What do we all know in regards to the lavish events arranged by means of Queen Cleopatra in her palace in Alexandria, or in her boat all through her travels? Used to be it natural debauchery as claimed by means of historical authors or works of spiritual piety?
So as to stun Mark Antony, wrote the traditional author Plutarch in his Lifetime of Antony, Cleopatra would orchestrate the precise technique of seduction, blending birthday celebration and comfort.
Mark Antony is in Asia Minor, as of late’s Turkey, the place he has to reorganize the management. He invitations Cleopatra there similtaneously different native rulers, vassals of the Roman Empire. Rome used to be then a really perfect energy that ruled the Mediterranean international and the Center East.
The queen comes to a decision to attend a little bit, Plutarch tells us. She takes her time as a result of she needs to reach after everybody. After all, she is going to satisfy Marc Antoine on a luxurious boat. An actual floating palace. She takes her position there dressed as a goddess.
She is “as Aphrodite is painted,” writes Plutarch (Lifetime of Antony 26). The traditional writer had in thoughts the frescoes, of the kind present in Pompeii in the home referred to as “Venus with the shell”, through which the goddess of eroticism is dressed best in her jewellery.
Goddess of affection and attractiveness, accompanied by means of winged Eros. Space fresco of Venus with shell, Pompeii. Wikimedia
Cleopatra arrives in Tarsus surrounded by means of numerous extras whom she has introduced on board: gorgeous ladies and good-looking boys. The men have wings striking on their backs like Eros, the little god of affection, son of Aphrodite.
Younger ladies are disguised as sea deities. Their bare our bodies are lined best with seaweed.
This shocking manufacturing is a part of a practice of grand demonstrations orchestrated by means of Cleopatra’s predecessors as a part of what may also be described because the “spectacle monarchy” of the Ptolemies. The Ptolemaic rulers, from the reign of Ptolemy II and his sister-wife Arsinoe II, within the third century BC, arranged spectacular processions in Alexandria, as the traditional author Athenaeus of Naukratis recollects (Deipnosophistes V, 196-200).
Grand fairs and parades allowed kings and queens to give themselves as sovereigns and residing deities.
Essentially the most gorgeous competition of antiquity
The spectacle of Cleopatra’s lavish arrival in Tarsus attracts an enormous crowd. All of the inhabitants of the town rushes to the port to look the arriving of the magnificent royal send. The Queen then invitations Marc Antoine to enroll in her on board. There she gave a powerful dinner party.
She additionally suggests to her visitor that he input right into a hieros gamos, or “sacred marriage,” between the goddess Aphrodite, whom she sees as a secular incarnation, and Dionysus, the god of revelry and wine, with whom she assimilates Mark Antony.
A Roman can be mesmerized by means of the queen, her staging and her sumptuous unpacking. All her senses are extremely joyful: Cleopatra lighting fixtures perfumes, the dishes are scrumptious; bursts of song are accompanied by means of shocking performs of sunshine, produced by means of torches suspended from the ceiling and partitions of the dinner party corridor. “Therefore,” concludes Plutarch, “of all the feasts mentioned in history, we find none comparable to this one” (Lifetime of Antony 26).
On the finish of the dinner party, the divine queen gives herself to Mark Antony. He’s going to revel in his first night time of affection on a luxurious send.
Unrepeatable lifestyles
After settling issues slightly briefly within the East, the Roman would sign up for the queen in her palace in Alexandria. Then starts the well-known wintry weather of 41-40 BC, which the enthusiasts spent in lavish leisure. They shape an affiliation referred to as “Amimetobians”, because of this “Those who lead an unrepeatable life”. Their position fashions are the gods of Olympus. They wish to be “unrepeatable” from mere mortals.
For a number of months, Plutarch tells us, the royal palace lives in a rhythm of continuing birthday celebration, whilst Cleopatra performs the position of mistress of ceremonies. She prepares a program of celebrations on a daily basis with nice creativeness and loyal worry for the number of pleasures. Above all, Marc Antoine will have to by no means be bored. The queen continuously tries to stay him in suspense. He by no means leaves it day or night time.
Succulent dishes are continuously being ready in order that the queen and her lover by no means have to attend after they order. Uniquely for Mark Antony, 8 wild boars are roasted on a spit on the identical time within the palace kitchens, however at other levels of cooking, as a result of, as the executive chef of the palace, quoted by means of Plutarch, explains:
“Each dish must be served to a degree of perfection that lasts only a moment (…). That’s why we prepare not just one dinner, but several dinners, we can’t guess at what time Marc Antoine will want to be served.” (Lifetime of Antonius 28, 2-4.)
Plutarch additionally describes a chain of fairs “with the sound of flutes and lyres” that disturbed the palate. Every now and then Cleopatra and Mark Antony pop out of the palace, disguised as servants. They’ll have a laugh within the taverns and cabarets of the Port of Alexandria.
Cleopatra’s Dance by means of Linda Crystal, 1959.
This theme will likely be addressed within the 1959 movie Cleopatra’s Legion by means of Italian director Vittorio Cotafavi. Cleopatra clothes up as an oriental dancer sooner than leaving her royal place of abode for a birthday party at a well-liked tavern she likes. Performed by means of actress Linda Crystal, the queen plays a abdominal dance that pulls the eye of a virtually solely male target market. Thru this scene, historical Egypt and the fashionable Arab Orient merge into a novel delusion.
The yearly union of the goddess Hathor and the god Horus
To higher perceive Cleopatra’s fairs, we will have to position them within the Egyptian devout context of the queen’s time. Some of the nice annual vacations is then that of the union between the goddess Hathor and the god Horus. Hathor is the goddess of fertility, sexuality and pleasure. She used to be worshiped at Dendera, in Higher Egypt, the place there’s a nice temple, whose paintings Cleopatra persisted all over her reign, which were begun by means of her father, King Ptolemy XII.
The competition of Hathor is held once a year, starting in past due Might and June, simply sooner than the Nile floods. The statue of the goddess used to be got rid of from her shrine and put on a ship that sailed down the Nile to Edfu, 160 kilometers to the south. Right here is a big temple devoted to the god Horus. Hathor supposed to make a symbolic seek advice from to the god.
Boats Hathor and Horus. Bas-relief from the internal courtyard of the Temple of Horus at Edfu. : CG Schwentzel, Equipped by means of writer
Consistent with legend, Horus additionally embarks and can meet the goddess north of Edfu. Their two boats are then tied along with ropes they usually sail in combination to the temple wharf, as noticed within the bas-relief engraved within the internal courtyard of the temple.
The adventure of the divine statues brought about a lot pleasure. Devotees waited at the platform to witness the arriving of the divine couple. It used to be an intense festive second. At the bas-relief of the temple, we see the priestesses of the goddess shaking sistrums, this is, steel rattles, to rejoice the arriving of the procession.
Hathor spent fourteen days within the sanctuary, along side Horus. The 2 deities united to create a son named Charsomtous, because of this “Horus the unifier of the two lands”.
The goddess then re-embarked. She used to be ready to move house as a result of she had finished her annual birthing venture. The go back came about in mid-June. This corresponded to the start of the flood duration of the Nile which the goddess symbolically introduced along with her, crusing north.
Cleopatra, the brand new Hathor
Cleopatra clearly knew about this nice birthday celebration. She can even have participated in it, having long past up the Nile in her opulent send to Dendera after which to Edfu.
When she is going to satisfy Mark Antony at Tarsus, she reproduces a development related to the once a year navigation competition at Hathor. She is a goddess who is going on her send to satisfy the god with whom she will have to unite so as to have a kid and make sure the happiness of her kingdom. That is the that means of the “holy marriage” she proposed to Mark Antony.
As Mark Antony spoke in Greek all through his excursion of the East, the queen tailored the mentioned deities to the language of her lover. She is Aphrodite, the Greek similar of Hathor. So far as he’s involved, he’s his Dionysus, a highly regarded god within the Hellenic international and whom, additionally, Mark Antony used to be in particular keen on.
The truth of Cleopatra’s fairs is thus very other from the image of debauchery and natural seduction that Plutarch inspires. Cleopatra imagines a complete political-religious and ceremonial program, impressed by means of the Egyptian fairs of Hathor. Because of the divine qualities that she places on the carrier of the folks of the East, and in shut cooperation with Mark Antony, she confirms that the arena has entered a brand new duration of peace, prosperity and pleasure, beneath divine blessing. For Cleopatra, the competition is an software of political and non secular confirmation.
Christian-Georges Schwentzel will hang a convention on the Institute for the Arab International (IMA), in Paris, at the Cleopatra Gala’s, on March 28, 2026, as a part of the IMA Historical past Day devoted to “Popular Festivals and Emotions in the Arab World”.
