This is a short video by The Open University which is suitable for strong Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students. It deals with the myth of Cleopatra's beauty, and students will get plenty of help about what is being said just by watching the movie. Anyway, they can find a full transcript below.
Self-study activity:
Watch the film and answer the questions below.
1 What year did she become pharaoh of Egypt?
2 Who was her first husband?
3 What did Cleopatra use her sexuality for?
4 How did Cleopatra make a big impression on Caesar? She had herself rolled up in...
5 When was Caesar killed?
6 How was Caeser killed?
7 What was Iris goddess of?
8 Is there evidence of Cleopatra's beauty?
9 What does she look like on some official coins?
10 Was she loved by her people?
11 What was Cleopatra's greatest love?
Cleopatra's career as beauty and seductress didn't get off to a great start. In 51 B.C., aged 18, she became pharaoh of Egypt but she was forced to follow tradition and marry her ten-year-old brother. She soon got shot of him, but unfortunately her ministers also got shot of her. In exile, she had no power of her own, so she did what women have done for centuries, used her sexuality to manipulate men.
The man she had to seduce was Caesar, ruler of Rome, world superpower. She was 21, he was 52. To make a big impression, she had herself rolled up in a carpet and delivered to his feet. It worked. The two became lovers and she got back her throne.
But in 44 B.C., Caesar was stabbed to death. Three men succeeded him; Mark Antony taking charge of Rome's eastern territories. Cleopatra knew that Mark Antony was a big fan of Bacchus, god of wine, so she went to meet him as Isis, goddess of fertility.
A night of passion followed, a match made in heaven. It was also a partnership that worked on earth. He helped her keep Egypt, she bankrolled his empire. They were happy, but Rome wasn't. Mark Antony's co-ruler declared war. The couple's joint forces were no match for the full might of Rome. So rather than be captured and separated, they chose suicide. Cleopatra seduced the two most powerful men of her day, but there's no real evidence she was a beauty.
On some official coins, she looks more like a bloke. We are told she was an excellent pharaoh, loved by her people. Famed not for her beauty, but for her intelligence, wit and charm. She used her brains to play men in order to protect her greatest love, Egypt.
