The femme fatale is a beauty and manipulator. Using beauty, intelligence and sexuality, she turns a man into a means to an end. Fatal - means determining fate. Femme fatale makes those who love her suffer, changes people's fates and influences the course of history. Often, such a woman herself is a victim of circumstances or abuse.
Salome
Salome is considered the prototype of the femme fatale. The girl danced so beautifully at the birthday party of Herod Antipas that he promised to fulfill her every wish. At the instigation of her mother, Salome asked for the head of the prophet John the Baptist … The plot, which inspired many artists and poets, may be a myth. The French historian Robert Ambrelin in his book "Jesus, or the deadly secret of the Templars" argues that Salome, the king's daughter, could not entertain guests like a vulgar dancer. Moreover, in 32 AD, Salome was 37 years old. She was married and had three sons. At that time, John the Baptist, by order of Herod, was imprisoned in the fortress of Macheron. His execution could have been a political murder, which was later covered up with a story of female deceit. In ancient texts, there is often a two-faced beauty - Delilah, who killed Samson; Judith, who chopped off Holofernes's head.
Elena the beautiful
In terms of the amount of damage, no one can compare with Elena the Beautiful. The young man Paris fell in love with the wife of King Menelaus and with the help of the goddess Aphrodite won her heart. Taking the royal treasures and his wife, Paris departed for Troy. King Menelaus gathered one hundred thousand soldiers and set off in pursuit of the Aegean Sea in a thousand ships. The careless Trojans did not return their wife, although Cassandra warned that it would not end well. The siege of Troy lasted ten years. Over the years, Hellas lost many glorious heroes, the spell of Aphrodite dissipated, Paris died, and his brother took Elena as his wife. Finally, thanks to the cunning of Odysseus with the wooden horse, Troy fell.
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The unfaithful spouse was supposed to be executed, but the brave warriors did not raise a hand against her. Further - it is unclear. According to one version, Elena and her husband returned home. On the other, in order to avoid strife, Apollo turned Helen into a constellation. There is also a third final. Elena's friend Polixo, who lost her husband in the war, sent assassins to her. Herodotus wrote that a temple was erected at the site of Elena's death, and ugly girls, having made a sacrifice, acquired the gift of beauty. There is a lot of mythology and divine intervention in the Iliad, but the Trojan War is a historical fact. The city was destroyed in the 13th century BC, after three thousand years its ruins were discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
Cleopatra VII (69 BC - 30 BC)
Cleopatra VII became Queen of Egypt at the age of 17. A keen mind, encyclopedic knowledge and a strong character were useful to her in the struggle for the throne. Cleopatra turned to the Romans for help and became the mistress of Julius Caesar, who helped her seize the throne. On her orders, her brother Ptolemy and sister Arsinoe were killed, to say nothing of mere mortals. The times were dark. For example, Cleopatra's half-sister Berenice, on the third day after the wedding, ordered her husband to be strangled, because he was a boor and rude, although he was of a royal family. After Caesar's death, Cleopatra became the mistress of the commander Mark Antony. Anthony himself and Roman historians left bad reviews about Cleopatra: she was lecherous, kept the harem of young men, took her life for a night of love. The history is known to be written by the winners.
Cleopatra was a wise and visionary ruler. Here is how Plutarch spoke about her: “… the appearance, combined with the rare convincingness of speeches, with a huge charm that shone through in every word, in every movement, firmly cut into the soul … most often she herself talked with foreigners - Ethiopians, troglodytes, Jews, Arabs, Syrians, Medes, Parthians … she also learned many languages, while the kings who ruled before her did not even know Egyptian. After Antony's defeat, Egypt became a Roman province. The reign of Cleopatra - her gift as a strategist and politician - postponed this fate for 20 years. The queen took poison to avoid shame and not participate in the victor's triumphal procession.
Lou Salome (1861 - 1937)
Louise Gustavovna Salome - writer, philosopher, psychotherapist. The woman who left a mark on the lives of Nietzsche, Freud and Rilke. At the age of 20, she shocked secular salons with her close friendship with the philosophers Paul Ree and Friedrich Nietzsche. Both were in love, made an offer to Lou, but were refused - she was attracted by spiritual closeness and intellectual conversations. Neither Ree nor Nietzsche ever married. Nietzsche called Lou a superwoman and used her traits in Zarathustra - a man with an independent consciousness and free will. Lou later married a professor with "exotic charisma," with the same condition - no sex. Friedrich Karl Andreas became the most mysterious husband in history, having lived 43 years in a platonic marriage. At the age of 30, Lou had a love affair, but it was short-lived. Louise was always the first to throw men. Then the young poet Rainer Rilke became her lover and friend, owing much of his creative development to her. Throughout her life, she has explored the relationship between a man and a woman, but shared love and sex.
At 50, Lou Salomé meets Sigmund Freud at a congress of psychoanalysts. Becomes his student and closest friend. Her book, Erotica, was a European bestseller. The correspondence with Freud numbered over 200 letters. One day Freud's daughter confessed to Louise that her father was very afraid of death. Lou knew from experience that the fear of death was hidden behind the fear of love. Another woman from Russia, Sabina Spielrein, a former patient and lover of Jung, expressed the idea that a person is governed not only by sexual attraction, but also by a passion for the destruction of life. Many years later, Sigmund Freud put the idea of love and death as equal forces of human nature as the basis of the latest version of his teaching. Lou Salomé believed that man and woman are fundamentally different creatures. A man is directed to the outside world, looking for satisfaction in love,woman - the inner world - does not exist outside of love at all. A man needs social success, and a woman needs self-disclosure. Shortly before her death, Lou wrote: “Whatever pain and suffering life may bring, we should still welcome it. The sun and the moon, day and night, darkness and light, love and death - a person is always between them. He who is afraid of suffering is also afraid of joy."
Maria Tarnovskaya (1877 - 1949)
A hundred years ago, the Ukrainian Countess Maria Tarnovskaya was better known than Mata Hari. The trial of "Koza Russo" in Venice brought together hundreds of journalists from all over the world. An aristocrat, a descendant of the ancient families of O'Rourke and the Stewarts, was accused of organizing the murder and bringing to suicide of 14 people. Maria at the age of 17 married the most fashionable groom in Kiev. Out of boredom, she corrupted his younger brother, the young man hanged himself. Her lovers abandoned their wives and children, gave her money, and fought a duel with her husband. When the lover ran out of funds (Maria lived, knowing nothing of refusal), she offered to insure her life in her favor and shoot herself. Among her victims are Count Pavel Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Tolstoy, Polish nobleman Stefan Borzhevsky, German baron Vladimir Stahl, nobleman, attorney at law Donat Prilukov, Count Komarovsky …
Here is what Lev Lurie writes in the book "Predators": "Tarnovskaya's undoubted success among men was undoubtedly associated with the then Victorian attitude to sex. Wives and generally married “ladies of society” are airy creatures, as if asexual. There was no connection between marriage and eroticism … Maria Tarnovskaya - Countess, Lady of the World, in whose veins Mary Stuart's blood flowed - a type unprecedented in Russia at that time: depraved, choosing a man herself, not inclined to lyrics. She was stunning. " Her portraits were published on the front pages of newspapers, poetry was dedicated to her, plays were written, but real success came when Annie Vivanti, based on an interview with Tarnovskaya, wrote the novel "Circe". In 1917, a film was shot on it, in 1970 - a serial. Five years later, 38-year-old Tarnovskaya was released from prison. An American officer in love transported her to Argentina, where she married a French count,kept a fabric store, died in Santa Fe at the age of 72.
Mata Hari (1876 - 1917)
Margareta Gertrude Zelle was not particularly talented, but she was prone to hoaxes, knew how to strip in public and studied Indonesian dances. At the age of 28, left without funds and without a husband, she decided to try her luck in Paris. An oriental dancer performed under the pseudonym Mata Hari - Eye of the Day. Mata Hari was the first woman to undress on stage. At the beginning of the century, Europeans were fond of Eastern practices, eroticism, sexuality. At one time, Mata Hari was the highest paid dancer in the world. A sexy and uninhibited woman was in touch with the military and politicians.
Remaining a Dutch citizen, Mata Hari traveled freely throughout Europe during the First World War. The Germans recruited her first, and when the French counterintelligence declassified her, the spy offered France her services. During the first mission, her message was intercepted. It is possible that the German side decided to get rid of the double agent. Margaret Zelle was tried in Paris. The courtesan met her death with rare dignity and fearlessness. The case materials are still classified, and so far there is no way to assess the real harm from her espionage activities. Perhaps the execution allowed high military officials to hide their connection with the dancer. Here are the words of the famous counterintelligence officer Orpesta Pinto: "If she had not been executed, she would not have been known as a martyr and no one would have even heard of her."But Mata Hari made history as an exotic dancer and founder of sex espionage.
Alexandra Kollontai (1872 -1952)
Secular beauty and revolutionary, an outstanding orator, the first woman minister in history. The "Valkyrie of the Revolution" left behind a train of broken hearts and destinies. She rejected the man and he shot himself. She got married against the will of her parents, got bored in marriage and became interested in Marxism. Her connections were numerous, but first of all men carried her ideas away. During the February revolution, she met the sailor Pavel Dybenko. “We are young as long as we are loved,” said Kollontai. A semi-literate hero and a noblewoman (17 years older than her husband) entered into the first Soviet marriage (certificate No. 1). Both became people's commissars: he - for sea affairs, she - for the state charity. When Kollontai needed a room for the House of Invalids, she ordered the storming of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, surrounded by thousands of parishioners. The church gave her anathema,Kollontai proposed to cancel the church marriage and wrote a divorce decree. Later, Dybenko started an affair, Kollontai left him, and he shot himself.
After breaking up with Dybenko, Kollontai asked Stalin to send her abroad. For almost 15 years she was ambassador to Norway, Sweden and Mexico. Abroad, her love for high society, chic outfits, gourmet food and comfort returned to her - everything against which she fought in her homeland. In 1945 Alexandra Kollontai was the only surviving member of the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet. “In a free society, satisfying the sexual urge will be as easy as drinking a glass of water,” she said. In the article "The New Woman" (1913), she proclaimed victory over emotions, rejection of jealousy and open sexuality as traits of a progressive woman. The theorist of freedom of love, is considered the ancestor of the feminist movement.
Natalia Kalinichenko
