Roger Bagnall and Jean Bingen (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
The nineteen chapters of this book cover a wide variety of topics concerned with the Macedonian monarchy of the Ptolemies, which ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great until the Roman empire, and ...
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The nineteen chapters of this book cover a wide variety of topics concerned with the Macedonian monarchy of the Ptolemies, which ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great until the Roman empire, and which rested on military control based on a Greek and Macedonian military force settled on the land. The first five chapters examine ways in which Ptolemy I, Ptolemy III, and Cleopatra VII sought political legitimacy and support in this multicultural society. The next section looks at the Greek experience in Egypt, as settlers on the land, as members of specific ethnic groups, and as creators of an urban milieu in which they could feel at home. The third part treats the complex economic life of Ptolemaic Egypt, with its tension between the king's need for revenue and the Greeks' desire to enrich themselves in their new home and in particular to acquire some of Egypt's rich grainland, not only to work as soldiers or bureaucrats. The resulting interactions between Greeks and Egyptians occupy the final section. Throughout the case-studies that make up this book, the author stresses the internal stresses and fractures of this colonial society, with multiple groups of actors having conflicting interests but needing to cooperate for any of them to succeed.Less
The nineteen chapters of this book cover a wide variety of topics concerned with the Macedonian monarchy of the Ptolemies, which ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great until the Roman empire, and which rested on military control based on a Greek and Macedonian military force settled on the land. The first five chapters examine ways in which Ptolemy I, Ptolemy III, and Cleopatra VII sought political legitimacy and support in this multicultural society. The next section looks at the Greek experience in Egypt, as settlers on the land, as members of specific ethnic groups, and as creators of an urban milieu in which they could feel at home. The third part treats the complex economic life of Ptolemaic Egypt, with its tension between the king's need for revenue and the Greeks' desire to enrich themselves in their new home and in particular to acquire some of Egypt's rich grainland, not only to work as soldiers or bureaucrats. The resulting interactions between Greeks and Egyptians occupy the final section. Throughout the case-studies that make up this book, the author stresses the internal stresses and fractures of this colonial society, with multiple groups of actors having conflicting interests but needing to cooperate for any of them to succeed.
Philip Lambert
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195390070
- eISBN:
- 9780199863570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390070.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Popular
This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman ...
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This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman Yellen. Despite a difficult development process plagued by tension within the creative team, the musical played for more than a year on Broadway after it opened in 1970. It was in part a revisiting of issues of Jewish culture and identity that the team had previously addressed in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), although the contrasts between the world of a family of wealthy bankers and that of a poor dairyman and his wife and daughters could not be more pronounced. This chapter also considers other projects Bock and Harnick collaborated on in the late 1960s, including an ill-fated attempt to create a musical with playwright John Arden based on the life of Lord Nelson, and a minor contribution to a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.Less
This chapter presents an overview and critical interpretation of the last show that Bock and Harnick brought to Broadway, The Rothschilds, based on a book by Frederic Morton and adapted by Sherman Yellen. Despite a difficult development process plagued by tension within the creative team, the musical played for more than a year on Broadway after it opened in 1970. It was in part a revisiting of issues of Jewish culture and identity that the team had previously addressed in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), although the contrasts between the world of a family of wealthy bankers and that of a poor dairyman and his wife and daughters could not be more pronounced. This chapter also considers other projects Bock and Harnick collaborated on in the late 1960s, including an ill-fated attempt to create a musical with playwright John Arden based on the life of Lord Nelson, and a minor contribution to a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter studies Virgil's treatment of the intertwined and interdependent themes of foreign conquest and civil war at Rome, showing how the contrast suggested by the Aeneid's architecture—books ...
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This chapter studies Virgil's treatment of the intertwined and interdependent themes of foreign conquest and civil war at Rome, showing how the contrast suggested by the Aeneid's architecture—books 1–4 on wars that look foreign, balanced by books 9–12 on wars that look civil—proves impossible to sustain. Foreign and internal enemies are inextricable in the more complicated perspective articulated in book 6, for example, and Pyrrhus is simultaneously the mythical son of Achilles and the historical king of Epirus as well as an avatar of Cleopatra. In the Aeneid's recursive view of Roman history, vanquished foreign enemies show a tendency to return as internal ones.Less
This chapter studies Virgil's treatment of the intertwined and interdependent themes of foreign conquest and civil war at Rome, showing how the contrast suggested by the Aeneid's architecture—books 1–4 on wars that look foreign, balanced by books 9–12 on wars that look civil—proves impossible to sustain. Foreign and internal enemies are inextricable in the more complicated perspective articulated in book 6, for example, and Pyrrhus is simultaneously the mythical son of Achilles and the historical king of Epirus as well as an avatar of Cleopatra. In the Aeneid's recursive view of Roman history, vanquished foreign enemies show a tendency to return as internal ones.
Andrew Feldherr
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter shows what can be done with civil war's painful and divisive legacy in a lyric poem. In brief, lyric holds out the promise of remediation, and Horace's Cleopatra ode (1.37), particularly ...
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This chapter shows what can be done with civil war's painful and divisive legacy in a lyric poem. In brief, lyric holds out the promise of remediation, and Horace's Cleopatra ode (1.37), particularly in its exploitation of Dionysiac elements, offers a glimpse of community restored. With this examination of the productive engagement between an innovative poetic genre and the recent Roman experience of civil war, the chapter illustrates how poetry can shape society.Less
This chapter shows what can be done with civil war's painful and divisive legacy in a lyric poem. In brief, lyric holds out the promise of remediation, and Horace's Cleopatra ode (1.37), particularly in its exploitation of Dionysiac elements, offers a glimpse of community restored. With this examination of the productive engagement between an innovative poetic genre and the recent Roman experience of civil war, the chapter illustrates how poetry can shape society.
Denis Feeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195389579
- eISBN:
- 9780199866496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389579.003.0018
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter argues that Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, combines a novel perspective on what was at stake in Rome just after Caesar's assassination with an ability to shape civil war into the ...
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This chapter argues that Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, combines a novel perspective on what was at stake in Rome just after Caesar's assassination with an ability to shape civil war into the austerely satisfying trope of number play. Shakespeare's perspective on Roman history, Feeney shows, is not hampered by the Romans' own (Augustan and later) teleology: he presents the history of the Republic as highly contingent.Less
This chapter argues that Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, combines a novel perspective on what was at stake in Rome just after Caesar's assassination with an ability to shape civil war into the austerely satisfying trope of number play. Shakespeare's perspective on Roman history, Feeney shows, is not hampered by the Romans' own (Augustan and later) teleology: he presents the history of the Republic as highly contingent.
Jean Bingen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Picking up the themes of chapters 3 and 4, this chapter looks at Cleopatra not in terms of the Roman depiction of her but in the context of the (often murderous) dynastic politics of the Ptolemaic ...
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Picking up the themes of chapters 3 and 4, this chapter looks at Cleopatra not in terms of the Roman depiction of her but in the context of the (often murderous) dynastic politics of the Ptolemaic monarchy. In this light, Cleopatra can be seen as trying to revive the fortunes of this kingdom even in a world dominated by Rome. After the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra faced repeated threats to her rule, particularly to her sole rule. Cleopatra used her son Ptolemy XV, said to be Caesar's son, as a visible male co-regent despite his young age. The adoption of the phrase “younger goddess” in her titulature is traced to evoking the Ptolemaic princess Cleopatra Thea who was queen of Syria as the wife of three successive Seleucid kings.Less
Picking up the themes of chapters 3 and 4, this chapter looks at Cleopatra not in terms of the Roman depiction of her but in the context of the (often murderous) dynastic politics of the Ptolemaic monarchy. In this light, Cleopatra can be seen as trying to revive the fortunes of this kingdom even in a world dominated by Rome. After the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra faced repeated threats to her rule, particularly to her sole rule. Cleopatra used her son Ptolemy XV, said to be Caesar's son, as a visible male co-regent despite his young age. The adoption of the phrase “younger goddess” in her titulature is traced to evoking the Ptolemaic princess Cleopatra Thea who was queen of Syria as the wife of three successive Seleucid kings.
Inna Naroditskaya
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195340587
- eISBN:
- 9780199918218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340587.003.0100
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The phantasmagorical opera-ballet Mlada (1892) features a khorovod (circle-dance) of feminine royals: Mlada, the silent dancing shadow of a deceased princess-bride and her rival Voislava, a pagan ...
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The phantasmagorical opera-ballet Mlada (1892) features a khorovod (circle-dance) of feminine royals: Mlada, the silent dancing shadow of a deceased princess-bride and her rival Voislava, a pagan princess; Morena, a powerful water sorceress and spirit of death, and the goddess Lada. The circle, completed by Cleopatra, eclipses the central male character Yaromir. Confused disoriented, lost between past and present, constantly retreating to his dreams, Yaromir likely experiences amnesia and confabulation—known as “Korsakov’s syndrome,” named after the composer’s contemporary and namesake Sergei Korsakov. Beyond the mélange of ritualistic, gnostic, erotic, scary, and psychotic plot elements, Mlada conveys the already well-known tale of a deceased bride stuck in a space between life and death, claiming her beloved. As Mlada acquires her dazed Yaromir, Morena (possibly once a rusalka herself) floods the Slavic folk. In the midst of this pagan Slavic tale rises Cleopatra with her entourage of seductive Egyptian slave dancers and an orchestra of specially made instruments, tsevnitsas. Both Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky elsewhere refer to this instrument in choral polonaises welcoming the entrance of an empress, who in Gogol’s tale, a source of both operatic plots, is identified as Catherine II.Less
The phantasmagorical opera-ballet Mlada (1892) features a khorovod (circle-dance) of feminine royals: Mlada, the silent dancing shadow of a deceased princess-bride and her rival Voislava, a pagan princess; Morena, a powerful water sorceress and spirit of death, and the goddess Lada. The circle, completed by Cleopatra, eclipses the central male character Yaromir. Confused disoriented, lost between past and present, constantly retreating to his dreams, Yaromir likely experiences amnesia and confabulation—known as “Korsakov’s syndrome,” named after the composer’s contemporary and namesake Sergei Korsakov. Beyond the mélange of ritualistic, gnostic, erotic, scary, and psychotic plot elements, Mlada conveys the already well-known tale of a deceased bride stuck in a space between life and death, claiming her beloved. As Mlada acquires her dazed Yaromir, Morena (possibly once a rusalka herself) floods the Slavic folk. In the midst of this pagan Slavic tale rises Cleopatra with her entourage of seductive Egyptian slave dancers and an orchestra of specially made instruments, tsevnitsas. Both Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky elsewhere refer to this instrument in choral polonaises welcoming the entrance of an empress, who in Gogol’s tale, a source of both operatic plots, is identified as Catherine II.
Alan Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199549276
- eISBN:
- 9780191701504
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549276.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
William Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters — 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. ...
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William Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters — 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. This book shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, this book throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital — sometimes the only — means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public — and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry IV Part One.Less
William Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters — 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. This book shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, this book throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital — sometimes the only — means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public — and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry IV Part One.
Miles Geoffrey
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198117711
- eISBN:
- 9780191671050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198117711.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus represent the opposing wings of the ‘triptych’ which Shakespeare borrowed from Plutarch. To put it in its starkest terms, Coriolanus falls ...
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Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus represent the opposing wings of the ‘triptych’ which Shakespeare borrowed from Plutarch. To put it in its starkest terms, Coriolanus falls because he is too constant, Antony because he is not constant enough and in love with a woman who is inconstancy incarnate. But where Plutarch saw his subjects as merely driven to disaster by moral flaws and irrational compulsions, Shakespeare sees each as pursuing, blindly, confusedly, and self-destructively, a genuine moral ideal. Coriolanus' ideal is that of constancy, an ideal taught him by Volumnia and Rome, and bearing a strong likeness to the Stoic codes of Julius Caesar. Antony's ideal is un-Roman and un-Stoic, and is best defined in the words of Montaigne: in a mutable world, he chooses to embrace ‘the benefit of inconstancy’.Less
Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus represent the opposing wings of the ‘triptych’ which Shakespeare borrowed from Plutarch. To put it in its starkest terms, Coriolanus falls because he is too constant, Antony because he is not constant enough and in love with a woman who is inconstancy incarnate. But where Plutarch saw his subjects as merely driven to disaster by moral flaws and irrational compulsions, Shakespeare sees each as pursuing, blindly, confusedly, and self-destructively, a genuine moral ideal. Coriolanus' ideal is that of constancy, an ideal taught him by Volumnia and Rome, and bearing a strong likeness to the Stoic codes of Julius Caesar. Antony's ideal is un-Roman and un-Stoic, and is best defined in the words of Montaigne: in a mutable world, he chooses to embrace ‘the benefit of inconstancy’.
Harold Fisch
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184898
- eISBN:
- 9780191674372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184898.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter focuses on Hamlet, where Shakespeare wrestles openly and unremittingly with the contradictions of art and memory. It argues that radical shift in the consciousness of time and memory ...
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This chapter focuses on Hamlet, where Shakespeare wrestles openly and unremittingly with the contradictions of art and memory. It argues that radical shift in the consciousness of time and memory which marks off Shakespearian tragedy from that of the Greeks and Romans, has something to do with the revolutionary impact of the Bible in the intervening centuries and especially in Shakespeare’s own time with the rise of Reformation Biblicism. From this point of view Hamlet is a crucial example.Less
This chapter focuses on Hamlet, where Shakespeare wrestles openly and unremittingly with the contradictions of art and memory. It argues that radical shift in the consciousness of time and memory which marks off Shakespearian tragedy from that of the Greeks and Romans, has something to do with the revolutionary impact of the Bible in the intervening centuries and especially in Shakespeare’s own time with the rise of Reformation Biblicism. From this point of view Hamlet is a crucial example.
Tanya Pollard
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199270835
- eISBN:
- 9780191710322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270835.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter considers the juxtaposition of sleeping potions and poisons, and their parallels with the uneasy relationship between comedy and tragedy in two plays by Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, ...
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This chapter considers the juxtaposition of sleeping potions and poisons, and their parallels with the uneasy relationship between comedy and tragedy in two plays by Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, the typically comic devices of the sleeping potion and the false death meet with fatal complications. Similarly, in Antony and Cleopatra, references to narcotically induced oblivion are identified with the seductive pleasures of Egypt and Cleopatra, yet ultimately lead to the lovers’ deaths rather than the happy ending of comedy. The chapter frames its readings of the plays around contemporary medical debates about narcotic drugs such as opium and mandragora. Looking at complaints from anti-theatrical tracts about the theater’s capacity to lull spectators into sleepy oblivion, it shows how the escapism of the theater was identified with the dangers of pleasurable narcotics.Less
This chapter considers the juxtaposition of sleeping potions and poisons, and their parallels with the uneasy relationship between comedy and tragedy in two plays by Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, the typically comic devices of the sleeping potion and the false death meet with fatal complications. Similarly, in Antony and Cleopatra, references to narcotically induced oblivion are identified with the seductive pleasures of Egypt and Cleopatra, yet ultimately lead to the lovers’ deaths rather than the happy ending of comedy. The chapter frames its readings of the plays around contemporary medical debates about narcotic drugs such as opium and mandragora. Looking at complaints from anti-theatrical tracts about the theater’s capacity to lull spectators into sleepy oblivion, it shows how the escapism of the theater was identified with the dangers of pleasurable narcotics.
Simon Palfrey and Tiffany Stern
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199272051
- eISBN:
- 9780191699580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272051.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter shows that unlike the deaths of so many of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, neither Antony's nor Cleopatra's death is framed by repeated cues. The technique would simply be inappropriate: it ...
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This chapter shows that unlike the deaths of so many of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, neither Antony's nor Cleopatra's death is framed by repeated cues. The technique would simply be inappropriate: it is premissed upon feelings of waste, impotence, and desolation, and of death as the greatest loss into the still greater unknown. The play does, however, provide one example of early cues being used for genuine theatrical innovation. Unsurprisingly, it shows Shakespeare experimenting with the scenic possibilities of stage space.Less
This chapter shows that unlike the deaths of so many of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, neither Antony's nor Cleopatra's death is framed by repeated cues. The technique would simply be inappropriate: it is premissed upon feelings of waste, impotence, and desolation, and of death as the greatest loss into the still greater unknown. The play does, however, provide one example of early cues being used for genuine theatrical innovation. Unsurprisingly, it shows Shakespeare experimenting with the scenic possibilities of stage space.
Toni Bentley
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300090390
- eISBN:
- 9780300127256
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300090390.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter focuses on Ida Rubinstein, an exotic, wealthy Russian Jew who performed the ballet Cléopâtre at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1909. Ida's Cleopatra, with her great height, small ...
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This chapter focuses on Ida Rubinstein, an exotic, wealthy Russian Jew who performed the ballet Cléopâtre at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1909. Ida's Cleopatra, with her great height, small breasts, slim boyish hips, and long legs, heralded the entrance into the twentieth century of the phallic female who towered over the feminized, magnetized male. Ida presented a startling modern image, an early metaphor for the athletic, demanding woman ruling her fearful, emasculated man.Less
This chapter focuses on Ida Rubinstein, an exotic, wealthy Russian Jew who performed the ballet Cléopâtre at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1909. Ida's Cleopatra, with her great height, small breasts, slim boyish hips, and long legs, heralded the entrance into the twentieth century of the phallic female who towered over the feminized, magnetized male. Ida presented a startling modern image, an early metaphor for the athletic, demanding woman ruling her fearful, emasculated man.
Eric Langley
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199541232
- eISBN:
- 9780191716072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541232.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter continues the exploration of Shakespeare's representation of Romana mors through discussion of the figures of Pyramus and Thisbe, Lucrece, and Antony and Cleopatra (both in Shakespeare's ...
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This chapter continues the exploration of Shakespeare's representation of Romana mors through discussion of the figures of Pyramus and Thisbe, Lucrece, and Antony and Cleopatra (both in Shakespeare's eponymous drama, its source‐texts, and alternative dramatic versions). Senecan notions of self‐sufficiency come into conflict with Egyptian conceptions of desire, and celebrations of excess. The suicides of Antony, Enobarbus, and Cleopatra are given close attention, and analysis of the rhetoric of their suicidal oratory offers competing models of suicidal action: Stoic, sympathetic or erotic, and despairing.Less
This chapter continues the exploration of Shakespeare's representation of Romana mors through discussion of the figures of Pyramus and Thisbe, Lucrece, and Antony and Cleopatra (both in Shakespeare's eponymous drama, its source‐texts, and alternative dramatic versions). Senecan notions of self‐sufficiency come into conflict with Egyptian conceptions of desire, and celebrations of excess. The suicides of Antony, Enobarbus, and Cleopatra are given close attention, and analysis of the rhetoric of their suicidal oratory offers competing models of suicidal action: Stoic, sympathetic or erotic, and despairing.
Mary Hamer
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859898263
- eISBN:
- 9781781380727
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859898263.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to ...
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Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to raise questions concerned with the world in which they found themselves living. This study chooses a number of key occasions from European history on which writers and painters re-imagined Cleopatra. In doing so it takes the reader on an intellectual treasure hunt through the ages. In addition, by restoring these works to their original context – political, philosophical and aesthetic – the author opens up unexpected new readings of images and texts that had previously appeared to be self-explanatory. The purpose of this book is to raise questions about how these images of a dead Egyptian queen were read. Through careful analysis it traces attempts to manipulate attitudes to women and power, women and sexuality, and to desire itself. In the case of Tiepolo's Cleopatra, for example, the Queen embodies the desire for knowledge; in post-Revolutionary France, she symbolises political freedom. In the new introductory essay we discover that Cleopatra's role as a focus for cultural debate continues, and that, as previously, much is at stake: it is now the question of her race that is highly contested.Less
Cleopatra has been dead for twenty centuries, but her name still resonates in the west. Her story has the status of a foundation myth. As such, artists of all periods have drawn on it in order to raise questions concerned with the world in which they found themselves living. This study chooses a number of key occasions from European history on which writers and painters re-imagined Cleopatra. In doing so it takes the reader on an intellectual treasure hunt through the ages. In addition, by restoring these works to their original context – political, philosophical and aesthetic – the author opens up unexpected new readings of images and texts that had previously appeared to be self-explanatory. The purpose of this book is to raise questions about how these images of a dead Egyptian queen were read. Through careful analysis it traces attempts to manipulate attitudes to women and power, women and sexuality, and to desire itself. In the case of Tiepolo's Cleopatra, for example, the Queen embodies the desire for knowledge; in post-Revolutionary France, she symbolises political freedom. In the new introductory essay we discover that Cleopatra's role as a focus for cultural debate continues, and that, as previously, much is at stake: it is now the question of her race that is highly contested.
Jean Bingen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter concerns an inscription dated to 41 BCE, which contains two orders issued by Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV (Caesarion). These protect the interests of Alexandrian landholders in nomes in ...
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This chapter concerns an inscription dated to 41 BCE, which contains two orders issued by Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV (Caesarion). These protect the interests of Alexandrian landholders in nomes in the Delta against what they claim are excessive tax exactions that go beyond what the queen had ordered. Cleopatra, faced with an external crisis produced by the defeat of the forces of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi and the ascendancy of Mark Antony, needed firm support from the Alexandrian propertied classes. In this case, the price of that support was exemption from a variety of special taxes. The language of the inscription preserves some of the rhetoric of the court hearing, probably from the speeches of the landowners' lawyers.Less
This chapter concerns an inscription dated to 41 BCE, which contains two orders issued by Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV (Caesarion). These protect the interests of Alexandrian landholders in nomes in the Delta against what they claim are excessive tax exactions that go beyond what the queen had ordered. Cleopatra, faced with an external crisis produced by the defeat of the forces of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi and the ascendancy of Mark Antony, needed firm support from the Alexandrian propertied classes. In this case, the price of that support was exemption from a variety of special taxes. The language of the inscription preserves some of the rhetoric of the court hearing, probably from the speeches of the landowners' lawyers.
Jean Bingen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter on Cleopatra begins with her image in Roman literature, which is very negative and sees her as a threat to Rome. But that image dates from the aftermath of the final struggle between ...
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This chapter on Cleopatra begins with her image in Roman literature, which is very negative and sees her as a threat to Rome. But that image dates from the aftermath of the final struggle between Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony and does not reflect the real situation in which Cleopatra found herself. She needed to exercise power in Alexandria without flouting the Macedonian tradition which required a male king; her reign therefore saw a delicate balancing of eliminating or keeping control of the few surviving males with keeping the facade of a king's presence. Her involvements with Caesar and Antony never brought them into the framework of the Ptolemaic monarchy, but she used them to strengthen the position of the Ptolemaic state-until the final defeat of Antony at Actium.Less
This chapter on Cleopatra begins with her image in Roman literature, which is very negative and sees her as a threat to Rome. But that image dates from the aftermath of the final struggle between Octavian (later Augustus) and Mark Antony and does not reflect the real situation in which Cleopatra found herself. She needed to exercise power in Alexandria without flouting the Macedonian tradition which required a male king; her reign therefore saw a delicate balancing of eliminating or keeping control of the few surviving males with keeping the facade of a king's presence. Her involvements with Caesar and Antony never brought them into the framework of the Ptolemaic monarchy, but she used them to strengthen the position of the Ptolemaic state-until the final defeat of Antony at Actium.
Jean Bingen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
In 37/36 BCE, Cleopatra changed her reckoning of the years of her reign from a simple “year 16” to “year 16 which is also year 1.” The reasons lie in a change in royal ideology linked to her recovery ...
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In 37/36 BCE, Cleopatra changed her reckoning of the years of her reign from a simple “year 16” to “year 16 which is also year 1.” The reasons lie in a change in royal ideology linked to her recovery of some of the old Ptolemaic possessions outside Egypt by gift from Mark Antony. At the same time, she changed her titles. One of the added titles was philopatris, “homeland-loving.” This chapter argues that the homeland in question was not Egypt or Alexandria, but Macedonia, the home of her ancestor Ptolemy son of Lagos, the founder of her dynasty. The title helps to link her to the heritage of Alexander the Great (see chapter 1).Less
In 37/36 BCE, Cleopatra changed her reckoning of the years of her reign from a simple “year 16” to “year 16 which is also year 1.” The reasons lie in a change in royal ideology linked to her recovery of some of the old Ptolemaic possessions outside Egypt by gift from Mark Antony. At the same time, she changed her titles. One of the added titles was philopatris, “homeland-loving.” This chapter argues that the homeland in question was not Egypt or Alexandria, but Macedonia, the home of her ancestor Ptolemy son of Lagos, the founder of her dynasty. The title helps to link her to the heritage of Alexander the Great (see chapter 1).
Luciano Canfora and Julian Stringer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619368
- eISBN:
- 9780748670734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619368.003.0031
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
The most striking and theatrical incident was provoked by Antony, at the very moment when rumours of an imminent, openly monarchical shift in Caesar's aspirations were being nourished from several ...
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The most striking and theatrical incident was provoked by Antony, at the very moment when rumours of an imminent, openly monarchical shift in Caesar's aspirations were being nourished from several sides. Once again suspicion turned to the possible role of Cleopatra as the moving force behind the scenes, especially since she had borne Caesar a son. This led to a persistent rumour that the dictator was about to move his seat permanently to Alexandria. Suppositions concerning these alleged ‘Oriental’ plans were finally shown to be false only when Caesar's will was read after his death. Then not only was the preeminent position of Octavius seen, but also the complete absence of Cleopatra's son from Caesar's testamentary arrangements. As for Antony, he was no longer openly out of favour with Caesar: on the contrary, he was his colleague in the consulate for the year 44 bc. But he was not reappointed magister equitum, and had to resign himself to being appointed consul suffectus (deputy consul) by Dolabella. On 15 February 44 bc, during the festival of the Lupercalia, he became the central figure in a spectacular event: an attempt to crown Caesar king.Less
The most striking and theatrical incident was provoked by Antony, at the very moment when rumours of an imminent, openly monarchical shift in Caesar's aspirations were being nourished from several sides. Once again suspicion turned to the possible role of Cleopatra as the moving force behind the scenes, especially since she had borne Caesar a son. This led to a persistent rumour that the dictator was about to move his seat permanently to Alexandria. Suppositions concerning these alleged ‘Oriental’ plans were finally shown to be false only when Caesar's will was read after his death. Then not only was the preeminent position of Octavius seen, but also the complete absence of Cleopatra's son from Caesar's testamentary arrangements. As for Antony, he was no longer openly out of favour with Caesar: on the contrary, he was his colleague in the consulate for the year 44 bc. But he was not reappointed magister equitum, and had to resign himself to being appointed consul suffectus (deputy consul) by Dolabella. On 15 February 44 bc, during the festival of the Lupercalia, he became the central figure in a spectacular event: an attempt to crown Caesar king.
Jeffrey Beneker
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695904
- eISBN:
- 9780191741319
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695904.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter examines the influence of erotic desire (erōs) in Plutarch's narration of the fall of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Antony. It demonstrates that in composing these biographies Plutarch has ...
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This chapter examines the influence of erotic desire (erōs) in Plutarch's narration of the fall of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Antony. It demonstrates that in composing these biographies Plutarch has created a role for erōs that is central to his historical-ethical reconstruction of the careers of these men. He has used the Demetrius to establish a model for an erotically reckless but nonetheless relatively successful general. In the Antony, he has made erōs not simply an important element in his characterization but has even depicted its influence as pervasive and largely responsible for the outcome of the civil war with Octavian. In addition to interpreting Antony's well-known relationship with Cleopatra, the chapter also analyses his marriages to Fulvia and Octavia. The study of erōs in this chapter demonstrates the extent to which moral virtue informed Plutarch's interpretation of history.Less
This chapter examines the influence of erotic desire (erōs) in Plutarch's narration of the fall of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Antony. It demonstrates that in composing these biographies Plutarch has created a role for erōs that is central to his historical-ethical reconstruction of the careers of these men. He has used the Demetrius to establish a model for an erotically reckless but nonetheless relatively successful general. In the Antony, he has made erōs not simply an important element in his characterization but has even depicted its influence as pervasive and largely responsible for the outcome of the civil war with Octavian. In addition to interpreting Antony's well-known relationship with Cleopatra, the chapter also analyses his marriages to Fulvia and Octavia. The study of erōs in this chapter demonstrates the extent to which moral virtue informed Plutarch's interpretation of history.
