Posted on 03/15/2005 8:10:16 PM PST by nickcarraway
LONG before Shakespeare portrayed her as historys most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world for her brain.
Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queens 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 Cleopatras 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 books 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 Greats 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 Universitys Faculty of Oriental Studies, described Dr el-Dalys 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 dont know enough Arabic to use them properly.
Hey dont dismiss the power of the Thong...a smart woman in a thong can be a wonderful thing...especially if she's had a Belgian bikini-wax [which I'm told is a Brazilian with a Belgian waffle afterwards as reward] LOL
Somehow I think Caesar and Cleopatra 'Part Deux' would have been more likely to have been invading Iraq together than socializing health care for the Plebians lol...;-)...
Next up reclaiming Alexanders empire then on to China...;-)...
Interesting link.
"You like to dance on the hip hop spots
And you cruise to grooves to connect the dots
Not just urban she like the pop
'Cause she was Livin' La Vida Loca
She had dumps like a truck, truck, truck
Thighs like what, what, what
Baby move your butt, butt, butt
I think i'll sing it again
She had dumps like a truck, truck, truck
Thighs like what, what, what
All night long
Let me see that thong......."
What has once been so eloquently put, cannot be restated.
She may or may not have been. The first Ptolomey was the half brother of Alexander the Great, a Macedonian. Macedonians would tend to look like northern Greeks or Yugoslavians, being fair skinned and tending to blond hair and blue eyes (like Alexander).
The Ptolomeic Dynasty was inbred as they wished to keep their line "pure" which is why by the time they got down to Cleopatra they were degenerate, physically.
So, maybe she was black, but most likely not. Probably looked liked Anwar Sadat's wife, a light skinned mixture.
Regards,
You should have seen her Frontal Lobes.
Are you sure those aren't Susan B. Anthony dollars? Or maybe Susan B. Anthony is a lineal descendant of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
I agree that a great mind has its attractions. It's just that when guys like Caesar start cheating on their wives, it's usually with someone who looks more like an aerobics instructor than like Madame Curie.
I'll bet Julius got an eyefull of those.
I'll bet Julius got an eyefull of those.
Was it an old crusty, black business suit? 8-)
That looks like a turkey on her head.
From what I've read, Cleopatra was the Monica Lewinsky of her day. She popularized the use of lipstick which was originally used by Egyptian prostitutes who specialized in oral sex.
This article misses the real point of both Caesar's and Antony's dalliance with Cleopatra -- Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world, supplying most of the grain for the eastern Mediterranean and even the whole basin during crop failures in northern Africa. Roman strongmen who controlled the grain supply controlled the Roman mob. If you controlled the mob, you controlled the state. Hence, gain Egypt and you gain the Roman world. Cleopatra was Egypt. Q.E.D.
As you say she was a descendent of the Ptolomies. I think only one of her close ancestors is not known. That gives people the chance to say he could have been Egyptian, therefore Black.
Of course the fact that the Egyptians were not Black at all seems to make no difference. BTW, Ramses the Great had red, wavy hair. This is not a guess, it is known for certain.
Cleopatra did have one ancestor who was what we would call Iraqi now.
Yeah, and they read Playboy for the intellectual articles.
Somebody told me they have pictures in there now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.