Like Helena of Troy, Cleopatra (69-30 BC) has always been considered one of the most famous beauties in world history. But was she really that beautiful? Modern historians claim that they have evidence that Cleopatra was not as striking as our contemporaries believe.
Written sources
The vast majority of ancient sources about Cleopatra were written by the Romans. Since they did not like Cleopatra, they portrayed her as a depraved seductress who used her beauty as a political weapon.
Plutarch (AD 45-120), Greek historian and biographer of Mark Antony, writing about a century after Cleopatra's death, mentioned that Cleopatra's beauty was "not entirely incomparable," but her sweet voice and her mind made her so desired.
Cassius Dion (AD 155-255), a Greek-born Roman historian, described her as “a woman of amazing beauty, and at that time, in her prime, she was incredibly beautiful. She also had a pleasant voice and knew how to use her charms to attract people to her."
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Surviving images
There are only three sculptural heads in the classical style, and several full-length statues in the Egyptian style, which, scientists say, refer to Cleopatra and were ordered during her lifetime. However, they all portray completely different women.
Coins minted in Egypt depicted a face with rather coarse, rather masculine features, with a large hooked nose. Historians believe that she deliberately demanded to portray herself in this way, as a powerful jaw, like her father's, was perceived as a display of strength. The different coins she minted featured images of different women, depending on what she was pursuing in politics at the time. For the inhabitants of Egypt, she ordered her images, made in the traditional local style.
Recreating the image
Using images of ancient artifacts, including a ring dating from the reign of Cleopatra 2,000 years ago, Sally Ann Ashton of the University of Cambridge pulled together her features and depicted Cleopatra as a mixed race. This is a completely different look that is completely different from the Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren look we are used to.
Cleopatra was born in Egypt, but her ancestors were Macedonian Greeks. Her father, Ptolemy I, was a general of Alexander the Great and possibly a close relative of Alexander. Cleopatra's grandmother (the only known source of foreign blood in Cleopatra's family) belonged to a dynasty originating in the same Greco-Macedonian region as the Ptolemies.
As with many royal houses in Egypt, members of the Ptolemaic dynasty often intermarried with relatives in order to keep their ancestry pure, and it is possible that her parents were brother and sister. Cleopatra eventually married both of her teenage brothers. This fact casts doubt on the image of Cleopatra, created by Sally Ann Ashton, where different races are mixed.
Cleopatra was portrayed in different ways, so now we cannot be sure of how she actually looked, but it is certain that she was one of the most powerful and intelligent women the world has ever seen. She spoke 9 languages, communicated with two of the most powerful men of her time, and kept her country independent for 20 years.
Violetta Berezina