Cleopatra was one of the most renowned and formidable rulers of ancient Egypt.
That hair!
Those eyes!
But what do you really know about this famous dead lady?
Here are some weird things you probably didn't know about Cleopatra.
Having descended from Greek generals, Greek was naturally the native tongue of Cleopatra's
Ptolemaic dynasty.
But as a true lady of the people, Cleopatra spoke the languages of most of her country’s
neighbors as well, including the Arabs, Jews, Parthians, Syrians, Ethiopians and Medes.
“Well versed in the natural sciences and mathematics.
She speaks seven languages proficiently.
Were she not a woman, one would consider her to be an intellectual.”
She was also the only member of her dynasty who bothered to learn the language of Egypt.
Until her reign, the Ptolemys showed little interest in Egyptian culture or religion and
mostly just sequestered themselves in the city of Alexandria, which was sort of like
the Chinatown of ancient Egypt — except Greeker.
Cleopatra, however, could speak the native Coptic and read hieroglyphics.
And despite being Greek, she also presented herself as a typical Egyptian, wearing the
traditional dress and attending Egyptian festivals and ceremonies.
Cleopatra, unlike her predecessors, recognized the value of appealing to the cultural identity
of the people she ruled — which is a concept even modern politicians can struggle to understand.
There's hardly a single popular depiction of Cleopatra out there that doesn't feature
her iconic eye makeup — a black kohl that lines the eyes, and sometimes continues down
the side of the face to form decorative spirals.
According to chemist Christian Amatore, the kohl was made from lead-based materials and
warded off eye infections, which were common in ancient Egypt since harmful particles which
became active when the Nile flooded would easily get into the eyes and cause inflammation.
The lead-based makeup Cleopatra wore was toxic to the bacteria that caused those infections…
but it was also toxic to humans.
Of course, most Egyptians just thought it was magic doing all the work, but it worked
nonetheless.
Cleopatra may have been smart, shrewd and capable — but she was also kind of a party
animal.
You would be too though, if you had absolute power and a boyfriend like Mark Antony.
“The animal thinks [...] resist the water.”]
As it turns out, Cleopatra and Antony weren't so preoccupied by matters of state that they
made no time for fun.
They even formed their own drinking club, which they named "The Inimitable Livers."
That’s livers as in “people who live”, by the way, and not a reference to the internal
organ — though it probably could be both.
Officially, The Inimitable Livers were dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine.
Unofficially, it was an excuse to have the closest thing the ancient world had to keg
parties.
The club threw nightly "feasts and wine-binges," after which Antony and Cleopatra would wander
around the city in a state of drunken giddiness and play pranks on common Alexandrians.
According to Plutarch, Antony and Cleopatra were buried together.
The exact location of their tomb, however, is a mystery.
Some historians think they were buried in Alexandria, most of which fell into the sea
after an earthquake 1,600 years ago.
Some archaeologists think they're buried beneath the Taposiris Magna Temple, which is about
30 miles west of Alexandria and thought to be the resting place of the god Osiris.
Cleopatra considered herself and her lover to be living embodiments of Isis and Osiris,
so a temple burial does seem possible.
“I shall have to insist that you mind what you say.
I am Isis.”
Archaeologist Kathleen Martinez found four burial chambers and more than 600 artifacts
at Taposiris Magna, many of which bear the likenesses of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
So far, however, the tomb itself remains undiscovered.
Cleopatra probably would have been mummified, since she was known to have followed Egyptian
customs and practices.
But Plutarch writes that Mark Antony was cremated in the Roman custom — so if archaeologists
do discover their tomb, it's unclear just what state the two might actually be in.
All things considered, Cleopatra had mostly good intentions for the nation she ruled.
Unfortunately, her hopes and dreams of maintaining Egypt’s status as a free and independent
state died with her — after her death in the summer of 30 B.C., Octavian seized control
of Egypt, made it a province of Rome and put an end to the age of the pharaohs.
It took a while for Cleopatra to be remembered fondly by anyone but her own people — the
Romans waged a smear campaign against her, painting her as a harlot who seduced her way
to power and used witchcraft to bring powerful men under her control.
Even hundreds of years later, poets were remembering her as "the shame of Egypt" and "the bane
of Rome”.
Despite all this, Cleopatra reigned for over 20 years, saw great successes as a leader,
enjoyed a life of luxury and died on her own terms.
Things could have been a lot worse.