CLEOPATRA AND THE PANTHEON
Cleopatra is a myth of feminine charm: she was not beautiful, but she charmed with her persuasive voice, brilliant conversation and vast culture, and she spoke several languages.As had already happened with Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey, Mark Antony was easily seduced during their first meeting in Tyre, where she sailed up the river Cydnus aboard a golden ship with silver oars and purple sails.
Plutarch wrote that Cleopatra «lay under a gold-studded canopy, adorned like Venus, while boys like painted Cupids stood on either side and fanned her. Likewise also the most beautiful of her maids, dressed as Nereids and Graces, were stationed, some at the helms, others at the reefing lines. Wonderful scents of countless offerings of incense wafted along the banks of the river».
A spectacular entrance, comparable to the one staged in Rome in front of Julius Caesar, staged in
1963 in the blockbuster Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor.Pliny the Elder wrote instead of an incredible bet between the two lovers: to show her wealth and magnificence, Cleopatra promised Mark Antony to spend a million sesterces for a single dinner with him.
The first course, although served with maximum splendor, was nothing exceptional and Mark Antony mockingly asked to see the bill. Cleopatra replied by saying that the second course would be for her alone, and would cost at least six hundred thousand sesterces.
As Pliny wrote,
«she had two very precious pearls in her ears, singular jewels and unique in the world, which were a marvel of Nature». The servants brought to the table a single golden cup filled with vinegar and «while Antony looked at her with a melancholy air, and wondered what she would do, she took a pearl from her ear, dipped it in the vinegar and, as soon as it had liquefied, drank it».
Lucius Munatius Plancus, the arbiter of the dispute, grabbed her hand and
declared to everyone that Mark Antony had lost the bet, preventing her from dissolving the second pearl in the vinegar.
Here the Pantheon comes into play, because the second pearl was cut in half, obtaining two earrings for the statue of the goddess Venus that was inside the building.In fact, Pliny explains: «That was the end of one pearl... And after this brave queen, winner of such a great bet, was taken prisoner, and deprived of her royal property, the
other pearl was cut in two, so that it would remain for posterity in memory of that half-dinner, hanging from both ears of Venus in Rome, in the Pantheon temple».That was of course the first Pantheon, the one built and dedicated by Agrippa in 27 BC, as we know from the inscription with his name that Hadrian wanted to keep on the pediment when he finished its reconstruction in about 125 AD.
We know that inside the first Pantheon the statue of the deified Julius Caesar was placed, next to those of the protective deities of the Gens Iulia: Mars and Venus, which
was adorned with the earrings made from Cleopatra's very precious pearl.The statues of Augustus and Agrippa were instead placed outside in the portico, at the express request of Augustus himself.
This and much more about th
e Pantheon, its millenary history and building secrets can be read in our book Pantheon. Architecture and Light, also in English language.
Do not miss the Arc and Square of Light on September 4-5-6 at 12:45 am