Cleopatra’s true face?
Image by mharrsch via Flickr
The world seems to have this pervading fascination with Cleopatra’s beauty, but how did she really look like?
Using images from ancient artefacts including a ring dating from Cleopatra’s reign 2,000 years ago, Cambridge University’s Sally Ann Ashton has pieced together an entirely different image that shows her as a mixed race beauty.
The three-dimensional, computer generated portrait bears little resemblance to the pale-skinned, heavily made-up versions created by Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor in their 1954 and 1961 films.
Ashton developed her image of the monarch - who came to power at the tender age of 18 - by looking at her Greek heritage as well as her Egyptian upbringing.
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Book: Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt
by Joyce Tyldesley
A new biography of the Macedonian ruler attempts to debunk many myths surrounding her legacy. Egyptologist Tyldesley (Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered, 2006, etc.) digs deeply into Cleopatra’s life, piecing together a unique portrait of her successes and failures.
Many biographers focus too much on Cleopatra’s reputation as a temptress, but Tyldesley gamely analyzes her politically astute nature at work against the backdrop of the bloody, brutal times in which she operated. In chronological fashion, the author covers the major historical issues surrounding Cleopatra, but she wisely avoids lingering too long on well-traveled ground. Tyldesley examines many of the burning questions that continue to puzzle historians - Was she black? Did she marry her brother? Was she beautiful or ugly? - and that have helped create such a beguiling picture of the queen.
