Cleopatra: Myth, History, and the Politics of Legacy

History, Myth, and the Making of Historical Figures

Figures of legend in history often take on proportions that may be less a reflection of the actual characteristics of these storied individuals than a reflection of the purposes of history's authors. The icons who ruled over their people and the groundbreakers who stand out as nexus points in human evolution are remembered by more than just their factual legacies. Beyond that, they are recalled with pointed romanticism or intentional vilification — subjects of debate, adoration, art, literature, and popular culture, their images shaped by the needs of the venue, the interests of the historian, or the desires of liberal artistry. Such is to say that history is a sort of self-reflexive mythology, and that its figures, rather than serving as eminent examples of quality personage, "are better suited to inform, and give us juster Notions of Ourselves, as they are Originals, and present the Eye with the prospect of Human Nature, taken from Life, and not extended beyond the Limits of Credibility and Truth" (Gadeken, 2). Thus, in our legends there is rarely one biographical perspective that can be assessed as truly factual. Even the most familiar characters in our collective history are more amalgams of image, superficial detail, and speculation — much like the celebrities of the present day whom we profess to know.

When one considers the history of a prominent woman, an even greater alertness to an opportunistic subjectivity in historiographical perspective must be employed. Multiple histories on one subject are usually the result of cultural, political, and ideological perspective. The stories that survive the obscuring of passing time are most often those told by the victor and, moreover, these stories are reshaped as they age according to the evolving purposes of their maintenance. With regard to the treatment of women in historiographical review, it is often synonymous with the actual treatment of women throughout history. More often than not, prominent feminine historical icons have been those who exist in our annals in spite of prevailing sociological trends toward a patriarchal order. This standard may either play a substantial role in the notoriety of the figure — with her exploits against the conventional view of women drawn explicitly in her story — or it may exist in subtextual premises that have come to define her legend. The latter of these two cases is that which divides historians on the characterization of Cleopatra.

While she is perhaps the first and most famous female celebrity in history, already a legend of literature by the start of the Common Era, her status as a historical person is hardly a matter of recorded fact. Hers is an image drawn for us by Elizabeth Taylor in celluloid, William Shakespeare in theatricality, and stoic ancient sculptures — inanimate features housed in the British Museum. In each of these venues, a bias accompanies the perspective expressed, with the gaps in Cleopatra's known history filled in by the pretenses of the auteur. There is, as a result, a sprawling dichotomy in the figure of Cleopatra. A strong female ruler driven to the expansion of power and the reclamation of her birthright, her behavior, demeanor, and purpose have been depicted in contradictory modes: on one hand, an exemplar of the earliest feminist potential of powerful women, and on the other, a deceitful temptress who used her womanly charms to exploit the weaknesses of men. These two versions of Cleopatra are the products of two decidedly divergent purposes. Due to inbuilt societal impulses that favored perpetuation of the latter depiction, it is that version which has been most actively preserved. Though there are surviving views of Cleopatra — especially in Egyptian history and feminist scholarship — as an important and effective leader, with certain aspects of global history affirming such ideas, they are often pushed to the periphery of a characterization more consistent with arguably misogynistic depictions in literature.