The Impact of Cleopatra's Gendered Iconography on Public's Opinion of Her

Because there was no modern day technology to spread messages or propaganda in Ancient Egypt, a ruler would often use art and iconography to convey something to their subjects. This was very common throughout history but particularly evident during the reign of Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic ruler from 51-30 BCE. Because of Egypt’s instability at this time as well as the fact that Cleopatra was a woman ruling by herself¬, which was very rare, it was extremely important for her to be able to have influence on the public’s opinion and legitimize her right to rule in Egypt. She was able to do this by depicting herself in different manners and with varied gendered iconography on widely accessible objects like coins.

When analyzing coins with Cleopatra VII’s portrait, there is a clear transition from portraying herself with very masculine features when she first rose to power, to then using very feminine features later on. This was a very deliberate and bold tactic and it allowed her to rule successfully in Egypt for many years (Kendall). Using the art and iconography on coins to ‘send messages’ to the ancient Egyptians allowed her to have a broad reach across the population. Showing physical depictions of herself in these objects allowed her to create her own narrative of who she was as a queen and also get people talking, therefore spreading information about her by word of mouth. Additionally, by using iconography instead of writing, she was able to reach a broader audience because many people were illiterate (Kendall).

Being able to demonstrate her legitimacy to her people was crucial because Cleopatra faced many challenges in her fight to power. When she was young, her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, struggled to maintain his throne and there were many changes in authority around the time of his reign. After he passed in 51BC she became co-regent with her brother, Ptolemy XIII, but early on, they had a falling out which started a civil war between them. In order to gain support from Julius Caesar, a roman dictator, in the war, Ptolemy XIII had one of Caesar’s enemies killed, but this backfired and Cleopatra decided to step in: she snuck into Caesars palace and convinced him to help her restore her joint rule with her brother. They were successful in this, but the sibling’s alliance didn’t last long and resulted in more conflict between Egypt and Rome. Once Caesar was finally able to restore peace, he put Cleopatra in power; however, the Egyptian people still did not approve of her or the Roman involvement in Egypt she brought with her. Her power over Egypt was far from secure (Peek).

Cleopatra VII also faced the challenge of being a female in a position of power. The majority of rulers throughout the history of Ancient Egypt were all men; even if there was a woman in control behind the scenes or along with her son, she was rarely ever ruling alone. There had been a couple women in power in Egypt’s recent history, but many of their regimes had ended very poorly so the Egyptian people were skeptical of her ability to rule. Because of this, Cleopatra had to make extra efforts to justify her position and legitimize her leadership in the eyes of the people; after seeing the struggle her father went through, she knew it was important to have the public’s support (Kendall). In the early days of her reign as queen starting in 51 BC, she did this by representing herself with masculine iconography instead of accurate depictions of how she really looked (Holland). She had bronze coins minted (Fig. 1). with Hellenistic style portraits of her profile in which "she has large eyes, a prominent nose, full lips—features that recall images of her father, Ptolemy XII" (Kendall).

In depicting herself as a male pharaoh like her father in these coins, she showed people that she had the ability to rule and emphasized her independence from her brothers. It gave off the appearance of a less drastic change in leadership to the people. Cleopatra is still maintaining the continuity of the dynasty as any male heir to the throne would; "she may be a woman, but she is no queen, she reigns as king" (Kendall). In the coin portrait, she also shows this by depicting herself wearing an emblem of male royalty–a royal diadem (Varner). Religion was also a big reason for the masculine representation as having a king in charge was associated with maintaining ma’at, the concept of order, justice, harmony, and balance in Ancient Egyptian religion. It was the pharaohs duty to maintain ma’at, and she was able to appease the people by adjusting her iconography in these coins (Kendall).

The masculine representation that we see in the bronze coin from was the only way that Cleopatra has been found to be represented from the early years of her control in Egypt. This all changed, however, in 47 BC when she became pregnant with her son Caesarion, the child of Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar. After this moment, there was a major transition to hyper-feminine depictions of Cleopatra. She continued to use gendered iconography to influence the Egyptian population, but now with more feminine characteristics to send a different message: she now wanted to emphasize her materiality and show herself as a "fertility goddess" (Kendall).

Becoming a mother changed a lot for Cleopatra. "As ruler of Egypt, this transition had larger implications for her than it would have had for any other woman, for the liminal status of the royal family allowed Cleopatra to ascend beyond the realm of mere mortals and become a divine mother goddess" (Kendall). This was because of the connection to the goddesses Isis that she would now have, as they were both Egyptian fertility goddesses. Isis also raised her son Horus on her own, as Cleopatra would do with Caesarion, which made the connection between them even more strong in the eyes of the people. Her pregnancy is evidence of her fertility and implies that she has the ability to make Egypt’s land fertile as well.

Most importantly, however, she bore a son and not a daughter and had become the mother of the next pharaoh. A son ensured that there would be a successor to the throne and ma’at would be maintained, which was important especially after a period of turmoil in Egypt (Kendall). Because her new child had a lot of political significance, she wanted to spread the news and emphasize her connection to the goddess Isis by minting new coins. The date is not particularly clear, but sometime between in the birth and death of Caesarion Cleopatra had new bronze coins made with both mother and child’s faces on the head of the coin to do just that (Fig. 2). In this portrait of the two, Cleopatra no longer wears a ‘diadem’, the symbol of male royalty, but rather a ‘Stephanie crown’, the symbol of a goddess; she is showing the public that she is a goddess on earth. She also portrays herself with more feminine facial features to separate herself from the looks of her father and further associate herself with a goddess (Kendall).

Around 34 BC, however, Cleopatra returns to the masculine representation we saw in previous coins after she married Mark Antony in 37 BC. The new coins minted were silver tetradrachms that featured her portrait on the front and his on the back (Fig. 3). Mark Antony’s portrait is shown with "short hair, a flat nose, a strong chin, and a long, thick neck" (Greuel). Cleopatra VII’s portrait on this coin has a very strong resemblance to Mark Antony’s, which again depicts her with very masculine features including a large Adam’s apple on her neck. In this instance, representing her as masculine and a look alike of Antony’s was not only done to emphasize her power, but to show their unified partnership and the alliance between Egypt and Rome (Varner). Because she is on the front of the coin, however, it does still show that she is the more important figure than him (Greuel).

Cleopatra’s used of gendered iconography in coins during her reign from 51-30 BC had a significant impact on the way people thought of her. Coins that represented her on the spectrum between male and female were made for different purposes: the masculine imagery was used to legitimize her right to rule over Egypt in the eyes of her subjects and ease their feelings about a woman in charge, while feminine imagery was used to emphasize her motherhood and connection to the fertility goddess Isis. By representing herself not as she realistically looked but how she wanted to be portrayed was a key to her success and ability to maintain power in Egypt at this time.