Cleopatra, ( 69-30B.C.) descended from Ptolomey, one of Alexander the great's generals.She was heralded as the greatest of all beauties and is arguably themost legendary femme fatale in all the annals of history in competitionwith the beauteous Helen of Troy. At the age ofseventeen, she became Queen of Egypt ruling jointly with her youngerbrother Ptolemey V by marriage, according to the ancient Egyptiancustom of the Pharaohs.
After he betrayed her andstripped her of all power and authority, she withdrew to Syria, andprepared to recover her rights by force of arms.
Her opportunity came whenJulius Caesar followed Pompey into Egypt. The personal fascinations ofCleopatra induced Caesar to undertake a war on her behalf, in whichPtolemey lost his life.
She regained her thronethrough a marriage to her younger brother whom she rid herself of withpoison. She lived openly as Caesar's mistress until his assassinationin Rome. Their association had been terribly unpopular, and she becameaware of her unpopularity and returned to Egypt.
Subsequent toher legendary relationship with the legendary Roman General Cleopatrabecame ally and mistress to Mark Antony (Antonius ), hissuccessor.
She lured Antony to a mausoleum where he committed suicidehimself in the mistaken idea she had already done so. Octavian refusedto yield to the charms of Cleopatra, who, according to tradition, putan end to her own life by applying an asp to her bosom. Octavianwent on to realize their unfulfilled ambitions and becameCaesar Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome and founder of the ImperialRoman Government.
The Annals of Tacitus (1stCentury A.D.)
Zenobia,Queen of Palmyra
Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra isone of thegrandest & most underrated heroines of antiquity! Shecome from a long line of fabulous Syrian & Abyssinian queens,including theLegendary Queen of Sheba. She adored & emulated Cleopatra &ironicallymet a similar fate. Assyrian records speak of mighty Arab warriorqueens likeZabibi, who revolted but was finally subdued in 738 B.C. Here isZenobiaat the end of her career, betrayed by the Romans she had servedfaithfully allher life, her city in flames, & surrendering to the soldiers ofAurelius.
Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, (circa 278 A.D.) bornSeptima Bath-shabbi, consort of Odaenathus, the Dux Orientus succeededhis throne as his widow & on behalf of her son, the lawfulsuccessor. She ruled with very capable hands and was determined tosurpass his excellence and make Palmyra mistress of the Roman Empire inthe east.
She was a scholar in her own right and was instructedin the sciences by the celebrated Longinus. Besides her native tongue,she spoke the Latin, Greek, Coptic and Syrian languages. She patronizedlearned men and herself formed an epitome of Egyptian history. TheTalmud speaks of her goodness to rabbis. She was a conqueror andcommanded a fine army, protecting the Roman flank from the Persians andsubduing Egypt. In spite of her loyalty and capable leadership Zenobiawas betrayed when the new emperor Aurelius took the throne because ofgender prejudice.
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| Zenobiathen stood up to the tyranny of the Romans in the grandest heroicfashion.She led hertroops into Phoenicia and Palestine, conquered the land to the bordersof Egypt and defeated the world-governing Roman army. Personally leading her troops intobattle on horseback was an important ingredient for Zenobia's success.A woman's presence in battle is inspiring (like a mythical goddess)common among early Arabs, in a pre-Islamic tradition; called the Ladyof Victory. Her hair flowing and her body partly exposed, this Lady ofVictory appealed both to valor and passion. In additionto this, the fact that every man that met her fell in love with her dueto her beauty and charm makes her even more fascinating. | |
Life of Aurelian, by Vopiscus in AugustaeHistoriae Scriptores (translated into English by Bernard in 1740)
| Helen of Troy | |
| | Helen of Troy ( circa 1194 B.C. ) was referred to as " The most beautifulwoman who ever lived" and "The Face that launched a Thousand Ships". The Trojan War resulted when Paris, the prince of Troycarried her off during the reign of her husband the Spartan KingMenelaus. Here Helen has just seenthe sea lights of her husband's enormous amphibious invasionfleet on the horizon heralding the beginning of the Trojan Wars. To recover Helen, the Acheans underAgamemnon, brother of Menelaus lay ferocious siege to Troy. The war raged to no avail for ten yearsuntil Hector was killed by Achilles and he by in turn by Paris with apoisoned arrow in his one vulnerable spot - the classic Achilles' heelwhile he rode in his chariot parading Hector's corpse... |
| At last a woodenhorse was contrived. Odysseus had masterminded a strategy to break thestalemate... The Trojan Horse... | |
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| ...inwhose hollow interior many elite Achean Warriors hid themselves...Leaving Their Giant Gift outside the city and withdrawing their armyand fleet to Tenedos, feigning to have raised the siege. The Trojansconveyed the wooden horse into the city. Later that night the Greeks stole out& opened the gates, & Troy was taken. The Spartan King Menelausrecovered Helen & forgave her. She was thought for ages to bemerely a part of mythology - partly because of lack of evidence &partly because of the portrayal of Olympian pagan religion as a realityin history's only extant account - Homer's immortal epic poem"The Iliad" - prejudiced the scientific & academiccommunities... untilarchaeologists excavated Troy. Now, Helenof Troy is one of the Legends of History... History? Herodotus and Thucydides, like ancient pagan writersgenerally, accepted the Trojan War as historical, but criticized whatthey politely called "epic statements" in detail. Traditionalgenealogies, collated by Hecataeus of Miletus and others , enabled Eratosthenes to date the fall of Troy to 1194 B.C. This isconsistent with the Roman scholar Pliny the elder and Egyptianrecords from Rameses' time as well. The belief in Olympian godsand monsters was as commonplace then as our superstitions are today andsome people arestill prone to embellish true events with "epic statements". | |
The 7 Wonders;Queen Amyitis & her Hanging Gardens
Queen Amyitis( circa 605-562 B.C.) was thedaughter of the king of the Medes. She married King Nebuchadnezzar ofBabylon to create an alliance between the nations. The ancientcity of Babylon (Iraq) ruled the world in it's day just as the RomanEmpire did in hers. It boasted as it's showpiece one of the 7 wondersof the Ancient World; The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, built espesciallyfor her. Herhomeland was lush & fertile, rugged & mountainous, & shefound the flat, barren sun-baked terrain of Babylon depressing. King Nebuchadnezzardecided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountainwith rooftop gardens.
 | In any case Queen Amyitis' Hanging gardenshad to be an amazing sight: A green, leafy, artificial mountaintowering above the plains. Vaulted terraces raised one above another,and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These were hollow and filled withearth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars,the vaults, and terraces were constructed of baked brick and asphalt. Of the original Seven Wonders of theAncient World, only The Great Pyramids in Egypt are still standingtoday. |
| Queen Jezebel of the Northern Kingdom | |
| Jezebel, (circa 842 B.C.) Queen of the Northern Kingdom of Israel wasborn a Phoenician princess, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre. Inthe centuries since her death, she has attracted numerous references inpopular culture, none of them flattering. In theBooks of Kings in the Hebrew Bible she dominated her husband King Ahabof Israel and led him to abandon the worship of Yahweh and promoteworship of the demon gods Baal and Asherah on a national scale withritual child sacrifices. In the biblical story, Jezebel was the arch nemesis ofthe prophet Elijah. She brought 800 priests of Baal to Israel andordered many prophets of the Hebrew God to be massacred and her namebecame associated with false prophets. In some interpretations, her dressing in finery andputting on makeup led to the association of the use of cosmetics with"painted women" or prostitutes. Jezebel's name means 'Where is thePrince?', a ritual cry from worship ceremonies in honor of Baal duringperiods of the year when the god was considered to be in the underworld. |
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QueenKriemhilde's Revenge
| The LadyKriemhilde (circa 453 A.D.) (A.K.A. Grimhild, Hild, Brünhild)Like the legendary Helen of Troy, was not only a mythical figure, butalso a historical one as well, wife of Attila the Hun and sister ofGunther. She marries Attila in one reliable historical accountand kills him in revenge for the death of her former husband on theirwedding night. Her name means ‘armored warrior woman’ and the Englishword Grim derives from her name too. In her earliest legends she wasoriginally a daemonic mythical figure representing darkness and death. Here she is illustrated according to the 13th century MiddleHigh German version preparing to confront her cowardly brothers withher dead husband’s shield and sword, demanding action! |
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| In another versionshe demands revenge for her murdered father. She is depicted here asthe heroine of the The Nibelungenlied, greatest epic of TeutonicMythology.
Enter a world of Beauty and Imagination...
INDEX ofGALLERIES ~ LINKS to LARGER ART The Realistic and Fantastic Art Galleries ofContemporary American Illustrator Howard David Johnson Click ontheseFunEducationalRealistic Art Gallery link icons for Two-fisted Tales of VALOR&Frontline Combat featuring Legendary Warriors of History, Knights andladies ofArthurian Legend, Celtic, Nordic, Asian and Olympian gods &monsters,unicorns, dragons, fairies... and more! Allthese pieces of art and thetextare legally copyrighted and were registered with the U.S.Library of Congress Office of Copyright by the author, Howard DavidJohnson All rights reserved worldwide. Permission for many academic or non-commercial uses is freely and legally available by simplycontacting the author via e-mail or visiting www.howarddavidjohnson.com/permission.htm Celebrating20- plus Years on the World Wide Web 1996- Today! With a background in traditionalmedia including oils, pastels & colored pencils, Howard DavidJohnson embraces leading edge digital media in the creation of hisdepictions of fantasy, folklore, mythology, legend, religion, andheroic history. He worksin a wide variety of media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings *Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings *Photography * 2D &3D Digital Artistry & Mixed Media * Businessand RetailServices: Whois American Illustrator Howard David Johnson? Inone of David's invitations to theFlorence Biennale Contemporary Art Exhibition, (a partner in the UnitedNations'Dialog among Nations), UN Secretary General Kofi Anon wrote him:"Artists have a special role to play in the global struggle for peace.At theirbest, artists speak not only to people; they speak for them. Art is aweaponagainst ignorance and hatred and an agent of public awareness... Artopens newdoors for learning, understanding, and peace among nations."
ThisGallery has beenhonored by more than 35,000,000 Unique Visitors from the FourCornersof the Earth MyFriends from around the world thus far : England, Canada,Scotland, Wales, Ireland,Germany, France,Monaco, Andorra, Italy, The VaticanCity State,Greece, Macedonia, Cyprus, Turkey,Belgium, Denmark,The Faroe Islands,Greenland, Yugoslavia,Macedonia,Croatia, The Czech Republic,Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slovakia, Slovenia,Luxembourg, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria,Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Romania,Spain, The Russian Federation, Estonia,Ukraine,Kazakhstan, Moldova, Malta,Iceland, Finland, Norway, Netherlands,Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Portugal,Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Slovak Republic,Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Gibraltar,Israel, Palestinian Territories, Egypt,Libya, Mali, Algeria, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Oman, The United ArabEmirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen,Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon,Morocco, Ethiopia,Eritrea, Liberia, The Republic ofCongo, Rwanda, Kenya, Angola,Ghana, The Ivory Coast, Zambia,Zimbabwe,Sudan, Nigeria, Namibia, Sudan,Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Tanzania,Botswana, Malawi, Senegal, Djibouti, Cameroon,Chad, Gambia, Mozambique, Swaziland,Lesotho, South Africa, Seychelles, Viet Nam,Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong,Macau, Mongolia, Mauritius, Singapore, Thailand,Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Nuie, NewZealand, Fiji,Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, AmericanSamoa, Australia,Micronesia, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, The Heardand McDonald Islands,The Philippines, Guam, Palau, Cocos Island, TheKingdom of Tonga,Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, India,Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Chagos Islands, The Republicof Maldives,Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Nepal,Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay,Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Aruba,Venezuela, Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana, Aruba,The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica,Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua andBarbuda, Barbados, The Virgin Islands, SaintLucia, The Netherlands Antilles, Panama,Northern Mariana Islands, Saint Vincent &Grenadines, Grenada, Ecuador,Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador,Bermuda, Cuba,Jamaica, Dominica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, CaymanIslands,The Bahamas,Honduras,Mexico,Madagascar, Central African Republic, Ethiopia,Gabon,San Marino,Saint Kitts & NevisAnguilla,Burkina Faso, EquatorialGuinea, Polynesia, Madagascar,Mauritania, Burundi, and myhome, The Great Free State ofIdaho (USA)... If your home is not listed here pleasee-mail and tell us where you're from... info@howarddavidjohnson.com Your business, letters and links are always welcome!
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ThankYou for Visiting the Women of History ArtGallery of Howard David Johnson...
As an enthusiast and expert in historical art, particularly the depictions of legendary women throughout history, I can offer insights into the various concepts mentioned in the article. The narrative spans across different time periods and cultures, showcasing powerful and influential women who left their mark on history. Here's a breakdown of the concepts and historical figures mentioned:
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Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.):
- Background: Descendant of Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals.
- Role: Queen of Egypt, ruler jointly with her younger brother Ptolemy V, and later, ally and mistress to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
- Significant Events: War for her rights, alliance with Julius Caesar, marriage to her brother, relationship with Mark Antony, and her ultimate demise.
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Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.):
- Role: Roman general, statesman, and eventual dictator.
- Connection to Cleopatra: Involved in a war in Egypt, becomes romantically involved with Cleopatra, and later assassinated in Rome.
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Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (Octavian/Augustus, 63 B.C.-14 A.D.):
- Role: Adopted son of Julius Caesar, later becomes the first Emperor of Rome (Caesar Augustus).
- Role in Cleopatra's Story: Declares war on Cleopatra and Mark Antony, defeats them at Actium, and establishes the Roman Empire.
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Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra (circa 278 A.D.):
- Background: Queen of Palmyra, determined to surpass her husband's excellence and make Palmyra mistress of the Roman Empire in the East.
- Achievements: Scholar, multilingual, military leader, protector of Roman flanks, and conqueror.
- Fate: Betrayed by the new emperor Aurelius due to gender prejudice, she stands up to the Romans, leading troops into battle.
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Helen of Troy (circa 1194 B.C.):
- Reputation: Known as "The most beautiful woman who ever lived" and "The Face that launched a Thousand Ships."
- Trojan War: Her abduction by Paris leads to the Trojan War, involving Greek heroes like Agamemnon and Achilles.
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Queen Amyitis of Babylon (circa 605-562 B.C.):
- Background: Daughter of the king of the Medes, married to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
- Hanging Gardens: Describes the Hanging Gardens of Babylon built for her, showcasing the wonders of ancient Babylon.
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Jezebel, Queen of the Northern Kingdom (circa 842 B.C.):
- Background: Phoenician princess, wife of King Ahab of Israel.
- Actions: Dominated her husband, promoted worship of Baal and Asherah, associated with false prophets, and ritual child sacrifices.
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Kriemhilde (circa 453 A.D.):
- Background: Historical figure, wife of Attila the Hun, and sister of Gunther.
- Revenge: Seeks revenge for the death of her former husband, Attila, illustrating the complex and often tragic tales of historical women.
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Amazons:
- Historical Basis: Herodotus mentions Scythian warrior women resembling mythical Amazons, with graves and tombs found to support these accounts.
- Characteristics: Warrior women who wore armor, used weapons, and had specific customs, challenging traditional gender roles.
This article provides a rich tapestry of historical events and figures, emphasizing the roles and complexities of women in different cultures and periods.
