Cleopatra VII as Isis bust

November 30, 2019

Cleopatra VII as Isis bust - 1st C. BCE

"Thus Antony’s friends persuaded him, when he was smitten with his beloved Cleopatra, that she doted on him, still calling him haughty and hard-hearted man. She, said they, has stripped herself of the glories of a crown and former grandeur, and now languishes with the love of you, attending the motion of your camp in the poor sordid figure of a concubine."

-Plutarch, Moralia: Chapter 19

Parian marble bust of Cleopatra VII, in the Musei Capitolini, Rome.

"An ancient Roman bust of the Egyptian goddess Isis at the Centrale Montemartini Museum, Rome, by Howard Hudson; it is identified as a Ptolemaic royal woman by Dr. Joann Fletcher, perhaps a contemporary depiction of Cleopatra VII of Egypt as the living goddess Isis. In regards to this bust, the following is a quote from Fletcher, Joann. (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-058558-7, image plates between pp. 246-247:

"Marble head of a Ptolemaic royal female from first century BC Rome. The vulture headdress and wig of stylised curls replicate Cleopatra's appearance in Egyptian temple scenes, and the head possibly represents Cleopatra as living Isis to complement Caesar's own moves toward divinity."

The following is a quote from Fletcher (2008: p. 199):

"There is even a third life-size head of Parian marble which presents a stylised image of a Ptolemaic royal female of divine status. Wearing the vulture headdress and tripartite wig of echelon curls portrayed in Cleopatra's temple reliefs and duplicated on gold signet rings perhaps worn by the pro-Caesar faction, this image, known as the 'Capitoline Head', most likely reflects the period when Living Isis resided in Rome as partner to the warrior Caesar...When Rome's main Isis temple on the Capitoline Hill was destroyed by order of the Senate in 48 BC, Caesar and Cleopatra may well have outlined plans for a new Isis temple to be built on Mars' sacred site, the Campus Martius."