Egyptologists claim that Cleopatra may not have died from a snakebite on the breast:
According to accepted historical records, Cleopatra, the last active pharaoh in ancient Egypt, committed suicide by placing a snake on her breast and letting it bite her, killing her with poisonous venom. However, an Egyptologist now claims that Cleopatra may not have been killed by poisonous snakes, although she was said to be so fond of snakes that she slept with them. That said, it's "fairly certain" that the ancient queen did commit suicide, he said.
"Cleopatra had a very, very close connection to snakes, especially her death," Joyce Tyldesly, a lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, said in a video about snakebites that could kill her. But the serpent was also closely related to the queens and kings of Egypt. Kings and queens wore the Uraus or serpent on their heads.
And the serpent also has a strong connection with the goddess Isis, and Cleopatra herself believes that she is a living incarnation of the goddess Isis. Snakes are also considered good mothers. ... When she died, it seemed fairly certain that she committed suicide, although some believe she was murdered by Octavian.
Cleopatra was born in 69 BC in Alexandria. She was a member of the Greek royal family of Macedonia, whose family ruled Egypt for more than three centuries. She is well educated and speaks seven languages fluently. Although her family has no history of suicide, there have been murders in all directions.
At the age of 18, she succeeded to the throne and married her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIII. Although they intended to rule as joint monarchs, Cleopatra had no intention of sharing power. But Ptolemy XIII challenged Cleopatra, and soon after he was found dead; A similar fate happened at different times, to her other siblings. Scholars believe Cleopatra was responsible for at least two-fifths of the deaths of her siblings.
Cleopatra feared that she would be accused of a murder plot, so she began courting the forces of the Roman Empire. She was the lover of Julius Caesar and bore him a son. However, after Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, she allied herself with Mark Antony, who ruled Rome in a power vacuum after Caesar's death, and opposed Caesar's legitimate heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (Octavian).
According to historical records, after losing to Octavian's army at the Battle of Actim, Mark Antony committed suicide, and Cleopatra followed suit. Octavian then made Egypt a Roman province and became its first emperor, renaming it Augustus.
In the video from the University of Manchester, Dr Terdesley asks Andrew Grey, curator of herpetology at the Manchester Museum, about the possibility that Cleopatra died from a snakebite.
"Is this easy to do? Because some say she put the snake in a basket of figs from the countryside. But some accounts say she used it not only to kill herself, but also one or two service maids. I just want to know the practicality of this," Dr. Terdesley asked Dr. Gray.
In the video, Dr. Gray says that there are two kinds of venomous snakes in Africa – cobras and vipers. He holds up an African python, which is non-venomous and easy to tame, and Cleopatra loves it very much. In fact, he said, the species he showed was called royal pythons because Cleopatra loved them so much. It is said that she would send her servants out in search of royal pythons and fill her palace with them and even sleep with some people.
But he said it was difficult to get a venomous cobra into the palace because they were 5 to 8 feet long and very deadly. In addition, he said that in many snakebites, snakes do not inject venom. "The other thing about the possibility of killing people with poisonous snakes is that you can't guarantee that it will kill them, basically, because a lot of snakebites are dry bites, even if they are cobra bites, I would say if you get bitten by a cobra, you probably have about a 10 per cent chance of dying," he said.
"They're obviously very, very dangerous, and cobras are very venomous. ... If you do die, it will be a terrible death. Even up to that, it was very, very painful because the venom they used, almost rotted the arm. If your hand gets bitten, you get what's called necrosis, and the venom actually affects the arm and it's very, very painful. But it doesn't always lead to death. It certainly won't happen overnight.
He added that "it doesn't happen" that snakes are induced to bite two or three people in quick succession.
Dr. Terdesli said the ancient Egyptians firmly believed that snakes had protective effects, which is why kings and queens wore Uraus on their foreheads to represent the goddess of protection. They also think snakes are good mothers, she said.
"In the world of snakes, very few people have maternal instincts or fatherly care for their cubs," Dr. Gray said. "But one of the exceptions is cobras, because cobras, when they lay eggs, they actually form almost like a nest, or they pull in the leaves, they actually sit on the nest, protecting the ovaries until they hatch." Once they hatch, the pups disappear and they are left to their own. But until then, real snakes themselves will strictly protect these eggs.
The snakebite theory of Cleopatra's death has come under increasing scrutiny over the past decade, with recent research suggesting she may have died from a drug cocktail. If this is the case, whether it was given to her herself or given to her by someone else may never be known.
Bibliography:
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacey Schiff
Cleopatra and Anthony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World by Diana Preston
