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Is Hollywood White Washing Cleopatra? Lady Gaga & Angelina Jolie allegedly in talks for role.

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  1. cleopatra says:

    This is such an embarrassing article. Cleopatra was Greek and I suggest you get used to it. You also have little idea about Ptolemaic views of Egyptians – they were legally segregated in Cleopatra’s capital, intermarriage was illegal (there is no evidence of Ptolemaic royals intermarrying Egyptians), and Cleopatra herself only placed Greeks in high level positions. Cleopatra considered herself Greek, this is irrefutable – and how medieval and post art is “proof” of Cleo as biracial is something else; these same painting portray her as a naked or semi-naked slut and Cleopatra was actually chaste (with only 2 lovers). Jolie and Gaga are terrible choices, but so is a non-Greek actress (in fact, Cleo had a little Persian blood, so a Persian actress would be cool too. A black actress is by and far historically INCORRECT).

    “Though queen of Egypt, she possessed not a drop of Egyptian blood in her veins. The last ruler of the dynasty of the Ptolemies, she was of wholly Greek upbringing, and to a very considerable extent of Greek race. She was consumed with perpetual ambition to revive the former glories of her Greek kingdom and house… Cleopatra VII would have described herself as Greek. Whatever the racial ingredients of her Macedonian ancestors, her language, like theirs (though they had spoken a dialect), was Greek, and so was her whole education and culture.”

    Cleopatra: A Biography – Michael Grant (her mother was most likely Cleopatra V)

    “Greek was her first language, and in Greek literature and culture she was educated. Although representing on Egyptian temples and some statuary in the traditional headgear and robes of the pharaohs’ wives, it was unlikely she actually dressed this way save perhaps occasionally to perform certain rites. Instead she wore the headband and robes of a Greek monarch. Cleopatra proclaimed herself the ‘New Isis’, and yet her worship of the goddess betrayed a strongly Hellenised version of the cult. She was no more Egyptian culturally or ethnically than most residents of modern day Arizona are Apaches…The Ptolemies were Macedonians, with an admixture of a little Greek and via marriage with the Seleucids a small element of Syrian blood…Cleopatra may have had black, brown, blonde, or even red hair, and her eyes could have been brown, grey, green or blue. Almost any combination of these is possible. Similarly, she may have been very light skinned or had a darker more Mediterranean complexion. Fairer skin is probably marginally more likely given her ancestry.”

    Antony and Cleopatra – Adrian Goldsworthy

    “Cleopatra VII was born to Ptolemy XII Auletes (80–57 BC, ruled 55–51 BC) and Cleopatra, both parents being Macedonian Greeks.”

    The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt

    “The Ptolemies were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra approximately as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor…While there were fair haired, fair skinned Ptolemies, Cleopatra VII was most likely not among them. It is difficult to believe that the world could have nattered on about ‘that Egyptian woman’ had she been blonde. The word ‘honey skinned’ recurs in descriptions of her relatives and would presumably have applied to hers as well, despite the inexactitudes surrounding her mother and paternal grandmother. There was certainly Persian blood in the family, but even an Egyptian mistress is a rarity among the Ptolemies. She was not dark skinned.”

    Cleopatra, A Life – Stacy Schiff

    “Cleopatra (69- 30 BC), the Greek queen of Egypt, belonged to the Ptolemaic family, the Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic Age.”

    Western civilization: ideas, Politics, and society – Marvin Perry, Margaret C Jacob, Myrna Chase, James R Jacob

    “Well she descends from one of the generals of Alexander the Great who are Greek Macedonians. So there is no question there that she comes from a line of Greeks. It gets a little bit more certain because they tend to…they intermarried. The 13 or 14 marriages in her dynasty, ten of them were brother-sister marriages. So there’s really no foreign blood whatsoever in this dynasty, they are truly Greek Macedonian to the hilt. There may have been a Persian princess who slipped in there somewhere, but otherwise you’re really talking about a woman who was as Greek in terms of ethnicity, in terms of culture, in terms of education, as you could be in that world.”

    Stacy Schiff (Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Cleopatra: A Life”)

    “Daughter of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, Cleopatra was destined to become the last queen of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and its annexation by Rome in 30 BCE. The line had been founded by Alexander’s general Ptolemy, who became King Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent and had little, if any, Egyptian blood, although the Classical author Plutarch wrote that she alone of her house took the trouble to learn Egyptian and, for political reasons, styled herself as the new Isis, a title that distinguished her from the earlier Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra III, who had also claimed to be the living embodiment of the goddess Isis.”

    Joyce Tyldesley (author of “Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt”) for Encyclopedia Britannica Academic

  2. Fred Lewis says:

    Btw, the Romans didn’t go around breaking the noses of Egyptian sculptures to ‘erase black legacy’ – it was done by egyptians themselves to erase a statue’s life force.

    Also… it’s very much up for debate as to whether ancient egyptians were actually black or not.

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