Cleopatra: A Sphinx Revisited

1. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt

21 The legendary Cleopatra the public knows—the passionate, infinitely various woman of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and the stylized beauty of the 1930s and 1960s films—has little to do with the historical Cleopatra, and we can gain a sense of the historical woman by considering her alongside her predecessors , the earlier Ptolemaic queens. Such an account of the last Cleopatra, who ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 B.C., can also give us a wider understanding of both the late Ptolemaic period and, to some extent, her use of earlier traditions to support her aspirations. Here I shall examine how the historical Cleopatra was presented in name and images to her several human and divine audiences: native Egyptians, the multi-ethnic and polyglot Alexandrians, the priestly hierarchy that still controlled the essential infrastructure of Egypt, the larger world of eastern Mediterranean kingdoms, and the deities of Egypt. She relied primarily on the traditional imagery and nomenclature of religious ritual developed over several millennia as a way of expressing contemporary authority, and added to that the nearer example of imagery created by earlier Ptolemaic queens, some of whom had faced dynastic challenges similar to her own. The minute iconographic details of her portraits reflect the artistic subtleties and visual sophistication of the two cultures, Greek and Egyptian, that were merged in Ptolemaic Egypt. ARSINOE II (CA. 316–270 B.C.) AS A ROYAL MODEL The Ptolemaic queens played an important role in both religious and political contexts from early in the dynasty: the royal pair Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II, full brother and sister as well as husband and wife, were deified as the Theoi Adelphoi, 1 Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt Sally-Ann Ashton 22 Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt or sibling gods, during their lifetimes. This was part of the effort of the Ptolemies to make their rule as outsiders, Macedonian Greeks, acceptable to Egyptians by assimilating themselves into the traditional Egyptian religious hierarchies and categories, while not denying their Greek origin and heritage. A salient feature of the old pharaonic system had been inter-family marriage, and now this pair established a precedent for the Ptolemies to continue the custom. Following Arsinoe’s death, the queen was deified in her own right; textual references show that her temples in the Faiyum were distinct from those of the Theoi Adelphoi.1 In dating formulas their successor Ptolemy III always refers to the Theoi Adelphoi as his parents, even though his mother was Arsinoe I. He advertised his respect and close association with Arsinoe II by images carved on the great portals of the temple at Karnak, where he is shown as pharaoh making an offering to her and Ptolemy II as the Theoi Adelphoi (Fig. 4). The promotion of the Theoi Adelphoi gained added impetus from a direct link with the cult of the deified Alexander the Great, who had conquered Egypt when it was under the Persians and had been declared the son of Amun-Ra by the oracle of Zeus Ammon at Siwah in 331 B.C. In contrast, the cult of the Theoi Soteres or Savior Gods (titles given to the Figure 4. Pylon of the temple of Khonsu at Karnak, with relief showing Ptolemy III making an offering to the Theoi Adelphoi (Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II). Photo by SallyAnn Ashton. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt 23 founders of the dynasty, Ptolemy I and Berenike I) had originally stood alone, and it was not until the reforms of Ptolemy IV that the cult of the founders of the dynasty was joined to the original cult of Alexander and the subsequent Ptolemaic rulers: a consolidation of ritual attentions that then linked the conquering hero, his general Ptolemy, and Ptolemy’s family and successors.2 Even after these reforms, the native priesthood chose not to add the names of Alexander and the Theoi Soteres to the dating formulas.3 Thus, the Theoi Adelphoi became a convenient reference for assertions of dynastic authority going back to Alexander . Arsinoe II, positioned in the religious and political sphere as one of the Theoi Adelphoi and then deified in her own right following her death, stood as a powerful antecedent and became a model for later royal women. These names, titles, and the visual images in sculptured reliefs on temples and sculpture in the round helped establish the Ptolemies as rightful rulers in the age-old traditions of Egypt...