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Cleopatra Quotes

Browse 26 quotes about Cleopatra.

Cleopatra Quotes

“The horror was, Cleopatra meant something to these modern people of the twentieth century which was altogether wrong. She had become a symbol of licentiousness, when in fact she had possessed a multitude of amazing talents. They had punished her for her one flaw by forgetting everything else…Remembered, but not for what she was. A painted whore lying on a silken couch. - Ramses”

RealityHistoryPerceptionLiesFalsehoodIncompleteMuseumCleopatra
Book:The Mummy
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“The Peacock & The Eagle: Cleopatra's Entry Into Tarsus by Stewart Stafford Cleopatra arrives, regal and mighty, From ocean spray as Aphrodite, Wealthy and waif, yearning for her, Dared all to defy her possessive aura. Mark Antony, struck by her sultry gaze, Lepidus, prisoner in a bureaucrat's maze, Sees power slipping from a friend’s hand, Ensnared by a siren from a scorched land. Lepidus was Caesar's trusted right hand; A granule falling through hourglass sand, Antony, headstrong military provocateur; Funeral orator from bloody crown auteur. Bargain's scorpion pincers; no longer twain: Cleopatra was Ceres, promising Rome grain, Antony was Mars' armed emissary, Business and pleasure's flood tributary. Antony: "Barge of emerald, Elysium's onyx! Beyond counsel words of sage sardonic, Gliding the Cydnus's silken seam, This Nile Helen shall be my queen." Lepidus: "Pleasure vessel of a floating whore, Yours for a sesterce on the Tiber's shore, Honour your oath, noble Roman creed, Lest passion’s shipwreck sets out to sea.” "This Venus virago on her mirage barge; Serpent prow, silver oars, rhythmic charge! What hubris to think she can equal, The bloody talons of our Roman eagle!" Antony: "Feast your eyes past peacock's bower, She speaks Rome's tongue of naked power. Mark it, that obsidian Sphinx stings - Human head, lion's body, eagle wings! "That is the form she takes to the public: I smell a perfumed alliance for the Republic! With Plebeians as her tickled cats, they hum, I crave her beauty and company. Come!" © 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

Historical FictionEpic PoetryRoman HistoryCleopatraPolitical PoetryCharacter StudyHistorical DramaAntony And CleopatraLove And PowerMark Antony
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“ক্লিওপেট্রা ( আমি বাতাস ও আগুন - শেকসপিয়ার ) অ্যান্টনির মরা ঠোঁটে আগেই ও খেয়েছিল চুমো সিজারের পায়ে পড়ে হাঁটু গেঁযে নিয়েছিল কেঁদে চাকরেরা বিশ্বাসঘাতক । মিইয়ে আসা গাঢ় অন্ধকারে ওকে হেরে যেতে দেখে রোমের ইগলপাখি উল্লাসে বাজাচ্ছে ভেঁপুভেরি । ওর কমনীয় রূপে বাঁধা শেষতম লোকটি ঘরে ঢোকে ঋজু ও রাজকীয় । নিজেরি রানির সামনে তোতলায় : “দাসি-গোলামের মতো হাঁটাবে তোমাকে রাজপথে, কেননা বিজয়ী !” শুনেও ও শুয়ে থাকে, হাঁসের মতন গ্রীবা, শান্ত গরিমায় ! ভোর হলে শেকলে বাঁধবে ওর ছেলেমেয়েদের । সামান্য প্রেম পৃথিবীতে রয়ে গেছে ওর : এও লোকটির সাথে রসিকতা । তারপর ছেড়ে দেবে শেষ করুণার মতো বিষধর শ্যামল বুকের মাঝে আলতো হাতে কালো জীবটাকে ।”

CommunismDictatorshipSoviet RussiaCleopatraStaterepression
Book:Antologia Poética
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“She held a violin delicately tucked in between her soft neck and athletic shoulder, and she was dressed in a white goddess-like gown that pooled on the floor. Wide gold cuffs covered her wrists, dangly earrings hung from her ears and an ornate headband haloed her sharply bobbed black wig. Her eyes were outlined in a smoldering, liquid black, and her lips were the color of blood. She was dressed as Cleopatra. Is there a moment in every relationship when it becomes life-threateningly dangerous? When you realize that your heart is so comfortably resting in someone else's hands that should they decide to drop it you would never fully recover? In the case of my relationship with Matilda Duplaine it was at this very moment.”

ViolinDressed UpHead Over HeelsCleopatra
Book:The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine
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“You must make a choice,” the Goddess said. “Is that my only choice – to choose between men?” I asked. “I want what Mother had!” “Your mother chose two men,” she said with light laughter. “No! She chose independence for her country. She chose power and freedom,” I yelled. Almost as if in response, a pulsating energy moved up from the ground into my bare feet. It thrummed up my body and radiated out in a bright light, first from my toes, then from my fingertips, then the top of my head. “I choose power,” I said. “I choose freedom.”

ChoiceIsisCleopatraCleopatra Selene
Book:Cleopatra's Moon
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“I especially treasured my glimpses of Mother, Queen Cleopatra VII. She sat on a golden throne, looking as resplendent as one of the giant marble statues guarding the tombs of the Old Ones. Diamonds twinkled in a jungle of black braids on her ceremonial wig. She wore a diadem with three rearing snakes and a golden broad collar, shining with lapis lazuli, carnelian, and emeralds, over her golden, form-fitting pleated gown. In one hand, she held a golden ankh of life, while the other clasped the striped crook and flail of her divine rulership. Her stillness radiated power, like a lioness pausing before the pounce. It left me breathless with awe.”

CleopatraCleopatra Selene
Book:Cleopatra's Moon
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“CLEOPATRA TO THE ASP The bright mirror I braved: the devil in it Loved me like my soul, my soul: Now that I seek myself in a serpent My smile is fatal. Nile moves in me; my thighs splay Into the squalled Mediterranean; My brain hides in that Abyssinia Lost armies foundered towards. Desert and river unwrinkle again. Seeming to bring them the waters that make drunk Caesar, Pompey, Antony I drank. Now let the snake reign. A half-deity out of Capricorn, This rigid Augustus mounts With his sword virginal indeed; and has shorn Summarily the moon-horned river From my bed. May the moon Ruin him with virginity! Drink me, now, whole With coiled Egypt's past; then from my delta Swim like a fish toward Rome.”

CleopatraTed Hughes
Book:Lupercal
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“The Ptolemies were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra approximately as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor. The word ‘honey skinned’ recurs in descriptions of her relatives and would presumably applied to hers as well, despite the inexactitudes surrounding her mother and paternal grandmother. There was certainly Persian blood in the family, but even an Egyptian mistress is a rarity among the Ptolemies. She was not dark skinned.”

Ancient EgyptCleopatraPtolemaic DynastyCleopatra ViiPtolemiesThe Ptolemies
Book:Cleopatra: A Life
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