All posts tagged: cleopatra

Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi – The Last Pharaoh Reclaims Her Voice

Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi – The Last Pharaoh Reclaims Her Voice

Published by José Betancourt

Desert sands rememberA queen defies history’s lies—Her voice rises still When Myths Breathe and Queens Speak The moment you open Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi, you’re not reading about Cleopatra—you’re listening to her. This isn’t another dusty historical retelling where scholars dissect the famous queen from a clinical distance. Instead, El-Arifi crafts something far more intimate and daring: a reclamation. The legendary pharaoh herself tears through centuries of propaganda, male-authored histories, and reductive archetypes to tell us, in her own words, “You know my name, but you do not know me.” El-Arifi, whose previous works include the acclaimed Faebound trilogy and The Final Strife series, brings her signature blend of political intrigue and mythological resonance to ancient Egypt. But this time, she’s working with a figure who exists simultaneously in history and legend, and the author navigates this duality with remarkable confidence. The Architecture of Myth-Making The novel’s structure is its first masterstroke. Divided into three parts—”The Witch,” “The Whore,” and “The Villain”—Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi confronts head-on the archetypes that have imprisoned its protagonist for …

When Barack and Michelle Obama Partied Like Antony and Cleopatra

When Barack and Michelle Obama Partied Like Antony and Cleopatra

Published by Sam Flores

For some, surrender is worse than death. Two thousand years earlier, in 30 BC, the queen of Egypt barricaded herself inside a tomb as her archnemesis, the first future emperor of Rome, closed ranks with his mighty army. But Cleopatra wasn’t alone. In her arms, she held her lover, Mark Antony. Soon, they’d both be dead from self-inflicted wounds. Antony and Cleopatra’s love story began more than a decade earlier, as if the gods themselves conspired to bring them together. He was a broad-shouldered, strapping soldier, said to be descended from Hercules—the Greek hero and son of Zeus, famed for his superhuman strength. She was the radiant, alluring, reputed daughter of Ra—the Egyptian sun god—and richer than most everyone in the Mediterranean. Before Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Cleopatra had been his (much younger) mistress, giving him a son, Caesarion. Antony, though a distant cousin of Caesar’s, was one of his closest allies. After Caesar’s murder, Cleopatra returned to Ptolemy XIV, her husband, coruler, and brother, in Egypt while Rome plunged into civil …