Mark Gagnon

ruled intoxication and ecstasy and theater and chaos.

He goes against the social order with wine and madness and, you know, the feelings of becoming something other than yourself.

And together, they govern the same human experience, which is ultimately losing control and giving into impulse.

So when Cleopatra appears as Aphrodite to meet Antony, she's turning their alliance into...

like this role-play living myth that the ancient world that they lived in would have instantly recognized.

And once again, it works.

This is what's crazy.

Antony is just completely captivated, not just by the show, but just by Cleopatra herself.

And again, this is where you get so many of the stories of her being like this beautiful seductress.

People dispute this, but let's get a picture of old classic Cleopatra.

This would be helpful right now.

But again, ancient sources describe her as charismatic and intellectually brilliant, but they don't really refer to her as beautiful.

Even Plutarch writes that Cleopatra's beauty alone wasn't extraordinary, which crazy diss, right?

Probably didn't need to include that, but he did.

But he did say that her intelligence and her voice and her conversational skills made her irresistible.

I mean, so yeah, this is the Hollywood version that people see with the bangs.

I mean, wood.

But yeah, what's this one?

That one, World History Encyclopedia.

I mean, she's cute.