DISCOVERING CLEOPATRA at DENDERA TEMPLE

At Dendera Temple I would walk on the same ground that probably the most famous of all queens, Cleopatra herself had walked in, and  made offerings to the Goddess Hathor the beautiful one, goddess of love, motherhood and female sexuality, the goddess of the cycles of life and fertility, a goddess whose priestesses were trained in the sacred tantric arts of adornment and lovemaking, one of the keys I think that would unlock Cleopatra’s mystical influence and charm.

Through the centuries of time some people are just born to live a simple life, while others are born to be great, the great don’t just live inside the pages of history, they make it happen, and like a human cyclone or turbulent whirl wind they inflame their surroundings and light a burning torch of life becoming a light in the darkness and centuries of history. Even when their whirlwind dies, it doesn’t really matter because they truly lived life to the full for that one moment in time, and the cyclone they created is acknowledged for all time. Cleopatra V1 was one of these people, she came to the throne at the age of seventeen with her younger brother Ptolemy X11 and like Hatshepsut centuries before her she wanted to rule alone. Although of Greek origin Cleopatra learnt the Egyptian language and like a lioness she took Egypt as the cub to her breast and fearlessly protected her heritage. Cleopatra like Hatshepsut was a very determined woman, at 22 she was delivered at the feet of Julius Caesar wrapped in an oriental rug, she desperately needed his help to end the struggle for power between herself and her younger brother Ptolemy X11, with the arrival of Roman re-enforcements her brothers army was crushed in a sea battle at Alexandria and the young king was drowned. Cleopatra and Julius Caesar became lovers and she bore him a son Caesarion, she now had ultimate power of Egypt, with the protection of Julius Caesar, who was Rome in the eyes of Cleopatra, sadly her misconception of Roman culture, and their dislike of her usurping Caesar’s roman wife would eventually lead to her downfall. In all of Egypt this is the only temple that shows a relief of Cleopatra with her son, they are shown on the rear wall of the temple in union with the goddess Hathor and her son Ihy, at the opposite end. Across from their image is a small chapel created for the Goddess Isis by Augustus, the Roman Emperor who would have taken Cleopatra in chains to Rome unless she had chosen to die with the deadly bite of a snake, and on her death he pursued her son Caesarian who was then betrayed into his hands and was murdered.

Of all the temples in Egypt Dendera Temple would have been the most important temple for Cleopatra, as a mother she would have come to Dendera to ask the Goddess Hathor for her love help and protection, during the pregnancy and birth of her son Ceasarion by Julius Caesar, and he was represented on the temple wall at Dendera alongside her as sharing her rule. After her death, The Roman emperor Augustus lured Caesarion back to Rome with promises of power, only to have him killed. Mark Anthony was the father of her other children - Ptolemy Philadelphus and the twins, Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios.

This temple was a place of pilgrimage where divine healing and magical cures took place in the sanatorium, and wondrous festivals were celebrated in the astrological cycles that are vividly painted in turquoise and gold on the ceilings that celebrated the birth of Horus and the union of Horus to the Goddess Hathor