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Cleopatra: Short, Fat and Ugly
Discovery News ^ | March 26 2002 | By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Posted on 07/21/2002 1:49:54 PM PDT by vannrox



Cleopatra: Short, Fat and Ugly


By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

March 26 — Cleopatra, the most seductive queen of the ancient world, was in reality a short, fat and ugly woman, says a forthcoming exhibition at the British Museum.




The scathing portrait emerged with the re-discovery of 11 previously unrecognized images of the queen — all statues done in the Egyptian style. Thought to portray other queens, the statues have now been acknowledged as being of Egypt's last pharaoh and will be displayed at the exhibition "Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth" in April.




They depict the alluring and ambitious queen of the Nile as an ordinary looking woman with slightly bucked bad teeth, slightly severe in her appearance.




"We have been able to identify the Egyptian statues as Cleopatra principally by the triple version of the royal uraeus (a rearing cobra that signifies protection) worn on the headdress above the brow. The triple uraeus also appears above the head of Cleopatra on a tiny glass gem in the British Museum collections, portraying her in naturalistic Greek style, wearing the Ptolemaic royal diadem," says Susan Walker, the museum's Deputy Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the exhibition curator.




Other factors in the identification were face shape and expression, pose of the arms, and the double cornucopia, which appears on the reverses of Cleopatra's coins minted in Cyprus.




The revised portrait contrasts sharply with the picture of the tragic heroine of Hollywood legend, who wooed Julius Caesar and Marc Antony with her enchanting beauty.




According to Walker, this image is based on "myth, and probably mostly nonsense."




While we are most familiar with Cleopatra as a beautiful, tragic romantic figure — a view widely propounded in the Renaissance and later — in ancient times, Cleopatra was renowned for something else.




"Her actual beauty was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching," wrote the ancient Greek biographer Plutarch.




Beauty was in the eye of the beholder also in the 1st century B.C., it seems: Cleopatra enthralled men with her intelligence, capability and charm.




"She was an exceptional woman. She had an unique personality, was cultivated and spoke eight languages. No wonder they found her irresistible," says Guido Bastianini, a classical scholar and papyrologist at Florence's University.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS:
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Wow. Makes some sense. At least.
1 posted on 07/21/2002 1:49:54 PM PDT by vannrox
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To: vannrox
Cleopatra: Short, Fat and Ugly

Marc Antony: Nearly Blind

2 posted on 07/21/2002 1:54:00 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
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To: vannrox; dighton; Yehuda
Cleopatra: Short, Fat and Ugly

<<< CLEOPATRA

3 posted on 07/21/2002 1:54:58 PM PDT by Thinkin' Gal
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To: Thinkin' Gal
Aggh! And these are our cultural icons? What a picture!
4 posted on 07/21/2002 2:01:03 PM PDT by livius
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: Thinkin' Gal
Is that a picture of wax museum figures?
6 posted on 07/21/2002 2:07:17 PM PDT by syriacus
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To: Thinkin' Gal
Hmmm, the (alleged) men seem to be wearing more make-up than the women.
7 posted on 07/21/2002 2:10:26 PM PDT by rabidralph
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To: vannrox
Cleopatra, was in reality a short, fat and ugly

Bella Abzug as Cleo? Boggles the mind.

8 posted on 07/21/2002 2:19:20 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: miniaturegovernment
but I think I'd probably still do her anyway...

You know, there's a name for behavior like that.

Just kidding, your post had a curious (and funny) logic about it. Go for it!

9 posted on 07/21/2002 2:23:11 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: vannrox

Portrait of Cleopatra VII, Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria

10 posted on 07/21/2002 2:23:53 PM PDT by Looking for Diogenes
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To: vannrox

11 posted on 07/21/2002 2:25:28 PM PDT by Looking for Diogenes
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To: vannrox

Cleopatra Coin Showing Cleopatra
Roman
36-34 B.C
Silver denarius
Obverse: Marc Anthony
diam. 2.9 cm (1 in.)

12 posted on 07/21/2002 2:29:54 PM PDT by Looking for Diogenes
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To: Looking for Diogenes

Bronze eighty drachma coin of Cleopatra.

13 posted on 07/21/2002 2:36:26 PM PDT by Looking for Diogenes
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To: vannrox; one_particular_harbour; Cagey; SeeRushToldU_So; P7M13
Man, this is where "she has a good personality" came from.........
14 posted on 07/21/2002 3:42:43 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: one_particular_harbour
So she was really blind date material?
16 posted on 07/21/2002 4:40:23 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: miniaturegovernment
"info on the actual hotness/lack of hotness of Helen of Troy?"

Well it was said Helen had " face that launched a thousand ships" therefore if a woman was one quarter as good looking she would be rated as 250 millihelens. That is of course a relative scale, as to other exogenous measures of Helen's "hotness" I am unaware.
18 posted on 07/21/2002 6:49:37 PM PDT by APBaer
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To: miniaturegovernment
 
(Do you have any info on the actual hotness/lack of
hotness of Helen of Troy? Would be much appreciated. Thanks.)

One of the ancient measurements of  Troy was
the  'thousandth of a helen.'  That was the
amount of face it took to launch one ship.

19 posted on 07/21/2002 7:07:22 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: Looking for Diogenes
Not hideous. Not ugly.

Not stunning, but not ugly.

20 posted on 07/21/2002 7:20:42 PM PDT by Lazamataz
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