Publisher's Synopsis
An examination and interpretation of the dreams and evocations that Cleopatra has inspired, including those created in her own life time.;In the 2000 years since her death Cleopatra has been re-created over and over again, each time in a form that fits the prejudices and fantasies of the age that produced it. To Chaucer she was the model of a good wife, while to Cecil B.De Mille she was "the wickedest woman in history". These various Cleopatras can be read as mirror-images of the culture that produced them and this book is about them as well as the sexual, racial and constitutional politics of these cultures.