Cleopatra Vii
Chapter 1
Cleopatra
I. Impressions:
A. First associations: temptress, seduction, beauty, doomed lover, suicide, Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt, Elizabeth Taylor, "Carry on Cleo", luxury and extravagance
B. Sources used: movies, histories, biographies, coinage, sculpture, and poetry
C. Abbreviations:
1. CE: Common Era (Equivalent to AD)
2. BCE: Before the Common Era (Equivalent to BC)
Activity (DVD Video Cleopatra) p. 5: Watch the DVD and think about these questions:
1. What type of image of Cleopatra is being projected?
2. How are the past and the figure of Cleopatra being used to appeal to the audience?
3. How does the image of Cleopatra change over the course of movies?
4. How are these differences linked to the changing social habits of the contemporary society?
5. What is the relationship between our popular perceptions of the past and famous figures from antiquity and the actual events and characters of the past?
D. Activity (p. 6): What sort of sources/evidence can we use to study the events of over two thousand years ago, and what are the obstacles and difficulties in evaluating them?
Evidence and Sources: The materials we can use are: poems, biographies, histories, statues, and coins.
Obstacles: Our view of the ancient world is fragmentary and puzzling, and piecing it together needs a lot of patience and a certain degree of imaginative creativity.
How to work: We need to scrutinize the motivations of the authors and their assumptions about the world. We need to be as OBJECTIVE as possible and to bear in mind that we are not ancient Romans and Egyptians; we bring along our own set of values, derived from our own cultures, education and upbringing, to our study of this material. We need to keep in mind that history is a maze of opinion, contradiction, and heresy. In studying the past, we must be detectives, and we must suspect our own motives.
E. A Short Biography of Cleopatra:
Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
Cleopatra
I. Impressions:
A. First associations: temptress, seduction, beauty, doomed lover, suicide, Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt, Elizabeth Taylor, "Carry on Cleo", luxury and extravagance
B. Sources used: movies, histories, biographies, coinage, sculpture, and poetry
C. Abbreviations:
1. CE: Common Era (Equivalent to AD)
2. BCE: Before the Common Era (Equivalent to BC)
Activity (DVD Video Cleopatra) p. 5: Watch the DVD and think about these questions:
1. What type of image of Cleopatra is being projected?
2. How are the past and the figure of Cleopatra being used to appeal to the audience?
3. How does the image of Cleopatra change over the course of movies?
4. How are these differences linked to the changing social habits of the contemporary society?
5. What is the relationship between our popular perceptions of the past and famous figures from antiquity and the actual events and characters of the past?
D. Activity (p. 6): What sort of sources/evidence can we use to study the events of over two thousand years ago, and what are the obstacles and difficulties in evaluating them?
Evidence and Sources: The materials we can use are: poems, biographies, histories, statues, and coins.
Obstacles: Our view of the ancient world is fragmentary and puzzling, and piecing it together needs a lot of patience and a certain degree of imaginative creativity.
How to work: We need to scrutinize the motivations of the authors and their assumptions about the world. We need to be as OBJECTIVE as possible and to bear in mind that we are not ancient Romans and Egyptians; we bring along our own set of values, derived from our own cultures, education and upbringing, to our study of this material. We need to keep in mind that history is a maze of opinion, contradiction, and heresy. In studying the past, we must be detectives, and we must suspect our own motives.
E. A Short Biography of Cleopatra:
Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty,