Ethnicity of Cleopatra
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The ethnicity of Cleopatra VII, the last active
For example, the article "Was Cleopatra Black?" was published in
Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as having been essentially of
In 2009, a BBC documentary speculated that Cleopatra might have been part North African. This was based largely on the examination of a headless skeleton of a female child in a 20 BCE tomb in Ephesus (modern Turkey), together with the old notes and photographs of the now-missing skull. The remains were hypothesized to be those of Arsinoe IV, sister or half-sister to Cleopatra,[17][18] and conjecture based on discredited processes suggested that the remains belonged to a girl whose "race" may have been "North African". This claim is rejected by scholars, based on the remains being impossible to identify as Arsinoe, the race of the remains being impossible to identify at all, the fact that the remains belonged to a child much younger than Arsinoe when she died, and the fact that Arsinoe and Cleopatra shared the same father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, but may have had different mothers.[19][20][21]
Background
The race and skin color of
Classicist Grace Macurdy notes in her seminal 1932 book Hellenistic Queens: A Study of Woman-Power in Macedonia, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt that scholars prior to her book had speculated Cleopatra was part Jewish, a hypothesis which Macurdy dismisses as having "slight evidence."[5] The evidence cited for this hypothesis has included antisemitic readings into Cleopatra's iconography (mainly, Cleopatra's nose), modern speculation about her legitimacy, Cleopatra's ability to speak the language of the Hebrews, and the centuries-long patronage of Jewish Alexandrians by the Ptolemies, including Cleopatra.[5] The speculation of Cleopatra being part Jewish did not survive into later twentieth century historiography of the queen.
She further stresses slavery in ancient times was very different from modern black chattel slavery, as slaves were not taken based on skin color but were in actuality mostly war captives, largely including Greeks, and notes Roger's claim of a black grandmother is based on practices by slave owners of the 19th century.[24] The black Cleopatra claim, Lefkowitz continues, was further revived in an essay written by afrocentrist John Henrik Clarke, chair of African history at Hunter College, entitled "African Warrior Queens" for "Black Women in Antiquity."[9]
She notes the essay was largely drawn on the writings of Rogers with Clarke's added "supporting information of his own" that includes his claim Cleopatra described herself as black in the
In her 1993 paper "Black Feminist Thought and Classics: Re-Membering, Re-Claiming, Re-Empowering," classicist
In regard to the question of the race of the historical Cleopatra, Haley responded "that this is a very complex question when one can ask it about Cleopatra or any ancient – or modern – historical figure."[29] In addition to being a symbolic figure in American Black feminism, Cleopatra became an icon for Egyptian audiences over centuries as well as in the modern age for the Arab and Egyptian nationalist movements.[30] As a national icon for Egyptians, Cleopatra has been seen by such figures as Ahmed Shawqi as representative of the conflict between Egypt and imperialist European powers.[31] (As pointed out by historian Adrian Goldsworthy, however, if there had been any 'great struggle' of civilizations in the historical Cleopatra VII's lifetime, it was "not between east and west, but Greek and Roman".)[32]
In response to the book Not Out of Africa by Lefkowitz, Molefi Kete Asante, Professor of African American Studies at Temple University wrote the article "Race in Antiquity: Truly Out of Africa", in which he emphasized that he "can say without a doubt that Afrocentrists do not spend time arguing that either Socrates or Cleopatra were black."[33]
More recently Kathryn Bard, Professor of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Boston University stated in 2020 that: "Cleopatra was white of Macedonian descent, as were all of the Ptolemy rulers, who lived in Egypt,"[34] while for Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Associate Professor of Classics, Women's and Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies at Denison University, since there is no genetic basis for race[citation needed], any claims to being able to identify Cleopatra's "true racial background" from her family tree perpetuate nothing else but a modern political position.[35] For Dame Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and scholar of Ancient Roman civilisation, "The truth is that we have no idea of the origins of Cleopatra. She was certainly of a royal Macedonian family, but whether her mother (or any other of her female ancestors) was Egyptian we just don't know."[36]
In regard to the debate surrounding the casting in 2020 of
The exclusion of Cleopatra's Greek-ness from mainstream
The 2023
Known depictions
Cleopatra's official Ptolemaic coinage (which she would have approved) and the three Roman portrait busts of her considered authentic by scholars (which match her coins) portray Cleopatra as a Greek woman in style, including the Greek chiton, Hellenistic diadem, and Greek chignon.[12][13][46][16] Francisco Pina Polo writes that Cleopatra's coinage present her image with certainty and asserts that the sculpted portrait of the "Berlin Cleopatra" head from the Altes Museum is confirmed as having a similar profile with her hair pulled back into a bun, a diadem, and a hooked nose.[13]
Ernle Bradford writes that it is "reasonable to infer" Cleopatra had dark hair and "pale olive skin" by how she portrays herself as a "Eastern Mediterranean type" on her official coins, and that she challenged Rome not as an Egyptian woman, "but as a civilized Greek."[15] Barbara Watterson notes that Cleopatra's coins show her in the Greek style rather than the Egyptian style and argues that although she was a Macedonian Greek we can only speculate the color of Cleopatra's features, but probably had dark brown hair and eyes and skin with an olive hue.[16]
Similar to the Berlin Cleopatra, other Roman sculpted portraits of Cleopatra include diadem-wearing marble heads now located in the Vatican Museums and Archaeological Museum of Cherchell, although the latter may instead be a depiction of her daughter Cleopatra Selene II.[50][51][52] The diademed 'Esquiline Venus' statue in the Capitoline Museums is also speculated as being an additional depiction of the queen,[53][47][54] especially due to her connection with the Greek goddess Aphrodite as seen on some of her coinage.[55] The Portland Vase, a Roman cameo glass vase dated to the reign of Augustus and now in the British Museum, includes a possible depiction of Cleopatra with a serpent rising in her lap as she sits and grasps the arm of her Roman spouse Mark Antony.[56]
In addition to sculptures and coins, several surviving Roman frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum also likely depict Cleopatra. A contemporaneous depiction from Pompeii's House of Marcus Fabius Rufus depicts the queen as the goddess Venus Genetrix holding a cupid in her arms, ostensibly a rare depiction of her son Caesarion who was fathered by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar.[48] Susan Walker notes that the woman's ivory-white skin, round face, long aquiline nose, and large round eyes were features common in Roman and Ptolemaic depictions of goddesses.[57] In his argument that Cleopatra's beauty was as perilous to politics as Helen of Troy, the Roman poet Lucan wrote in his Pharsalia that Cleopatra emphasized the sight of her "white breasts" through her thinly veiled Oriental dress,[58] comments likely meant to sexualize her than give an accurate depiction of her person.[59]
Duane W. Roller writes about the Pompeian fresco: "there seems little doubt that this is a depiction of Cleopatra and Caesarion before the doors of the Temple of Venus in the Forum Julium and, as such, it becomes the only extant contemporary painting of the queen."[47] Walker, Roller and Joann Fletcher observe the similarity of this Pompeiian painting with the face preserved in the "Vatican Cleopatra", the damage on the left cheek of the sculpture possibly from the arm of a cupid that may have been torn off.[47][57][60]
Posthumous portraits include a fresco of Pompeii's House of Giuseppe II depicting her possible suicide by poisoning,[49] a painted portrait in Pompeii's House of the Orchard showing a side view of her diademed bust, and a highly similar fresco from nearby Herculaneum, the latter which matches the visage of her sculptures and official coinage.[61][62]
Aside from
In his Kleopatra und die Caesaren (2006),
Roger S. Bagnall has noted that those who attempt to make a strong case for Egyptian influence on the Ptolemaic dynasty themselves have "depicted in essence a use of Egyptian material for royal purposes," such as native Egyptian works of the Ptolemies, and thus are not indicative of an "Egyptianization" of the royal family.[72] As pointed out by Elaine Fantham, "Although Cleopatra was heir to some ancient Egyptian traditions, she was not an anomaly in a long line of Greek queens."[73]
Ancestry
Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as having been essentially of
While the identity of Cleopatra VII Philopator's mother is uncertain, she is generally believed to be
Grant states that Cleopatra probably had not a drop of Egyptian blood and that she "would have described herself as Greek."[75] Moreover, he points out that her "whole education and culture" was Greek. [75] Cleopatra's childhood tutor was the sophist Philostratos, from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and philosophy.[88] Grant also states that the queen was "consumed with perpetual ambition to revive the former glories of her Greek kingdom and house."[89]
Grant proposes that Cleopatra's paternal grandmother may have been mixed Syrian and Greek, in line with the precedent of Seleucid Syrian royalty in the Ptolemaic line, and continues that "certainly she was not an Egyptian," noting there is no known Egyptian wife of a Ptolemaic king and there is only one known Egyptian mistress of a Ptolemy (from the 3rd century BCE).[90]
Lefkowitz writes that this Egyptian woman, named Didyame, was the mistress of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. She notes that among Ptolemy II's many mistresses, Didyame was specifically singled out because she was Egyptian, and not of the usual Greek stock among Ptolemaic mistresses (who included among Ptolemy II's mistresses, the courtesans Bilistiche, Agathocleia, Stratonice of Libya, and Myrto – whose coloring and ethnicity were not specifically pointed out like Didyame, "presumably because they were Greek"). She further notes that if she had any children by Ptolemy, they never became king. She contends that it is "misleading to suggest that the unique non-Greek mistress Didyame provides evidence of a common practice."[85]
Schiff continues that Cleopatra "faithfully held up the family tradition".[101] In essence, Cleopatra's loyalties were to her Ptolemaic Greek heritage.[102] As noted by Donald R. Dudley, Cleopatra and her family were "the successor[s] to the native Pharaohs, exploiting through a highly organized bureaucracy the great natural resources of the Nile Valley."[103] For example, Ancient Greek scholar Athenaeus reports that Cleopatra gave away enslaved people, including "Aethiopian boys", to her dinner guests.[104]
Roger S. Bagnall states that the Greek attitude towards Egypt and Egyptians appears to have been an exploitative one, "in both the neutral and the negative senses of that word".[72] Furthermore, he points out that the Greek ruling class was able to adapt to their new circumstances "without fundamental cultural alteration", which, combined with their position of power in the Egypt, "enabled them to take whatever they wished from Egypt without ceasing to become Greeks."[72] Francine Prose notes that although Cleopatra was born and "apparently thought of herself" as a Macedonian Greek queen, all that mattered to the Romans was that "she was not a Roman and, more important, that her existence, her influence, and her power constituted an obstacle to Roman expansion."[108]
Arsinoe IV
In 2009, a
Arsinoe and Cleopatra shared the same father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) but may have had different mothers,[19] with Thür claiming the alleged African ancestry came from the skeleton's mother. However, Clarence C. et al. demonstrated that skull measurements are not a reliable indicator of race[109] and the measurements were jotted down in 1920 before modern forensic science took hold.[110] [9] To date it has never been definitively proved the skeleton is that of Arsinoe IV. When a DNA test was made that attempted to determine the identity of the child, it was impossible to get an accurate reading since the bones had been handled too many times,[20] and the skull had been lost in Germany during World War II. Furthermore, craniometry as used by Thür to determine race is based in scientific racism that is now generally considered a discredited pseudoscience with "a long history of being put to use in racially motivated and often overtly and explicitly racist ways."[111]
To date, no confirmed tomb of any Ptolemaic ruler has been found. Consequently, genetic testing on Ptolemaic remains is impossible.[112]
See also
- Afrocentrism
- Ancient Egyptian race controversy
- Biological anthropology
- Demographics of Egypt
- Early life of Cleopatra
- Egyptomania
- Ptolemaic dynasty
- Ptolemaic Kingdom
Notes
- ^ For further validation about Cleopatra VII being of predominantly Macedonian Greek descent, see Samson (1990, p. 104), Schiff (2011, pp. 2, 35–36, 42), Preston (2009, pp. 22, 77), Kleiner (2005, p. 22), Prose (2022, p. 8), Watterson (2020, pp. 15), Fletcher (2008, p. 1), Bradford (2003, pp. 14, 17), Lefkowitz (1992, pp. 34–52), Bianchi (2005), and Southern (2009, pp. 43).
- ^ For further information and validation see Schiff (2011, p. 28), Kleiner (2005, p. 22), Bennett (1997, pp. 60–63), Bianchi (2005), Tyldesley (2008, pp. 40, 235–236), and Meadows (2001, p. 23). For alternate speculation, see Roller (2010, pp. 15, 18, 166). For a comparison of arguments about Cleopatra's maternity, see Prose (2022, p. 38).
References
- ^ Roller (2010), pp. 174–175.
- ^ a b Hugh B. Price, "Was Cleopatra Black?". The Baltimore Sun. September 26, 1991. Archived from the original on December 11, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Roller (2010).
- ^ a b c d Grant (1972), p. 4.
- ^ a b c d Macurdy (1932), p. 185.
- ^ a b Whitaker, Charles (February 2002). "Was Cleopatra Black?". Ebony. Archived from the original on 11 August 2004. Retrieved 28 September 2021. The author cites a few examples of the claim, one of which is a chapter titled "Black Warrior Queens", published in 1984 in Black Women in Antiquity, part of The Journal of African Civilization series. It draws heavily on the work of J.A. Rogers.
- ^ a b Lefkowitz (1992), pp. 36–40.
- ^ ISBN 9781451650549
- ^ a b c d e Lefkowitz (1992), pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b Goldsworthy (2010), pp. 8, 127–128.
- ^ Jones (2006), pp. xiii.
- ^ a b c Schiff (2011), pp. 2, 41–42.
- ^ a b c d Pina Polo (2013), pp. 185–186.
- ^ Kleiner (2005), pp. 151–153, 155.
- ^ a b Bradford (2003), pp. 14, 17.
- ^ a b c d e Watterson (2020), pp. 15.
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- ^ Kleiner (2005), pp. 155–156.
- ^ a b Pina Polo (2013), pp. 186, 194, footnote 10.
- ^ Walker & Higgs (2001), pp. 208–209.
- ^ Fletcher (2008), p. 205.
- ^ Roller (2010), p. 178.
- ^ a b Walker (2008), p. 40.
- ^ Grout (2017).
- ^ Loren (2020), p. 89.
- ^ Fletcher (2008), pp. 198–199.
- ^ a b c Walker & Higgs (2001), pp. 314–315.
- ^ a b Roller (2010), p. 176.
- ^ Pina Polo (2013), pp. 184–186.
- ^ Roller (2010), pp. 54, 174–175.
- ^ Ashton (2002), p. 39.
- ^ Kleiner (2005), p. 87.
- ^ Roller (2010), pp. 113–114, 176–177.
- ^ Pina Polo (2013), p. 194, footnote 11.
- ^ Preston (2009), p. 305.
- ^ a b c Bagnall 1988, p. 24.
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- ^ Roller (2010), pp. 15, 18, 166.
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- ^ Goldsworthy (2010), p. 8.
- ^ Schiff (2011), pp. 2, 42.
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- ^ Roller (2010), p. 15.
- ^ Dudley (1960), p. 57.
- ^ Athenaeus.
- ^ a b Tyldesley (2008), pp. 31–32.
- ^ Grant (1972), pp. 85, 88, 155–18, 162, 179.
- ^ Tyldesley (2017).
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Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-313-32527-4.
- Carlà-Uhink, Filippo; Weiber, Anja, eds. (2020), Orientalism and the Reception of Powerful Women from the Ancient World, Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN 9781350050105.
- Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed. (2014). When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. ISBN 978-0691165547.
- Chauveau, Michel (2004). Cleopatra: Beyond the Myth. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1350340732.
- Crawford, Amy (March 31, 2007), Who Was Cleopatra? Mythology, propaganda, Liz Taylor and the real Queen of the Nile, Smithsonian, retrieved 29 April 2023.
- Daugherty, Gregory N. (2022). The Reception of Cleopatra in the Age of Mass Media. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0060920937.
- Hammer, Mary. Signs of Cleopatra: History, Politics, Representation. London: Routledge, 1993.
- ISBN 978-0060920937.
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