Cleopatra

10 Pages 2380 Words

According to Theophile Gautier ," Cleopatra is a person to be wondered at (…) whom dreamers find always at the end of their dreams."
The story of Cleopatra’s life has been told in many different forms. Cleopatra in all forms was a woman of mystery, power, sin, and eroticism.
When you think of the name Cleopatra what comes to mind? Many people may think that she was a saint for not just reason and that she committed suicide in the face of adversity. Other people may think that she was a deceiving, power hungry killer that had an obsession with men. In the two thousand years since Cleopatra’s death the vision of her has changed immensely (Hughes-Hallet 1). According to Lucy Hughes –Hallett, “the vision of Cleopatra has been recreated over and over again, each time in a form that fits the prejudices and fantasies of the age that produced it “(1). For example, Cecil B. Demille created a movie about her life making her “the wickedest woman in history “ (1). According to George Bernhard Shaw she was an emotionally disturbed sex kitten; to the painters of the Renaissance she was a helpless victim; to the poets of Romanticism she was a terrifying femme fatale, and to Arabic historian Al- Masudi she was a scholar and a sage (1).
Cleopatra’s personality was one of the things about her that people liked in ancient Egypt, and as of today. In ancient Egypt women were often not considered intelligent and didn’t participate in the arts. Cleopatra, however, was an exception to the old tradition (Thomas 4). According to historian Henry Thomas, Cleopatra was very intelligent and often read literature with scholars in the palace library. She could have intelligent conversations about painting, sculpture, poetry, theology, statecraft, philosophy and religion with some of the most looked up to men of her time (4). Above all of Cleopatra’s sought -after traits her hunger for power overruled. She had a marvelous passion for the g...