlin)

Beautiful? Not conventionally, but she had power, you'll note her diadem. In that vein, she was utterly ruthless and didn't shy scared of having family members assassinated, much less waging war itself. 

This went badly for her, Κλεοπάτρα (Glory of the Father) took poison and died on learning of her lover Antony's defeat at Actium. She played for the highest stakes and lost.




Just ask the monkey,

LSP

12 comments:

  1. She had a certain something that drew in the great and near great -- except for Octavian.

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  2. I've seen prettier black women they could have chosen...

    You all be safe and God bless.

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  3. Short, plump, big nose, black hair, olive complexion. Sounds kind of hot to me.

    And we must remember what is considered beauty has shifted back and forth over the years.

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  4. Compared to Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillery, Cleopatra looks like Raquel Welch.

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  5. The idea Cleopatra was beautiful by modern standards, and portrayed by Hollywood as such, is a total misnomer. For her time, maybe. But I contend that most men today would likely run from her upon meeting, like they would from HRC.

    The Nan of SF could be a modern take on Cleo, somehow beguiling with a certain attraction to men in power but politically cunning and ruthless nonetheless. Snakes in a nice outfit and makeup are still snakes.

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  6. How could you all not notice?!!
    Proof. Proof, I say! The Romans were Black! Caesar was Black! The foundation of the Western legal system and RCC ecclesiastical language were stolen from Proud Black Men and Prouder Black Women!

    Mike_C

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  7. She definitely did, LL. My feeling is that she rolled a bad set of dice on Antony and lost. Would Octavian have fallen under her spell if she had bet on him? No, because Livia would have had her poisoned, obviously.

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  8. Linda, that's a very good point.

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  9. Beans, she must have had presence and, clearly, was hot to Caesar and Antony. So.

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  10. Oh my, Wild. Hillery and Eleanor? Dear Lord.

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  11. Paul, the Nan of San Fran... now that's terrifying. I always think she looks like that plastic surgeon victim in Brazil, what a neat movie.

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  12. Whoa, Mike, Caesar was a person of color? Hey, just look at the bust.

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