Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams, and Distortions

An examination and interpretation of the dreams and evocations that Cleopatra has inspired, including those created in her own life time. In the 2000 years since her death Cleopatra has been re-created over and over again, each time in a form that fits the prejudices and fantasies of the age that produced it. To Chaucer she was the model of a good wife, while to Cecil B.De Mille she was "the wickedest woman in history". These various Cleopatras can be read as mirror-images of the culture that produced them and this book is about them as well as the sexual, racial and constitutional politics of these cultures.