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Cleopatra seduced the Romans with her irresistible . . . mind
The Times (U.K.) ^ | March 14, 2005 | Ben Hoyle

Posted on 03/15/2005 8:10:16 PM PST by nickcarraway

LONG before Shakespeare portrayed her as history’s most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world — for her brain.

Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queen’s appearance, and they made no mention of the dangerous sensuality which supposedly corrupted Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Instead they marvelled at her intellectual accomplishments: from alchemy and medicine to philosophy, mathematics and town planning, a new book has claimed.

Even Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, would have struggled to inject sex appeal into this queen. Arab writers depict Cleopatra’s court as a place of intellectual seminars and scholarship rather than the more traditional vision of kohl-rimmed eyes and hedonistic intrigue.

“They admired her scientific knowledge and her administrative ability,” the book’s author Okasha el-Daly, who is based at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London, said.

In Egyptology: The Missing Millennium he writes that “Arabic sources often refer to Cleopatra as ‘the virtuous scholar’ and cite scientific books written by her as the definitive works in their field”. She was also regarded as a great builder, he claims, responsible among other things for a canal to supply Alexandria with Nile water.

Cleopatra was born in 69BC, the last of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great’s invasion in 332BC. The few images of her that survive suggest that she was not a great beauty by modern standards. Despite this she succeeded in seducing Caesar and his former ally Mark Antony, who left his Roman wife Octavia for her.

European scholars finally learned to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822 with the help of the Rosetta Stone. But Dr el-Daly believes that a ninth-century Arabian alchemist, Ibn Wahshiyah, got there first, opening up original Egyptian sources to medieval Arab writers.

“There has always been a snobbery which suggested that medieval Arab scholars only cared about science and engineering,” he said. “They wrote about everything they found interesting. I even found one medieval scholar who had written a book on sex.”

Kate Spence, a lecturer in Egyptology at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Oriental Studies, described Dr el-Daly’s work as very important.

“Everybody has known that these Arab sources were around for ages.” she said, “but most of us working in this field don’t know enough Arabic to use them properly.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; arab; archaeology; cleopatra; cleopatravii; egypt; epigraphyandlanguage; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; history; juliuscaesar; markantony; romanempire
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To: nickcarraway
she was not a great beauty by modern standards. Despite this she succeeded in seducing Caesar and his former ally Mark Antony, who left his Roman wife Octavia for her.

Modern standards don't count. Tastes change. Besides which their is much more to sexiness than great beauty.

41 posted on 03/15/2005 10:16:41 PM PST by El Gato (Activist Judges can twist the Constitution into anything they want ... or so they think.)
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To: The Great Yazoo

Not that won't get me banned.


42 posted on 03/15/2005 10:24:00 PM PST by null and void (Every problem has a solution that is simple, seductive, and wrong...)
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To: speedy

Why do you have difficulty believing Caesar would be attracted to a beautiful mind?

A woman with a great mind is a most wondrously attractive thing :-).


43 posted on 03/15/2005 10:24:10 PM PST by FYREDEUS
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To: The Great Yazoo

Thanks for correcting me. I had forgotten my History lesson. But isn't it interesting that human nature hasn't changed? Would it be plausible that Cleo's wealth and connections to wealth was the greater attraction for such ambitious men?

Suddenly I find myself thanking God that I don't have so much ambition. I mean, I honestly find Paris Hilton to be on the fair side of attraction, but I keep waiting for her to develop into a woman (like I'd really have a chance with her anyway LOL).


44 posted on 03/15/2005 10:24:44 PM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" begins with the unborn child.)
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To: Thinkin' Gal
The Ancient Egyptian obelisk dates from 1600 B.C. and was a gift from Egypt. "Cleopatra's Needles" is the name given to two Egyptian obelisks, formerly at Alexandria, but one of which is now in New York, the other in London. They are made of the rosered granite of Syene, and were originally erected by the Egyptian king Thothmes III in front of the great temple of Heliopolis, where Moses was born. They were taken to Alexandria shortly before the commencement of the Christian era, and after the death of Cleopatra, but possibly in pursuance of a, design originated'by her. The NewYork obelisk was presented to America by the Rhedive of Egypt, and was set up in Central Park in 1881.
45 posted on 03/15/2005 10:31:55 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: Rudder; Thinkin' Gal; aculeus
The original wardrobe malfunction


46 posted on 03/15/2005 10:33:24 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: SaltyJoe

And some say history lacks relevance or is boring. There is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9.


47 posted on 03/15/2005 10:35:32 PM PST by The Great Yazoo (The husbands of the talkative have a great reward hereafter.)
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To: real saxophonist; Thinkin' Gal; aculeus
So Cleopatra was actually Lebanese?

You may be onto something.

48 posted on 03/15/2005 10:42:16 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: Lijahsbubbe
The one in London is obscured by trees along the riverbank, across the river from the London Eye, "Don't run with that think kid you'll poke yer eye out".


49 posted on 03/15/2005 10:42:57 PM PST by Thinkin' Gal
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To: Thinkin' Gal
My goodness, what an uncanny resemblance!

Many women with well endowed beak are quite photogenic. It's too bad they didn't have cameras back then. Cleo would have been as photographed as Princess Di.
50 posted on 03/15/2005 10:43:20 PM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" begins with the unborn child.)
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To: The Great Yazoo

I thought they said she was actually Greek.


51 posted on 03/15/2005 10:44:40 PM PST by Salamander
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To: Lijahsbubbe; real saxophonist; dighton; aculeus
Lebanese<<<

Uh oh...


52 posted on 03/15/2005 10:48:21 PM PST by Thinkin' Gal
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To: Salamander
I thought they said she was actually Greek.

No. That's only on her parents' side.
53 posted on 03/15/2005 10:49:28 PM PST by The Great Yazoo (The husbands of the talkative have a great reward hereafter.)
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To: Polybius

Nice sculpture here;
http://www.touregypt.net/cleopatr.htm


54 posted on 03/15/2005 10:50:45 PM PST by Salamander
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To: The Great Yazoo

LOL!


55 posted on 03/15/2005 10:51:05 PM PST by Salamander
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To: Thinkin' Gal

LOL about the obelisk. Truly awesome though.


56 posted on 03/15/2005 11:01:28 PM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: Noachian

Sounds like a PC rewrite of history if you ask me.


57 posted on 03/15/2005 11:03:57 PM PST by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: SaltyJoe

She was a ROYAL...so ANYONE having a relationship with her including C.I. Caesar or Marcus Antonius would have to understand that that would mean POLITICAL implications which would be beyond matters of mere 'wealth'...but why could it not be simply that strong men recognized an extraordinary woman and found the idea of a 'relationship of true equals' with her highly appealing?

The thought of what two strong minds might accomplish together in such a relationship would also have to be attractive would it not?

Especially in the case of Caesar and Cleopatra...if they could have begun a strong Julian/Ptolemaic dynasty ruling over a united Empire of Rome and Egypt for centuries...what marvels might have been...perhaps enough to cleanse Caesar's karma of the Greatest Crime?

...alas the Ides of March...-sigh-...


58 posted on 03/15/2005 11:06:55 PM PST by FYREDEUS
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To: The Great Yazoo

Maybe he just plain and simple Loved her eh?


59 posted on 03/15/2005 11:11:45 PM PST by FYREDEUS
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To: FreedomCalls

Thanks for posting that...I knew of it in general terms, but not the meat and potatoes. Again, thanks!


60 posted on 03/15/2005 11:14:13 PM PST by hleewilder
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