Queen Cleopatra, whose full name is “Cleopatra VII Philopator”, is easily remembered as a great seductress, often being associated with the femme fatale. Yet Cleopatra, who was Macedonian and whose name derives from the Greek “Kléos” (Gloria) and “Patros” (of her father), was much more than this: the queen of Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy XII and one of her concubines ( who apparently was killed just one year after the birth of Cleopatra) was among the most educated women of the time; Cleopatra knew many other languages ​​besides the Greek and the Egyptian, among which one thinks (but discusses about it) about the Ethiopian, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Syrian, the Parthian.
We know that Cleopatra spoke Latin correctly and that for a short period (probably between 46 BC and 44 BC, the year in which Caesar was assassinated) he lived in Rome at a villa in the gardens of Trastevere together with Caesar and Caesar’s son, Caesarion. We know that Cleopatra was educated according to the philosophical education of the time and that she was interested in art, science, and astronomy, so much so that it seems that Antonio gave Pergamon’s library as a gift to Cleopatra.

The Queen of Egypt was endowed with an ingenious and curious personality, of great inventiveness and vitality.
Cleopatra’s inventions: which are true and which are not true?

During her stay in Rome, Cleopatra sported what some people consider her own invention, the chignon hairstyle, which was appreciated during the Rome of the time and which is still widely used today.

However, it seems that the Chignon was already present as a hairstyle in ancient Greece, as a hairstyle used by the Athenian towns.

It also seems that Eros was often represented in the fifth century BC with this hairstyle; besides the fact that it seems that this hairstyle was used in ancient times by both men and women in Mesopotamia.

The chignon, in any case, is a type of hairstyle often associated with class and elegance where the hair is fixed in a tail, located at medium height, which must then be twisted on itself. There are many variations of this hairstyle and still today it is among the most famous and used hairstyles of all time.

It seems that the queen loved to hear the love stories written by Horace and that she herself had composed a literary work, concerning the world of female cosmetics of the time, of which today no trace remains.

Queen Cleopatra was overwhelmed with adverse propaganda already in the past by Augustus, fierce propaganda, for a female character who certainly made her talk about herself for her thousand shades, which still today is talked about her figure, for better or for worse.

To give an example of the chatter we still love to invent or discuss about the queen, there would be a rumor (which to tell the truth would seem without any historical or archaeological foundation of any kind), according to which Cleopatra would also have invented the first “vibrator” in history, inserting in a pumpkin tube some angry bees, which would have moved the tube making it vibrate.

Clearly, it is difficult to believe in such a story, especially when there is no comparison in ancient sources or in traditional historiography. The attribution of this strange invention to Cleopatra is therefore considered “unlikely”.

Insights and recommended sources on Cleopatra:

• Virgil, Eneide VIII, 688 ss.
• Horace, Odes I, 37 (“fatale monstrum”, v. 21); Epodes 9
• Lucan, Pharsalia X
• Plutarch, Life of Marcus Antonius
• Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars I-II
• Velleio Patercolo, Roman History II
• Flavio Giuseppe, Jewish Antiquities XIV-XV