Cleopatra
Cleopatra

Words draw their meanings from the social & cultural contexts of their utterance.

cleopatra coin

In a recent TV program*1* about the life and times of Cleopatra, a group of academics and Egyptologists propose that Cleopatra (the last pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt) was probably hook-nosed and physically unattractive.

As proof of this they show a coin minted during her reign which depicts her with a projecting, hooked nose.

Such a conclusion can only be reached by ignoring the social and cultural context in which the coin was produced.

 

Imagine life in Egypt in 40 B.C.

drawing of Horus
  • Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 305 B.C and installed a Macedonian ruling dynasty — the Ptolemies.
     
  • Cleopatra was the last Ptolemaic pharoah and the first to learn to speak Egyptian.
     
  • Writing in Greek or hieroglyphs was restricted to a select group of priests, academics and the upper middle class (merchants etc.).
     
  • The common person did not read or write — they didn't have books or write letters.
     
  • The Egyptian people had believed (for millennia) that the pharaoh was the incarnation of Horus, the hawk-headed god of the sun.
     
  • The common person was familiar with the image of Horus from statues and hieroglyphs on temple walls and monuments.
     
  • About the only document a common person ever saw was the coinage of the realm.
statue of Horus

The Ptolemies maintained control of Egypt for 250 years. Their own pantheistic religious system was not incompatible with the Egyptian pantheon and Egyptians were allowed to worship their traditional gods alongside those of the Greeks.

Respect for Egyptian beliefs is shown in the imagery used on the coins of the realm. Look at these images:

Below is an image of a coin issued by Ptolemy I Soter — the first Ptolemaic pharoah.
Ptolemy I Soter coin

Here is an image on a coin issued in Cleopatra's reign.
Cleopatra coin

This coin shows Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
Cleopatra Mark Antony coin
statue of Horus

The Ptolemies maintained control of Egypt for 250 years. Their own pantheistic religious system was not incompatible with the Egyptian pantheon and Egyptians were allowed to worship their traditional gods alongside those of the Greeks.

Respect for Egyptian beliefs is shown in the imagery used on the coins of the realm. Look at these images:

Here is an image on a coin issued by Ptolemy I Soter — the first Ptolemaic pharoah.

 Ptolemy I Soter coin
Cleopatra coin

Here is the image on a coin issued in Cleopatra's reign.

This coin shows Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

 Cleaopatr Mark Antony coin

It seems obvious to me that a deliberate attempt has been made to make the images of Cleopatra (and Mark Antony) resemble that of the Hawk-headed god Horus, asserting the notion that the Ptolemies were the rightful rulers of Egypt.

That a group of academics and Egyptologists believe that the sole purpose and ‘reading’ of a head profile on an ancient coin was an attempt at an iconic representation, is a misunderstanding of the coin as a ‘document’, ignoring the fact that the contents of a document draw much of their meaning from the social, cultural and political environment existing at the time the document was created.

 

 

Footnotes

1. A program on ‘Cleopatra’ on SBS. © 2016 MTV Networks Europe (Season 1 Episode1). A Channel 5 Production for Viacom International Media Networks. Maria Wyke University College London. Joyce Tyldesley University of Manchester. Charlotte Booth Egyptologist. Robert Bianchi Egyptologist. Adrian Goldsworthy Historian. Chris Naunton Egyptologist. Back