Bad Girls Handout Revised

Home , Bad Girls (series 1), Dido, Pleasure barge, Sophonisba

STEPHANIE DRAY LILY OF THE NILE

A NOVEL OF www.stephaniedray.com CLEOPATRA’S : DAUGHTER Hits Bookshelves January 2011 A survey of women’s history through the eyes of a historical ﬁction Bad Girls of the Ancient World novelist. HOW TO FALL AFOUL OF THE PATRIARCHY IN THREE EASY STEPS

PICK UP A WEAPON Though examples of warrior women can be found in ancient literature even before the appearance of the Amazons in Homer’s tales, women who fought were considered to be unnatural.

DABBLE IN PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION OR MAGIC For the ancients, religion was mostly a matter Queen Cleopatra VII, of Egypt for the state. The idea that a god of the pantheon might take a personal interest in a woman beyond seducing her or punishing her was preposterous. Consequently, priestesses were often viewed with suspicion. Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias, was always suspected of sorcery, in part, because King Phillip fell in love with her during a religious initiation. Queen Zenobia of Palmyra Olympias of Macedonia

BE SEXY Ancient man feared female sexuality and the These historical women have been painted and sway it might have over his better judgment. sculpted throughout the ages. If well-behaved The surest propaganda against an ancient women seldom make history, this should tell you queen was to depict her as a licentious seductress; a charge that has never clung with something about these ladies. more tenacity to any woman than it has to Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

Queen Dido commits suicide Pierre-Narcisse, baron Guérin’s painting of the famous but ﬁctional romance between Dido and Aeneas

Timeline & Relationships

Dido of Carthage 800 BC Cleopatra Selene’s husband, King Dido Juba II, claimed descent from this legendary queen Queen Dido of Carthage (also Olympias of Macedonia 375 BC Alexander the Great was the son known as Elissa) was of this ambitious woman. Selene’s perhaps the original ancestor, Ptolemy, was Alexander’s general and was also rumored to bad girl of the be his half brother. ancient world. If she is a real historical Arsinoe II of Egypt 316 BC Selene was a direct descendant of ﬁgure, rather than this ﬁrst female Ptolemaic Pharaoh myth, she is the only Selene’s husband was a woman in Western Sophonisba of 220 BC Carthage descendant of King Massinissa, history to have who wanted proud Princess founded her own Sophonisba for himself civilization. Cleopatra VII of Egypt 69 BC Mother of Cleopatra Selene

Zenobia of Palmyra 240 AD One of Selene’s likely descendants

Arsinoe II, Daughter of Ptolemy The Seduction of Olympias

Olympias

SORCERESS SEDUCTRESS WARRIOR WOMAN Olympias was a priestess of Rumor had it that Olympias is one of the few Arsinoe II an ancient mystery cult Olympias was so desirable ancient queens who took to when King Phillip met and she caught the eye of Zeus the battleﬁeld. As an old This remarkable fell in love with her. himself--who seduced and woman, she led troops in queen began the Rumors that she practiced impregnated her. This was full military regalia. What’s dynastic tradition witchcraft and kept pet a rumor that her son more, she won the ﬁght! of brother-sister snakes would follow her Alexander encouraged. ever after. marriage amongst the Ptolemies and Sophonisba may have ruled as

Pharaoh in her PRIDE AND HONOR own right long This princess of Carthage broke before Cleopatra her betrothal to King Massinissa VII was born. when she learned he’d allied with Rome, with whom her kingdom was almost perpetually at war. When Massinissa eventually won her to his side, she tried to sway him to betray the Romans. After the war, Sophonisba and her cup of poison she decided that she would rather die of poison than become a prisoner of Rome. Her suicide would inﬂuence North African queens thereafter.

Cleopatra on her deathbed Queen Zenobia in chains

Cleopatra THE PATRIOT AND WARRIORESS as as a licentious seductress was used Zenobia Like Dido, Olympias and Sophonisba against her to great effect. before her, Cleopatra VII concerned herself with matters of state. She ruled alone, THE SORCERESS While some say the without a man at her side, for most of her While she was known outside of Egypt as a warrior queen killed life. She claimed a special affinity for her painted harlot, Cleopatra VII was, for her herself to escape the people, the very incarnation of Isis, the kingdom of Egypt, taking on the shame of being great mother goddess. appelation, philopatris. She led her country paraded prisoner, in war against the Romans. As a mother of four, Cleopatra was the picture of fertility. It also seems that she was other accounts THE SIREN genuinely devout, respectful of native maintain that she Julius Caesar was a notorious womanizer, so religions, so much so that the Romans was freed by the it may have come as some shock to Rome believed she was capable of wielding magic emperor and went when their famous general didn’t abandon and ensorcelling their finest generals. on to live a the Egyptian queen after their liaison but Her power as a woman was explicitly prosperous life as appears to have claimed her son as his own acknowledged by her Roman enemies as the and elevated her to the status of goddess. reason for the war. the wife of a Roman That Cleopatra then famously took up senator. If true, that with Caesar’s second-in-command, Marcus PRIDE AND DECEIT would make her one Antonius, impressed the Romans as an act Cleopatra lost her war with Rome, but she of the few bad girls of wanton immodesty. She came to woo may have had the last laugh. She’s infinitely in ancient history to more famous than her conqueror, the Antony on a pleasure barge--choosing him get away with it all. as a mate rather than waiting to be chosen. emperor Augustus. This may have to do Though she is not known to have taken with the defiant way in which she more than two men to her bed, her image committed suicide before he could take her to Rome as a prisoner.