The skin color of the legendary woman was dark. When she had perfected her schemes she entered the city (for she had been living outside of it), and by night without Ptolemy’s knowledge went into the palace.”. See more ideas about cleopatra, ancient, the real cleopatra. People are probably correct, then, when they say that Cleopatra was smart and funny. Marc and Cleopatra in Cleopatra (1963) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton play the iconic roles in this historic film. Cleopatra Documentary - Biography of the Life of Cleopatra: Last Pharaoh of Egypt added by XXXplicit A documentary on the life of Cleopatra from her birth and childhood in Alexandria, to her war over Egypt with her brother Ptolemy, to her affairs with Julius Caesar and … Then, when Marcus Antonius put down his line, she ordered one of her own attendants to put a pickled fish from the Black Sea on his hook. In any case, the mere fact that people in ancient times thought that the young Cleopatra was able to fit inside a large sack for tying up bedclothes is a strong indication that she had a reputation for being an extremely tiny person. Sometimes I think I should get myself a life, but I honestly don’t know how and I am not sure if I would want to if I did, since I really enjoy publishing these articles and having people read them. Real scholars determined that Jesus would have a darker hue, like many other people in Israel at the time. This exquisite woman could conquer anybody with her speech, voice and personality, which were inherent in any of her actions. Apr 4, 2015 - Images of Cleopatra, as the beautiful woman who captivated the hearts of two of the most powerful men in Ancient Rome- Julius Caesar, and Marc Anthony!!!!. There are a lot of misconceptions about Kleopatra VII Philopator of Egypt, the ancient queen most commonly known in English as simply “Cleopatra.” For instance, as I discuss in this article from March 2019, she actually lived closer to the present day than to the time of the construction of the pyramids of Giza. Here are some photographs from different angles of the so-called “Berlin Cleopatra,” a realistic marble portrait head of Cleopatra currently held in the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany. Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ; 69 BC – 10 August 30 BC) was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Perhaps, charisma and intelligence are what make a woman beautiful. not Daily Mail) will pick up an article like yours and not gibberish like the “Cleopatra’s Mother Was African” article that you mention, and that I remembered from a decade ago ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/also_in_the_news/7945333.stm ). she had a poison available that would kill her quickly. Here is a video that explains exactly how to recreate Cleopatra’s hairstyle, with a visual demonstration of how it’s done: I think that perhaps the reason why no one ever seems to portray Cleopatra with the actual hairstyle that she is portrayed with in all her coins and Greek portraits is because her actual hair style is so simple that it just doesn’t seem glamorous enough for a queen. Furthermore, because the skull is missing, we don’t even know if the measurements that were taken of it are accurate. We know very little about where the ancestors of most specific individuals who lived in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt came from. I am indeed a college student; I make no effort to hide it. Ptolemaios XII is known to have had several wives, all of whom are reported to have been from noble families. Unfortunately, there are still some serious problems with how Cleopatra is portrayed in the show. For some reason, they left out her cloth diadem and decided to anachronistically portray her with cornrows. Here is a link to it. The traditional portrayal of Cleopatra as pale may be accurate, although it is difficult to assess the color of Cleopatra’s skin, since our sources for her skin color are rather limited. As you probably know by now, the History Channel has become notorious for not presenting ALL of the accurate facts of a given period in history. Your email address will not be published. Silk was traded from China to the Roman Empire starting in the first century BCE, in exchange for wool, silver, and gold coming from Europe. The Greek writer Strabon of Amaseia (lived c. 64 BC – c. 24 AD) writes in his Geographika XVII.1.11 that, of all Ptolemaios XII’s daughters, only the eldest (i.e., Cleopatra’s sister Berenike) was legitimate. Privacy Policy and I put a lot of time and effort into them and it always makes me glad to hear that people are reading them and enjoying them. The reign of Cleopatra was ended by a cabal of courtiers, led by the eunuch Pothinus. (There are surviving nude statues of Cleopatra, but these are statues portraying her as a goddess, not accurate representations of how she really dressed.). You’d prove indispensable to the film industry as a consultant on historical projects. made her tremendously attractive to men. I imagine that Cleopatra probably wore makeup at least sometimes, but how heavy it would have been is hard to say. An article by Nadra Nittle published in Vox on 14 January 2019 titled “Almost all of the actresses who’ve played Cleopatra have been white. Well-educated and clever, Cleopatra could speak various languages and served as the dominant ruler in all three of her co-regencies. I certainly have! The girl whose skeleton was found in the tomb at Ephesos, on the other hand, is estimated to have been between fifteen and eighteen years old at the time of her death. ABOVE: Cleopatra and Caesar, painted in 1866 by the French Academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, is one of the most iconic representations of Cleopatra being presented to Caesar in a carpet. View all posts by Spencer Alexander McDaniel. Details such as the “melon” hairstyle and the rather large, somewhat hooked nose have led many scholars to think that this woman is supposed to be Cleopatra: If this painting does indeed depict Cleopatra and it is an accurate representation of her, that would mean Cleopatra was pale-skinned with frizzy red hair. Below are some of the conclusions she made. Similarly, in coin portraits, Cleopatra seems to have a rather large, projecting chin, but this prominent feature is noticeably toned down in her sculptural portraits. For one thing, she didn’t have bangs. She surely must have aged considerably over the course of that time, but yet films rarely show this. The modern image of Cleopatra in popular culture has been fundamentally shaped by the portrayal of Cleopatra by the British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 historical drama film Cleopatra, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero. Instead, they portray her beauty as dangerous. Most of these articles acknowledged that Cleopatra was of Greek ancestry, but claimed that new evidence had demonstrated that Cleopatra’s mother might have actually been African. Cleopatra VII Philopator, commonly known simply as Cleopatra, ruled over Egypt during the century preceding the birth of Christ. Indeed, even wearing makeup at all was sometimes seen in the Greek world as deceitful. It always gladdens my heart to know that there are people out there who enjoy reading my articles. I think that, when people insist that Cleopatra wasn’t beautiful, they are anachronistically imposing modern, western notions of beauty on a woman from over two thousand years ago. The other possibility that, when Strabon says that Ptolemaios XII’s daughters other than Berenike were “illegitimate,” what he really means is that they were children of Ptolemaios XII by his minor wives, rather than children of his primary wife. The special will follow experts’ meticulous archaeology and the cutting-edge technology to reveal the secrets of Cleopatra’s life. I am obsessed with the ancient world and I write about it constantly. It dates from her own lifetime and is probably the closest any of us will ever come to seeing what Cleopatra herself looked like: Here is another marble portrait head of Cleopatra that is currently held in the Vatican Museums. The real image of Jesus looks much different. Finally, although we do know that Cleopatra VII and Arsinoë IV were both daughters of Ptolemaios XII Auletes, we don’t know if they had the same mother. Even after 2,000 years, Cleopatra's reputation as one of the most beautiful, sexiest women ever persists more than the throbbing boners she gave men like Caesar and Mark Antony. We must imagine this head as having originally possessed a nose similar to the Berlin portrait shown above: Here is a full marble statue of Cleopatra from the Vatican Museums. Meanwhile, the outfit Cleopatra is shown wearing in this reconstruction, with its extremely low neckline and bare shoulders, is almost certainly not the kind of outfit the historical Cleopatra would have worn out in public, since Greek women—yes, even queens—were expected to dress modestly. As the Greek historian Plutarch wrote, the queen of Egypt was not beautiful, but she could literally bewitch you in any conversation. The creators of this reconstruction have noticeably omitted the cloth diadem that Cleopatra is nearly always shown wearing. She pretended to be impressed and, the next day, she invited large numbers of people to come watch Marcus Antonius go fishing. How History And Hollywood Got 'Cleopatra' Wrong The Egyptian queen is most often remembered as a beautiful seductress. Here, however, is a painting from one of the houses in the Roman city of Herculaneum, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Ploutarchos of Chaironeia records in his Life of Marcus Antonius 29.3–4 that Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius once went fishing together. I was surprised when I did a little research and found that you are a college student. Nonetheless, I think they did a better job than a lot of other shows have done. Here do they place circles, cut from the snow-white teeth hi the forests of Atlas, such as not even when Juba was captured, came before the eyes of Caesar.”. too long to kill her. Why Were Women Prohibited from Fighting in Most Ancient Societies? I am currently a student at Indiana University Bloomington pursuing a double major in classical studies and history. In 51 B.C., upon the apparently natural death of Auletes, the Egyptian throne passed to 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII. For additional information please see our One immediate problem with the film is that it gives very little impression of just how much time actually passed over the course of Cleopatra’s reign. Her life, her love affairs and her children, plus 6 little-known facts; There’s no reason to think these coin portraits are wrong, however. For one thing, Lucan was born in 39 AD, nearly three quarters of a century after Cleopatra’s death. In other words, the fact that Julius Caesar and Marc Antony (to stick to their common English names) fell more-or-less head-over-heels for her despite already having other women in their lives speaks more for the force of her personality, IMO, than for the sheer physical beauty of her looks. Even though the woman in the painting closely resembles known portraits of Cleopatra and she is shown surrounded by Egyptian motifs, the painting is still not labelled and there is no way to tell for sure if it is really Cleopatra or another Hellenistic Egyptian queen with the same hairstyle. We have no good evidence of her actually doing this. Arsinoë IV was most likely born sometime between 68 and 63 BC and she was executed under the orders of Marcus Antonius in 41 BC, meaning she would have most likely been somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-seven years old at the time of her death. There is also at least one piece of evidence that seems to seriously undermine the identification of the girl from the octagonal tomb as Arsinoë IV and that is the girl’s age. She managed to win over unlikely allies and maintain her rule over Egypt for over two decades during one of the most turbulent and chaotic periods in Egyptian history. ABOVE: Image of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in the 1963 film Cleopatra, ABOVE: Color publicity photo of Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra from the 1934 film Cleopatra, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Shows like Ancient Aliens do nothing but promote outright lies and conspiracy theories. His primary wife was Kleopatra V Tryphaina and she is the only one of his wives whose name is recorded. Tricks like these may serve to gull outsiders, but people who live together are bound to be found out, if they try to deceive one another. For instance, as I discuss in this article I wrote in October of last year, we have no idea whether Hypatia of Alexandria’s ancestors were mostly Greek or mostly Egyptian; all we know is that Hypatia herself lived in Alexandria, a city in northern Egypt that was founded by Greeks. Some modern attempts at reconstructing Cleopatra’s appearance are even more flawed than the one I have shown above. Carved Egyptian picture of Cleopatra. Marcus Antonius pulled up his line, thinking one of his own divers had put a fish on his line. Like the two portrait heads shown above, it is also contemporary to her reign: Many scholars think that the marble sculptures of Cleopatra are heavily idealized and that Cleopatra’s portraits on her coins are less idealized. Lucan writes, as translated by H. T. Riley: “There do kings recline, and Caesar a still higher power; and having immoderately painted up her fatal beauty, neither content with a sceptre her own, nor with her brother her husband, covered with the spoils of the Red Sea, upon her neck and hair Cleopatra wears treasures, and pants beneath her ornaments. The Silk Road is the most famous ancient trade route, linking the major ancient civilizations of China and the Roman Empire. In this scene, the makers of the show have also given Cleopatra an ankh necklace. It is true that the ancient Egyptians often lined their eyes with kohl and it is possible that Cleopatra may have done this under some circumstances as well. She almost certainly would have thought of herself primarily as a Greek queen. ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a bust of Ptolemaios I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, the founder of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and a distant ancestor of Cleopatra, on display in the Louvre. Cleopatra co-regent over the Kingdom of Egypt for 30 years. Nearly all of Cleopatra’s known ancestors either came from Makedonia or were descended from people who came from Makedonia. There’s even a possibility that she may have been a redhead. Their findings revolutionize our understanding of who she was and how she lived. Share your thoughts in the comments. Much of what is known about her life comes from the work of Greco-Roman scholars, particularly Plutarch. Born in 70 or 69 B.C., Cleopatra was a daughter of Ptolemy XII (Auletes). The Egyptologist came to the conclusion that Cleopatra’s nose was too large, her lips were thin and her chin was sharp. Meanwhile, Arsinoë IV was probably not the only young woman of relatively high status who was executed in Ephesos between c. 200 and c. 20 BC. She had a beautiful voice and her intelligence, wit, poise and charm Also like the Cleopatra of history, she is very small, with Lyndsey Marshal standing at just five feet, half an inch tall. ABOVE: Map from Wikimedia Commons showing the territorial extent of the ancient kingdom of Makedonia (labelled here as “Macedonia”) in the year 431 BC on the eve of the Peloponnesian War. They removed … The idea of Cleopatra being presented to Caesar rolled up inside a carpet is a modern misconception resulting from a mistranslation of the Greek word στρωματόδεσμον in Ploutarchos’s account. Among the ancient Greeks, as with the Romans, heavy makeup generally seems to have been frowned up and even associated with prostitution. Here are some of the main pieces of evidence on which Thür has based her argument: This evidence isn’t really compelling. How would you describe Cleopatra if you were asked to? I addressed Ancient Aliens briefly in this article I wrote debunking claims about the Egyptian pyramids, but, at some point, I would like to write a much more thorough rebuttal. But, I digress. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window). Almost all of the actresses who’ve played Cleopatra have been white. I just wanted to say how refreshing this was to read. You would make a great history teacher in the high school or college-level area. She may have had a rather large nose and frizzy hair, but who’s to say that means she wasn’t beautiful? We usually imagine Cleopatra wearing extremely heavy makeup. In addition to being of Greek ancestry, the Ptolemies were also culturally Greek. Arsinoë IV’s mother, however, is unknown. Cleopatra is not portrayed wearing a necklace like this in any extant representations, but it is conceivable that she might have worn one, since we do know that ankh amulets were a fairly common accessory in ancient Egypt. Then she met her match in Octavian. Someone made the interesting observation regards the coins. Of course, we cannot be completely certain that this painting really depicts Cleopatra. I first discovered your well-written historical-themed articles and essays on Quora and the links to your wonderful website (approximately six months ago). Did the Ancient Romans Really Wash Their Teeth with Urine? In any case, here is a portrait of Cleopatra from one of her own coins minted in Egypt during her reign: Here is another silver coin minted by Cleopatra, depicting herself on the obverse and Marcus Antonius on the reverse: Here is another coin, also depicting Cleopatra on the obverse and Marcus Antonius on the reverse: Judging from Cleopatra’s portraits, it seems that she had a rather large nose that was at least slightly hooked. Before we even talk about Cleopatra’s surviving portraits or how she is described in extant written sources, we need to talk about her ancestry, which is, unfortunately, a subject of what seems like perpetual public controversy. Ankh amulets really existed in ancient Egypt; we just don’t have a realistic portrait of Cleopatra wearing one. Her coin portraits, however, are of inferior artistic quality and, to me at least, look rather cartoonish. She did have reddish hair and she was not dark, Since no contemporary accounts exist of Cleopatra’s life, it is difficult to piece together her biography with much certainty. There’s also little doubt that Cleopatra had a reputation for her wit. Cleopatra should be played by a black actor—and not just because it might be more historically accurate, this article I originally published in February 2017, View all posts by Spencer Alexander McDaniel, this article I wrote debunking claims about the Egyptian pyramids, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/also_in_the_news/7945333.stm. Seeing Cleopatra’s face was quite a surprise for many. On the other hand, though, I’m not sure I agree with the claim that Cleopatra wasn’t beautiful. But in the ancient world, the Egyptian queen was better known as a masterful leader. The similarities with the face of a person I know are incredible. At the time, a warts-and-all approach to portraiture was in vogue in the Mediterranean world, and it seems that Cleopatra’s image was no exception to this trend. However, under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall mysticalraven.com be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials on this website. The tomb was shaped like an octagon, which Thür claims matches the second tier of the lighthouse of Alexandria. You are an awesome writer. The octagonal tomb at Ephesos containing the skeleton was first discovered in 1904, but it was initially mistaken for a victory monument. If you actually look closely at the ancient depictions of Cleopatra that I have shown earlier in this article, especially the Berlin Cleopatra, you can see the ripples of her curls, especially towards the front of her hair. Both of these marriages ended badly. Much of what is known about her life comes from the work of Greco-Roman scholars, particularly Plutarch. First of all, the skeleton that they are talking about here wasn’t discovered in 2009. The show’s version of Mark Antony at one point refers to Cleopatra derisively as a “skinny little thing who talks too much.”. Unfortunately, as exciting as it would be to learn that Cleopatra’s mother was a native Egyptian, both of these passages are deeply inaccurate. Want your photo edited? One is that Strabon may have simply guessed that Ptolemaios XII’s daughters other than Berenike were illegitimate without any reliable evidence. She and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, became the leaders of Egypt. It is unclear whether even Ploutarchos’s original story is true, since it may be a legend. In fact, Cleopatra’s only known ancestor with any non-Greek ancestry was her three times great-grandmother Kleopatra I of Syria, whose father Antiochos III was descended from Apama, the Sogdian wife of the Greek king Seleukos I Nikator, and whose mother Laonike III was of mixed Greek and Persian ancestry. There’s no doubt that Cleopatra was extremely intelligent. This idea is one that can be traced all the way back to antiquity. Her pursuit of power was sexy to Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Meanwhile, as I discuss in this article from August 2019, the popular story about Cleopatra committing suicide by allowing an Egyptian asp to bite her on the breast is probably apocryphal and it is more likely that she actually committed suicide by drinking poison or by cutting herself and applying poison to the wound. Along with this, his hair was likely a woolly texture and dark brown in color. The skeleton belonged to a girl, who was relatively young when she died. When Caesar untied the bag, Cleopatra arose from it. But was she? CLEOPATRA: SEX, LIES AND SECRETS is produced for Science Channel by Arrow Media, Handel Productions and Rezolution Pictures. Cornrows were definitely not a common hairstyle in the ancient Mediterranean world and there are no extant representations of Cleopatra that unambiguously depict her with this very modern hairstyle. Scroll down for video I love searching google endlessly on topics ranging from science to history, but so many articles today are full of click bait and have no substance. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. The skeleton itself was discovered in 1926. Cleopatra made some enemies amongst the courtiers. She became the last in a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. The special aims to separate the myth from the fated queen’s real life. Cleopatra’s father was Ptolemaios XII Auletes, but we don’t know for certain who her mother was. I look forward to reading more articles. Interesting article. Good luck with your studies. She almost certainly had a rather large nose that was at least somewhat hooked. Most people assume that, because Cleopatra ruled Egypt, she must have been a native Egyptian. Let’s move on from the topic of Cleopatra’s ancestry to talk about her appearance. is highly unlikely Cleopatra and Arsinoe had the same mother. Thus, people feel the desperate need to portray Cleopatra with a more elaborate hairdo. In other words, even if the skeleton from the octagonal tomb at Ephesos really was Arsinoë IV’s and it did prove that Arsinoë IV’s mother was Egyptian, that still wouldn’t prove that Cleopatra VII’s mother was Egyptian. What do you think of this? Since no contemporary accounts exist of Cleopatra’s life, it is difficult to piece together her biography with much certainty. Cleopatra, however, caught on to what he was doing. It would have taken Although there are many contradictory opinions about her beauty … At the time when Cleopatra first met Julius Caesar in 47 BC, though, she was only about twenty-two years old (about a decade younger than Taylor) and, by the time of her death in August of 30 BC, she was nearly forty (about a decade older than Taylor).