She was the legendary queen of Egypt who seduced two of the most powerful men in the ancient world.
But a silver coin that went on display at a British university yesterday suggests Cleopatra's beauty may be Hollywood fiction.
On one side the coin shows the Egyptian ruler with a shallow forehead, long nose, narrow lips, and a sharply pointed chin (at left above). On the other, her longtime lover, the powerful Roman general and politician Mark Antony, is depicted with a large hooked nose and thick neck (right).
The unflattering images suggest that fictional accounts—from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra to the HBO TV series Rome—overplay the attractiveness of the doomed couple.
"The image on the coin is far from being that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton," said Lindsay Allason-Jones, director of archaeological museums at Newcastle University, in a statement.
"Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic, and that she had a seductive voice but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty. The image of Cleopatra as a beautiful seductress is a more recent image."
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2 comments:
In this era, It's surprising to many that a man would spend time with an ugly woman (or vice versa).
It wasn't always so. It still isn't an ironclad rule. Go to the mall and check out some of the couples.
After all, I never had a man ask me for a piece of face.
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