Kleopatra

The famous Kleopatra was not done to death by an asp, as has been the traditional story; […]

For a brief period the two Kleopatras, mother and daughter, ruled with the elder son, Ptolemy IX Soter II. The king’s younger brother Alexander was meanwhile based in Cyprus, while the queen who continued to rule with Soter II was probably Kleopatra III.

Shortly afterwards Euergetes II raped Kleopatra’s teenage daughter, his own niece, but by 142 he had also married her, raising her to be joint queen along with her mother and so monopolizing all potential sources of dynastic influence. For us she is therefore known as Kleopatra III. Official royal protocol thereafter distinguished the two ruling Kleopatrai as “Kleopatra the Sister” (II) and “Kleopatra the Wife” (III) (though actually both were wives).

The last section once again treats the Kleopatrai of Ptolemaic descent (203-208).

The roles played by royal women in the Hellenistic royal houses were cast and re-cast by every generation of royal women stretching back to Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, but by the time these Kleopatrai stepped onto the Mediterranean stage the influence of such women was certainly nothing new.

The three most famous films are highlighted here. Space prevents inclusion of additional well-known stage and filmic Kleopatras, such as the stage production of Cléopâtre (1890), staring Sarah Bernhardt, the silent film Cleopatra (1912), staring Helen Gardner, or Caesar and Cleopatra (1946), staring Vivian Leigh, which was based on the child-like Kleopatra of George Bernard Shaw’s play of the same name (1898). On the actresses who played Kleopatra in the cinema, see Wenzel (2005: 93-125).