Authors: Joyce Tyldesley
1
Weigall (1914, revised 1924): v.
2
The most influential queen consorts were Meritneith, Khentkawes, Ankhnesmerypepi II, Tetisheri, Ahhotep, Ahmose-Nefertari, Tiy and Nefertiti; the three queens regnant were Sobeknofru, Hatshepsut and Tawosret. Egyptologists are currently divided about a possible fourth queen regnant who may have ruled Egypt at the end of the Amarna period. The Old Kingdom Queen Nitocris, described by Manetho as ‘the most noble and lovely woman of her time, fair-skinned, with red cheeks’, is likely to have been a legendary figure. Although the 19th Dynasty chronology known as the Turin Canon does allocate ‘Neitaqerti’ a brief reign of two years one month and one day, it is likely that ‘Neitaqerti’ is a misrecorded fragment of a male king’s name.
3
Manetho, the acknowledged father of Egyptian history, compiled his list of Egypt’s kings during the reign of Ptolemy II. He divided the kings into dynasties – lines of connected rulers – but stopped at Nectanebo, the last king of the 30th Dynasty. His list was later expanded to include Egypt’s Persian rulers as the 31st Dynasty, but Manetho’s own age remained excluded.
4
The Egyptian falcon-headed god Horus was the son of the Goddess Isis and her murdered husband, the God Osiris. He represented the living king of Egypt, while Osiris represented all of Egypt’s dead kings. Outside
Egypt Horus was equated with the Greek god Eros, who in later Greek mythology was recognised as the son of Aphrodite.
5
Not everyone agrees. Carlo Maria Franzero, whose 1957 book
The Life and Times of Cleopatra
, The Philosophical Library, New York, inspired Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1963 film
Cleopatra
, said of the ruined temple of Venus Genetrix, ‘The site of those three beautiful columns seemed to give me the key to the mystery of Cleopatra’: 9–10.
6
See, for example, Hughes-Hallett (1990), a work that has inspired others to investigate the phenomenon of the modern Cleopatra.
7
The
Guardian
, having published ‘Antony and Cleopatra: Coin Find Changes the Faces of History’ on 14 February, was forced to make a correction two days later, agreeing that Cleopatra was not in fact descended from Alexander the Great, and that the battle of Actium was not actually fought off the coast of Egypt. Other less scrupulous newspapers left their errors uncorrected, their readers misinformed. And so the Cleopatra myth grows.
1
E. R. Bevan (1927),
The House of Ptolemy
, Methuen Publishing, London: 359.
2
Antiochos VIII, Antiochos IX and Antiochos X.
3
Strabo,
The Geography
, 17:1:11. Translated by H. L. Jones.
4
Lucian,
Slander, A Warning
, 16. Dionysiac cross–dressing is discussed in detail in E. Csapo (1997), ‘Riding the Phallus for Dionysus: Iconology, Ritual, and Gender-Role Deconstruction,
Phoenix
, 51: 3–4: 253–95. Lucian describes his King Ptolemy as one ‘who was nicknamed Dionysos’: experts are undecided whether he means Ptolemy IV or, more likely in my opinion, Ptolemy XII.
5
Greek law itself was a complicated and diverse mass of rules, with the cities of Naukratis, Alexandria and Ptolemais Hormou applying their own laws, and Greeks living outside these cities being subject to a version of the laws of their home city-states.
6
Herodotus,
The Histories
, 2: 35–6. Translated by A. de Sélincourt.
7
Quoted in Ray (2002): 138.
8
The exact number of nomes varied from time to time, and nomes were occasionally combined and created as economic and political circumstances dictated.
9
Figures suggested in Rowlandson (1998): 5.
10
B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, eds (1901),
The Amherst Papyri
, H. Frowde, London, 2: 12.2.
11
Theocritos,
Odes
15: 44–71. After A. S. F. Gow (1952),
Theocritus
, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: ‘Nowadays no ruffian slips up to you in the street Egyptian-fashion and does you a mischief – the tricks those packets of rascality used to play, one as bad as another with their nasty tricks, a cursed lot.’
12
Papyrus Enteuxis
, 26. Translation adapted from A. S. Hunt and C. C. Edgar (1963),
Select Papyri
, Heinemann, London, 2: 233: 268.
13
Theocritos translation after R. Hunter (2003),
Theocritus: Ecomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Text and Translation with Introduction and Commentary
, University of California Press, Berkeley: 88–91.
14
The misguided equation of ancient Egypt with slavery, promoted by the biblical story of the Exodus, has made discussion of Cleopatra’s racial origins into an even more sensitive area. For an introduction to Afrocentric history, see M. Bernal (1987, 1991),
Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization
, Free Association Books, London. For a counter argument, see M. R. Lefkowitz and G. M. Rogers eds (1996),
Black Athena Revisited
, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. See also M. Hamer (1996), ‘Queen of Denial’,
Transition
, 72: 80–92.
15
Cicero,
Letters to Atticus
, 15: 15. Translated by E. O. Winstedt (1918), Heinemann, London and New York; Appian,
Roman
History, 5: 1. Both are quoted in Hughes-Hallett (1990): 72.
16
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 26. Translated by B. Perrin.
17
Technically not a triumvirate, this period is nevertheless often described as the ‘first triumvirate’ to distinguish it from the second, genuine
triumvirate of Octavian, Lepidus and Antony, which was established following Caesar’s assassination.
18
An English translation of H. Petermann’s Latin translation of an Armenian translation of the original Greek text of Eusebius’s
Chronicle
is available on
www.attalus.org/translate/seusebius1.html
.
19
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 3: 2. Translated by B. Perrin.
20
As just one other king, the long-lived 18th Dynasty Amenhotep III, married a daughter, the true nature of these father–daughter unions must be open to question. Only one royal daughter, Bint-Anath, consort to Ramesses II, produced a child, and the paternity of Bint-Anath’s daughter is never stated. The lack of children suggests that these marriages may have been unconsummated unions designed to ensure that the father had a consort, and the daughter achieved the highest female status in the land.
21
Auletes either built or completed existing projects at Athribis (the enlargement of the sanctuary of Triphis), Akhmim (a ritual building of unknown purpose), Dendera (the replacement of the 30th Dynasty Hathor temple), Koptos (the gateway to the Geb temple), Karnak (the gateway to the Ptah temple and various small buildings), Deir el-Medina (the enclosure wall for the Hathor temple), Edfu (the expansion of the Horus temple), Philae (the decoration of the first gateway of the Isis temple and the transfer of the kiosk of Nectanebo I), Biggeh (work at the Osiris temple) and, perhaps, Kom Ombo (the enclosure wall and a new gateway), and the walls of his temples were covered in his own propaganda.
1
Boccaccio,
On the Lives of Famous Women
, Johann Zainer, Ulm, 1473. Translated by Guido A. Guarino, quoted in Flamarion (1997): 128–31: 128.
2
Stela 13. H. W. Fairman (1934), in R. Mond and O. H. Myers (1934),
The Bucheum
, 2 vols, Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 2. See also W. W. Tarn (1936), ‘The Bucheum Stelae: A Note’,
Journal of Roman Studies
, 26: 2: 187–9. The stela is currently housed in the Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
3
There is even an outside possibility that the anonymous king might be Auletes. This is discussed further in R. S. Bianchi, ‘Images of Cleopatra Reconsidered’, and S.-A. Ashton, ‘Cleopatra: Goddess, Ruler or Regent?’, both papers in Walker and Ashton, eds (2003): 13–23 and 25–30.
4
Dates calculated from the information given on Tayimhotep’s funerary stela. In Rome, Augustan law would soon fix the legal minimum age for marriage at twelve for girls and fourteen for boys.
5
Hatshepsut’s images are discussed further in J. A. Tyldesley (1996),
Hatshepsut: The Female Pharaoh
, Viking Penguin, London. Hatshepsut excepted, images of queens dressed as kings are extremely rare, although both Berenice II and Berenice IV have been associated with male images.
6
‘ …she based the external trappings of her monarchy on the precedents provided by famous ancient Egyptian female monarchs, Hatshepsut among them, as was clearly demonstrated in her representations and the accompanying inscriptions at the temple of Hathor at Dendera’: R. S. Bianchi, ‘Cleopatra VII’, in D. B. Redford (2001),
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt
, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York: 273–4.
7
This papyrus was discovered as part of a cartonnage mummy case (cartonnage being made from layers of linen or papyrus held together by plaster or glue and moulded to shape). It is now housed in Berlin Museum (C Ord Ptol 73). A. S. Hunt and C. C. Edgar (1934),
Select Papyri II
, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and Heinemann, London: 209.
8
W. Schubart and D. Schäfer (1933),
Spätptolemäische Papyri aus amtlichen Büros des Herakleopolites
, Weidmann, Berlin: 1,834.
9
The visit to Thebes appears in many histories, but is not supported by contemporary documentation and so must be open to a certain amount of doubt. Strabo and Appian record the visit to ‘Syria’ without further definition.
10
Plutarch,
Life of Pompey
, 77–80. Translated by B. Perrin; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 42: 4. Translated by E. Cary.
11
Alternatively, the Ptolemy of circle nine may be the inhospitable captain of Jericho who killed his guest Simon Maccabaeus.
12
Plutarch,
Life of Caesar
, 49. Translated by B. Perrin.
13
Suetonius,
Divine Julius
, 45. Translated by R. Graves.
14
Ibid., 52.
15
Cicero, quoted ibid., 49.
16
Ibid., 50–51.
17
The other Cleopatra heads are housed in the Antikensammlung, Berlin, the Louvre, Paris (a Hellenistic-style Cleopatra probably carved by an Egyptian craftsman) and the Cherchell Museum, Algeria. For further details of Cleopatra’s images, see the various papers in Walker and Ashton, eds (2003).
18
The coin images – the official face of Cleopatra – can be compared with images on clay seal impressions found among a diverse collection of sealings from the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu and today housed in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The sealings were originally attached to papyrus documents that vanished long ago. One sealing shows a queen – Cleopatra VII? – wearing a vulture headdress, solar crown and a long, full wig. Another replicates the Cypriot Cleopatra/Isis coin but Caesarion, somewhat bizarrely, has vanished from the scene.
19
For a discussion on approaches to Cleopatra’s beauty, see E. Shohat ‘Disorientating Cleopatra: A Modern Trope of Identity’, in Walker and Ashton, eds (2003): 127–38.
20
Grant (1972): 66.
21
The Berlin head is just one among many representations of Nefertiti. Few of the others display the same stark symmetrical beauty. See J. A. Tyldesley (2005, revised edition),
Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen
, Penguin Books, London.
22
Plutarch,
Life of Antony
, 27. Translated by B. Perrin.
23
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 42: 34. Translated by E. Cary.
24
It is possible to catch a glimpse of ‘real’ people going about their daily business, but to do this we have to look principally at the graffiti and doodles left by dynastic Egypt’s unofficial artists. During the Ptolemaic age the situation changed slightly as the elite started to commission art
that was less idealised and, to modern eyes, more realistic. This change is not apparent in royal art. See R. S. Bianchi (1988), ‘The Pharaonic Art of Ptolemaic Egypt’, in
Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies
, Brooklyn Museum, New York: 55–80.
25
The extent to which priestly decrees outlined how pose, material, scale and placement should be used in these propaganda pieces is discussed further in Stanwick (2002): 6–14.
26
As her fertility was important to the queen, it was necessary that she be depicted as eternally young. When we do find an image of an older queen it therefore comes as something of a shock. The 18th Dynasty Queen Tiy and her daughter-in-law Nefertiti lived in an age of artistic experimentation, and both were depicted as older women. In contrast, it was always considered acceptable to depict men at all stages of life.