aphroditeinfurs:“What did Cleopatra look like? The modern idea that she was actually unattractive is
aphroditeinfurs:“What did Cleopatra look like? The modern idea that she was actually unattractive is not borne out by the ancient historians. Dio Cassius says, ‘For she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was the most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone. Being brilliant to look upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate everyone, even a love-sated man already past his prime, she thought that it would be in keeping with her role to meet Caesar, and she reposed in her beauty all her claims to the throne.’Florus (A.D. 75-140) says that when she threw herself at Caesar’s feet, ‘he was moved by the beauty of the damsel which was enhanced by the fact that, being so fair, she seemed to have been wronged;’ he also says later that she appealed to Octavian ‘in vain, for her beauty was unable to prevail over his self control.’According to Appian (A.D. 90-165), ‘Antony was amazed at her wit as well as her good looks,’ and that ‘it is said…. that he had fallen in love with her at first sight long ago when she was still a girl and he was serving as master of the horse under Gabinius at Alexandria.’Plutarch’s familiar comment that ’her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself remarkable that none could be compared with her,’ does not imply (as some would have it) that she was plain. All these observations seem to affirm that she was quite attractive, if not a conventional beauty. No known statues of Cleopatra survive, though some are identified as such based on the resemblance to her portrait on coins. These coins are of two types, puzzlingly unalike in looks: an attractive one in the Hellenistic style, and an idol-like one on coins she shares with Antony. The carving of her on the Temple of Hathor at Dendera is not an individualized portrait but a generalized representation of a queen.What was her coloring likely to have been? The Ptolemies were Macedonian Greeks and these people exhibit a range of hair and eye shades from light (blonde, blue eyed) to dark (black hair, brown eyes). Skin tone too can vary, from quite light to the Mediterranean ‘olive-skinned.’ Her grandmother (her one non-Ptolemaic ancestor) was half-Syrian, half Greek. There is no evidence for Egyptian ancestry, however she did find a spiritual affinity with her Egyptian subjects, speaking their language and honoring their ancient religion.”- The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George -- source link