I've read several biographies/papers/studies about Cleopatra, and in all them she is described as being Greek, fair skin
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themightyperm — 14 years ago(August 18, 2011 11:10 PM)
the ancient egyptians were ancient egyptian, people didnt have much of a concept of race back then. Egypt is in the both in the Mediterranean and the top of Africa, so people were going to be pretty mixed. You know who looks like Cleopatera does on her coins? Tia and Tamera, their half black half white.
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Seliny19 — 14 years ago(May 16, 2011 07:24 PM)
I think it's more amusing that both black and white people on this board are so desperate to claim a woman who seriously did nothing but open up her legs and screwed a guy twice her age, got knocked up, lusted after the throne, ran right to the next powerful penis in line AKA Mark Antony, got knocked up again, Antony killed himself, and poor poor Cleopatra kills herself because her loverboy died -_____-
I mean if you were all furiously and pathetically trying to claim ancestory and racial bragging rights like school yard children over a STRONG, INDEPENDENT, INTELLIGENT, and USEFUL woman why not claw over Nefertiti, heck even the first Queen Elizabeth. Now THOSE are women who were smart rulers that didn't have to roll themselves up in a freaking carpet to seduce some 50 year old guy. Literally try to look up exactly WHY she is SOOO important to history and you won't find anything good. There is actually very little history on WHY she is important. The ONLY reason she was imporant was because her rule of the Egyptian throne ened in failure, the fall of Egypt, she was the last of the Ptolemies to rule, and her miserable, dumbfounded reign ended in Egypt being conquered and absorbed by the Roman Empire. Might I say EPIC FAIL?! A life mired in failures and beep of drama. That's the only reason why people find her so interesting. DRAMA. And and being a babe apparently. Yea she spoke 9 languages apparently5b4 and was well read. YAWN.
What about Nefertiti, Indira Gandhi, Joan of Arc, Mother Teresa(I don't see huge motion pictures being made about a woman who beep devoted her ENTIRE life to halping sick and dying people)heck even Shirley Ann Jackson. Anyone know who Shirley Ann Jackson was? One of the most INTELLIGENT and I mean freakishly intelligent African American woman to have graced this planet. Look her up if you don't know her. She was the precusor for women who lead in science today. Huge pioneer in physics for women and was the very first African American female to earn a DOCTORATE from MIT. Now why don't the women mentioned above ever get movies made about them or have furious race obsessed losers aruguing over bragging rights on message boards? Because they had no DRAMA in their life, led pretty modest boring lives, changed the world and helped millions of people, kept a low profile, didn't have to open their legs to get their way, and weren't exactly beautiful. You could argue that Nefertiti was beautiful which she was but she supposedly wasn't on the level of good ol Cleopatra. But hey Nefertiti was a radical ruler who iverturned thousands of years of polytheism into Monotheism but hey no one cares about that >_>
Cleopatra is what a modern day Housewife of Atlanta is or whatever those disgusting shows are called. Didn't do much and worshipped by the masses because people love to wonder and revel in th5b4at sappy romance beep that doesn't matter. Shame on any of the women on here from any race for giving Cleopatra the time of day and acting as if she was revolutionary and important to History. Compared to the small handful of women I've mentioned Cleopatra turns to beep when compared to THEIR importance to humanity and their impact on history. So why is NO ONE interested in them or obsess over them so much? The most AMUSING part? If none of you believe me or want to argue about how OMIGOSH important Cleopatra was to history as a woman look at ALLLLLL the threads on the Cleopatra board, here, and elsewhere. Not a single thread dedicated to discuss about her influence as a queen or her historical importance. Why? Because everyone knows she wasn't important and the only thing people can tote around about her is her skin color and beauty?
Cleopatra was too beautiful so there's no way she could be black you gross blackies! Quit claiming her as yours and take your supposed inferiority complexes elsewhere whilst we revel in the importance of a woman who did nothing and led her kingdom to ruin because her skin color is the most important haha!
No way crackas! She was black cause she was beautiful so hands off she's ours!! Quit claming her as yours and take your egomaniacal superiority complexes elswhere whilst we revel in the importance of a woman who did nothing and led her kingdom to ruin because her skin color is the m2000ost important haha!
REALLY? That should PROVE how pathetic all of these arguments are and how you're all wasting your time over a woman you see as not even a person but just some racial trophy to use against each other. Sad. Very sad. It also shows exactly how shallow you all are too. Arguing THIS MUCH to desperately claim her as yours is truly pathetic. At the end of the day most of your who are trying to claim her have absolutely NO TIES to her ancestory. Her family was so obsessed with their own lineage that they inbreeded. Blacks trying to claim her most likely had ancestors they could trace back to West African heritage who were brought over as slaves. Egypt was in North Africa -
ShanaLD — 14 years ago(June 09, 2011 09:26 PM)
She did accomplish more than just getting knocked up. And you should also know that part of going for Caesar and Antony was to protect Egypt's sovereignty because at the time women were not allowed to rule without a male consort. She killed herself to avoid being killed by the Romans, common thing at the time to avoid being paraded around as something that has been conquered. You do realize that most of the "she was just a whore" stuff was perpetuated mostly by the Romans who defeated her in war? Common tactic especially when it comes to female rulers.
Just because someone makes a movie about Cleopatra doesn't mean that a movie could not be made of any of the women you mentioned. That would be like me complaining about Robert Serber having more biographies than Percy Julian.
And Indira Ghandi was a corrupt politician that certainly does not deserve any admiration for more than being the longest serving female prime minister.
Also Mother Theresa has her own share of things to be critical of. -
Jane_Claire — 14 years ago(July 03, 2011 08:27 PM)
'You do realize that most of the "she was just a whore" stuff was perpetuated mostly by the Romans who defeated her in war? Common tactic especially when it comes to female rulers. '
SO common. Ever heard of Lucrezia Borgia? -
archer1812 — 14 years ago(August 09, 2011 10:33 AM)
-Ancient Egyptians were not black, though there were blacks in ancient Egypt, mostly Nubians.
-Cleopatra wasn't an ethnic Egyptian (even if she was, she still wouldn't been black), she was from the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which means that she was ethnically Greek. -
jpat99 — 14 years ago(August 27, 2011 01:30 AM)
It is an example of one group of people invading and replacing another group people.(The Americas, Egypt). And when people debate about who is Black, or who is mixed, it always sounds silly to people who know that most Black Americans are mixed, and come in alf4l shades.
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archer1812 — 14 years ago(August 27, 2011 02:00 PM)
When it comes to "invading and replacing" in the Americas.. the only ones who were invaded and replaced were the native Americans (Amerindians), not the whites or blacks.
Anyway is apples and oranges, since both situations were different.. The Greeks didn't replace the Egyptians The Ptolemaic dynasty replaced the ruling class of Egypt which is a different matter. And generally, they didn't mix with the locals. And certainly not the ruling family who went as far as making it tradition to marry between siblings.
I'm still not sure what you're getting at.. Is your assertion that Cleopatra wasn't Greek? -
QinetiQ — 13 years ago(December 08, 2012 02:52 AM)
Yep,her beauty grew with the legend. She was probably just smart and manipulative.
As for being black or white, in general hollywood gives what is expected by the mass, and in this case people expect a 'white' cleo, since thats how they imagine her. -
Sally1829 — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 10:37 PM)
True, her contemporaries described her as not particularly beautiful, but so clever and charming that she became enticing.
I still think that girl from HBO's Rome nailed the Cleopatra role. (http://www.imdb.com/board/21203457/)