Yes - although arguing for a republic in Sweden I will now talk about a queen.
I have just read one of the most fascinating books I have ever encountered.
"Kleopatra - Liv och legend" ("Cleopatra - Life and legend")by Swedish historian Allan Klynne takes a closer look at one of the most famous women ever. But what is true and what is myth? Cleopatra´s life (and sometimes what you think you know about her life) has been the source of a lot of myths around Cleopatra.
Klynne desribes the life of Cleopatra, her leadership in Egypt and how people´s judgement of Cleopatra and the idea of who she was has changed over centuries. The result is as I interpret it that Cleopatra has been often the target for people either as a model for how "women should be" or as an example of womens "inability" to rule over kingdoms and their "manipulative games" they play on men. Writers have throughout history used Cleopatra for their own causes and interpreted he rlife as suiting for their message.
Cleopatra has unfairly been looked upon as a woman that uses her sexuality to misguide men for her own purposes (both her marriages with Julius Ceasar and Anthony has been explained this way) and she has also been descrobed as unfit to run Egypt.
The fact that she led armies, expanded her kingdom and re-established Egypt as a major power force in the has been neglected in turn for attributing "negative" women attributes to Cleopatra.
This is a really interresting book. I don´t know if it has been translated to other languages. If not, I strongly advice you to take a look at the life of Cleopatra and discover for yourself how discredited someone might be - just because she´s a woman.
/The cat goes political
No comments:
Post a Comment