Warwick L Nixon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Secondly, she would have married a fellow royal
> and thus saved her own royal line "
>
> I posted the above while reading with the intent
> of commenting. Then I got to this..
>
> "In comparison, see how Cleopatra's son Caesarion
> was easily accepted by the Egyptians as the next
> pharaoh, without a single thought about Caesar (a
> Roman) being his father. "
>
> What I was going to say is that Cleopatra was
> reinforcing HER claim to the throne by joining
> with the Godhood of Caeser. Of course this would
> by extension have increased the Godhood of
> Her/Their son.
>
> "Politics makes strange bedfellows " comes to
> mind

---

As Cleopatra VII was already considered a goddess before she even met Julius Caesar, due to her father's promulgation of the Neo-Dionysian religion, in which the Ptolemies were equated with Egyptian deities, neither she nor Caesarion relied upon Caesar's godhood (declared by the Roman Senate in 42 BCE, after his death) for their position or status.

During Cleopatra's romance with Caesar in Egypt, she had him declared a god in Egypt about 46 BCE, long before the Romans did (this statement can also be found in Cicero, BTW). But it was her word as a living personification of Isis which granted him the divine status, not the other way around (Goudchaux 2001: 134).

Meanwhile, Caesarion was declared a godling at birth in 47 BCE, since he was the progeny of Cleopatra as Isis (Meadows 2001: 22). This is why I say that no thought was given to Caesar being the father of Caesarion at the birth, since the Egyptians saw Caesarion as divine at birth from a divine mother, and at the time, Caesar was not considered a god.

Reference

Goudchaux, G. W. 2001. Cleopatra's subtle religion strategy. In S.Walker and P. Higgs, Eds., Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth: 128-141. London: British Museum Press.

Meadows, A. 2001. Sins of the Fathers. In S.Walker and P. Higgs, Eds., Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth: 14-31. London: British Museum Press.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom