Source
r/todayilearned•
Mrschan

TIL: Cleopatra was not Egyptian. She was a Macedonian

So I was just sitting around reading wikipedia articles about history and I found this:

Cleopatra VII Philopator (in Greek, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ; (Late 69 BC[1] – August 12, 30 BC) was the last person to rule Egypt as an Egyptian pharaoh – after her death Egypt became a Roman province.

She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and therefore was a descendant of one of Alexander the Great's generals who had seized control over Egypt after Alexander's death

Here's a painting of what she looked like (NSFW if you work at the Vatican).

I always assumed she was Egyptian. Guess she was a white lady :)

Posted Aug 22, 2010, 10:58 AM UTC

812
railstay•

  1. Western artists also depicted The Three Wisemen as looking like contemporary monarchs. When Westerners drew Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun and Tamerlane, all Asian conquerors, they also drew them as white men. Don't put much stock in paintings by European artists, the great majority of whom had never even stepped foot into the Middle East, in being racially accurate.

  2. However, the racial depiction is probably true simply by chance. The Cleopatras trace their ancestries back to the conquests of Alexander (the name is very obviously Greek, meaning "father's glory"), but they also adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying within the family (typically brother-sister) in order to minimize power struggles within the dynasty.

5
MrschanOP•

Agreed. I wasn't posting the picture for accuracy, but rather because it was a more fitting depiction of her than most of the images I've seen in the past.

Cleopatra's entire lineage is documented. There could be an Egyptian in there some where, but I'm not going to do a big investigation. It does look like they married within the family most of the time, as you said, so I'm guessing it's going to be fairly pure Macedonian.

1
yumpizza•

Yeah she was definitely not Egyptian. She was a Greek noble.

5
Supersnazz•

Yes, although she could actually speak the language of the Egyptians, which was a first, as her predecessors never bothered to learn the language of their subjects.

3
dirk_anger•

Nice European painting of some local chicks the artist could afford to pay .

Next thing you'll be telling us that Jesus wasn't black.

3
MrschanOP•

Jesus was actually Chinese. It was Jesus Hong....has no idea where they got Christ.

Anyway, of course that's not a picture of her. I just couldn't find a good color photograph :P

The point I was trying to make is she was a Greek woman, not an Egyptian woman. That painting is more accurate to what she looked like than say this.

I found it interesting. That is all.

1
dirk_anger•

That would explain why he talked like a buddhist and did that wushu running on water thing

1
MrschanOP•

Exactly! All Chinese people can. Just like they all turn into tigers at midnight.

1
dirk_anger•

Just like Manimal!!

1
xenofon•

Medical analysis of actual remains of members of the Ptolemaic dynasty (to which Cleopatra belonged):

A number of the Ptolemaic dynasty are described as being extremely obese, whilst sculptures and coins reveal prominent eyes and swollen necks. Familial Graves' disease could explain the swollen necks and eye prominence (exophthalmos), although this is unlikely to occur in the presence of morbid obesity.

In view of the familial nature of these findings, members of this dynasty likely suffered from a multi-organ fibrotic condition such as Erdheim–Chester disease or a familial multifocal fibrosclerosis where thyroiditis, obesity and ocular proptosis may have all occurred concurrently.

1
Grammar_Buddy•

Here is a larger version of the painting if anybody cares. If you look through Cagnacci's body of work, it becomes pretty obvious he liked boobies.

3
tribes•

Upboob

1