Cleopatra VII Pharaoh of Egypt, as the Goddes Isis.
Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt and a descendant of one of Alexander the Great's generals who seized control over Egypt after Alexander's death. Cleopatra, like most Ptolemies, spoke Greek but her predecessors refused to learn Egyptian, which is the reason that Greek as well as Egyptian languages were used on official court documents like the Rosetta Stone. But Cleopatra learned Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, worshipped as the ideal mother and wife, as well as mistress of nature magic and fertility. As pharaoh, she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar solidifying her grip on the throne. She later elevated her son by Caesar, Caesarion, to co-ruler in name. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesar's legal heir, Octavianus (later known as Augustus). After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian's forces, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, according to tradition killing herself by means of an asp bite on August 12, 30 BC.
In Antony & Cleopatra Shakespeare displays Cleopatra as the ultimate in feminine potentiality, almost the goddess she claimed to be as in the image: "she/ In the habiliments of the goddess Isis/ That day appear'd."(III.vi.16-8) She is shown to be witty, attractive, volatile, and powerful - she aimed to become the empress of the eastern Mediterranean. Shakespeare seeks to show her in a wide diversity of roles so that his play is not merely a tragedy but a blend of every aspect of human life, as Cinthio claimed tragicomedy should be (see the essays accompanying Bibliographies for During and After Shakespeare and after the single-play entry for the play). The role of Cleopatra is the longest female part in any Shakespeare play (approximately 686 lines). So extraordinary a role is very difficult to play as many actresses have found, though in Shakespeare's time the role was played by a boy, as he himself describes in Cleopatra's prophecy:
The quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us and present
Our Alexandrian revels; Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some sweaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
I'the posture of a whore. (V.11. 216-21)
Statue in basalt, second half of the first century BC. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.Picture, by George Shuklin, and data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia)
