Posted on 12/12/2010 8:29:43 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Cleopatra may not have been ancient Egypt's only female pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty -- Queen Arsinoë II, a woman who competed in and won Olympic events, came first, some 200 years earlier, according to a new study into a unique Egyptian crown.
After analyzing details and symbols of the crown worn by Arsinoë and reinterpreting Egyptian reliefs, Swedish researchers... suggest that Queen Arsinoë II (316-270 B.C.) was the first female pharaoh belonging to Ptolemy's family -- the dynasty that ruled Egypt for some 300 years until the Roman conquest of 30 B.C.
While researchers largely agree on Arsinoë's prominence -- she was deified during her lifetime and honored for 200 years after her death -- the new study suggests she was in fact an Egyptian pharaoh with a role similar to the more famous Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII.
One of the great women of the ancient world, Arsinoë was the daughter of Ptolemy I (366-283 B.C.), a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great who later became ruler of Egypt and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty to which Cleopatra belonged.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
full title -- Cleopatra Not First Female Pharoah [sic] of Her Line: Queen Arsinoë II, an Olympian medalist, may have ruled Egypt 200 years before Cleopatrathe monochrome image links to a similar article on Eurekalert.
This image shows Queen Arsinoë II in the Philae temple, Aswan, Egypt. [Credit: Maria Nilsson]
Queen Arsinoë II ruled Egypt as pharaoh 200 years before Cleopatra's time, claims new research. [Metropolitan Museum of Art, Image Credits DCL]
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Cleopatra is really an amazing historical figure. The Ptolemys only spoke Greek and wouldn’t mix with the conquered Egyptians.
The Egyptian religion allowed the Ptolemys to retain power over centuries, including their linguistic and racial purity. Inbreeding being a common method.
Cleopatra was the first to speak Egyptian and I’d thought that gave her special acknowledgment in their history.
A coin from the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus portraying the king side-by-side with his sister/wife/queen the formidable Arsinoe II.
Only in the Winter Games.
Wonder what their kids looked like?
I thought I knew a bit of Egyptian history but I didn’t know about her. Then again my interest lies in the earlier periods. Thanks!
Arsineo does.
"Why whites people always got to edge in on our action"?
AFAIK, women didn’t compete in the games, they had *teams* which competed in the games. The earliest one known was a “queen” of Sparta. And of course, all the male warriors in Sparta were also queens.
There is no record of the Egyptians having Olympic contests. The Greeks did and they were called Olympic after Mt. Olympus atop which lived Greek gods.
Moreover, the Greek contests were male only events and the men competed in the nude.
The Egyptians may well have had athletic contests, but they most certainly were not “Olympic”.
This is well documented. Upshot: Anything this so-called archaeologist and/or historian says is automatically suspect.
One of the Ptolemies invented a deity, Serapis, which was a hybrid deity designed to appeal to the broadest possible population, and (thanks to overlaps in characteristics and liturgy) cannibalize the devotees of the many gods of the Egyptian pantheon, as well as those of the Greek pantheon, *and* the various peoples of the former conquests of Alexander, i.e. the former Persian Empire — because Ptolemy had designs on ruling the whole thing. Call it a religious reform. :’)
“Not only were women not permitted to compete personally, married women were also barred from attending the games, under penalty of death. (Maidens were allowed to attend.)
Pausanias tells the story of Callipateira, who broke this rule to see her son at the Games:
She, being a widow, disguised herself exactly like a gymnastic trainer, and brought her son to compete at Olympia. Peisirodus, for so her son was called, was victorious, and Callipateira, as she was jumping over the enclosure in which they kept the trainers shut up, bared her person. So her sex was discovered, but they let her go unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers and her son, all of whom had been victorious at Olympia. But a law was passed that for future trainers should strip before entering the arena. (Pausanias 5.6.8ff)
Athletic competitions for women did exist in ancient Greece. The most famous was a maidens’ footrace held at Olympic Stadium in honor of the goddess, Hera. There were three (3) separate races for girls, teenagers, and young women.
The length of their racecourse was shorter than the mens’ track; 5/6 of a stade (about 160 meters) instead of a full stade (about 192 meters). The winners received olive crowns just like Olympic victors.”
You’re aware that Alexander conquered Egypt and from then on it was ruled by Greeks (i.e. the Ptolemic line) until Agrippa defeated Antony & Cleopatra at Actium?
I’m not sure about the racial purity thing. From what I understand, they found the remains of Cleopatra’s full-blooded sister. She was bi-racial. Google “Cleopatra’s sister” for further information. There was a tv documentary from what I remember. Maybe the Ptolemys were essentially Greek at the beginning of the dynasty, but as time went on, they did mate with the locals.
What I could find indicated that at best her bi-racialism is uncertain.
I would be surprised as the break Alexander had with his Macedonian Generals was over race mixing. While at the same time human nature would indicate that racial purity is difficult to enforce.
I wonder if there were taboos against race mixing among the Ptolemys?
You see that type of top down religious “reform” throughout history. Some times it takes and other times it fails.
As an aside, why Ptolemies? I saw that spelling on Wikipedia and thought, “typical partially trained college knuckleheads”. But, that doesn’t describe you.
Shouldn’t it be Ptolemys as it is a formal name and a proper noun and not some thing? That is you are friends with the Murphys or the Kennedys or the Grays, not with the Murphies or the Kennedies.
Per here: http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/tips-on-apostrophes-with-names/
I always take wikipedia with a grain of salt over grammar and politics. ;-]
King Tut Scottish? How Far Can DNA Theories Stretch?
"If Tut were Scottish, should we rename these to 'Haggis Jar Stoppers'? When the latest Tutankhamun study was published in Jama, there were quite a few outcries that although the study looked into the direct ancestry of King Tut, it fully ignored the pointers to the pharoah's racial ancestry, possibly hidden in the pharaoh's DNA.
As usual, Dr Zahi was accused of many things, most notable charges of 'hiding that King Tut was black/white/purple.' Now a retired physicist took the time to write down some of the DNA test results exposed in the Discovery Channel programme that featured the study's results and concluded the data shown in the docu reveals Tut's haplogroup as R1b, one of the most common Y-chromosome haplogroups in Europe, especially the United Kingdom. So, err... was Tutankhamun Scottish, rather than black or white?"
(My yDNA is R1b too)
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