Cleopatra

Roller's biography on Cleopatra opens, “Few personalities from classical antiquity are more familiar yet more poorly grasped than Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt.”1 This is by far the best statement to describe how Cleopatra has been displayed in culture and most recently by the film industry. The personality of Cleopatra has changed throughout film from the childlike portrayal played by Vivien Liegh to the seductress played by Leonor Varela. Cleopatra's transformation in film is the product of a male driven society and how the bias of historical sources can be used to distort the truth and create an image that does not accurately describe the personality and character of a historical figure. History has been documented by men and since it

Plutarch's description of Cleopatra in Mark Antony states: For her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behavior towards others, had something stimulating about it. There was sweetness also in the tones of her voice; and her tongue, like an instrument of many strings, she could readily turn to whatever language she

The use of sex as a political tool is most likely not for from the truth but it was not as one sided as the Romans paint it out to be. Cleopatra's liaisons with Caesar and Antony were as beneficial to them as it was to Cleopatra and to paint her as the vixen that destroyed their lives does a disservice to the political environment that these men both found themselves in. Cleopatra needed heirs and both of these men needed the wealth and resources that Egypt could provide them. Cleopatra's ambition to enlarge her empire was as advantageous to her as it was to Antony so to proclaim that she was influencing him does not take into account the reality that Antony found himself in. Cleopatra may have always been associated with a man but her ability to maneuver in a male driven world and have her story told and retold throughout history shows how remarkable of a women she truly