Tag: Shakespeare

Did Cleopatra Prefer Poison to Suicide by Snake?

Still from ZDF Kleopatras Tod Alexandria, 30BC. When Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt, is forced to surrender to Octavian, she decides she’d rather die than fall in enemy hands. She locks herself in the temple, and manages to deceive her Roman captors: by inducing an Egyptian cobra to bite her on the arm, she kills herself. A quiet and painless death. Or so the story goes. 2,000 years after the famous suicide, German historian Christoph Schaefer is challenging this ‘suicide-by-snake’ theory, claiming the Queen used a mixture of hemlock, wolfsbane and opium to poison herself.

Ruling out Death by Snake

After studying historical texts and consulting with toxicologists, Christoph Schaefer came to the conclusion that an asp bite believed to be that of an Egyptian cobra could not have caused a slow and painless death. The viper’s venom would have paralysed Cleopatra’s body, whilefully conscious,causing agonizing pains. An particularly awkward, excruciating death, unsuitable for a queen and incompatible with the quiet and pain-free death described by the ancient Roman historians.

But didn’t Shakespeare fantasise.. err.. introduce she caressed the venomous snake to her breast? Professor Dietrich Mebs, toxicologist from Frankfurt University: This would be highly impractical, because this particular area has a large amount of fat tissue, slowing down the progress of the poison in the body. It takes it the longer until the effect of the snake venom occurs.

snake bite symptoms Schaefer points out that even if the queen was willing to face the pain, death-by-snake is quite unpredictable: although the Egyptian cobra’s venom is a potent neurotoxin, and just a few milligrams are enough to kill an adult human, the bite itself is not always lethal.

When defending itself, a snake is capable of biting without injecting venom into its victim. The so-called ‘dry bite’, allowing the serpent to avoid wasting venom on a creature too large for it to eat, would be,although obnoxious, far from lethal. Would the queen take this risk?

Then How Did Queen Cleopatra Die?

Then how did Cleopatra commit suicide, assuming she wasn’t murdered by Octavian’s men and death-by-snake is no option? Four-hundred years beforeEgypt’s queen heard about her lover’s death, the philosopher Socrates was sentenced (for corrupting the youth and impiety, if you’re curious) to execution by drinking a potion containing hemlock, one of nature’s most powerful toxins. That the Egyptians had an extensive knowledge of plant medicine is well documented in ancient Egypt’s most famous medical papyrus. The’Ebers Papyrus‘ reveals that Queen Cleopatra’s physicians must have known about plant toxins, describing amongst others aconite and mandrake.

Drug Overdose:Hemlock, Opium and Aconite

Professor Mebs suggests that Cleopatra took a poisonous cocktail to escape her hopeless situation. The main ingredient of this concoction would have been hemlock (which paralyses the nervous system until you die from respiratory failure), which the queen would have combined with a pinch of aconite (or monkshood), just to be on the safe side, and opium. The opium, a powerful painkiller that with a large enough dose would have put Egypt’s last queen into a gentle sleep, rendering her oblivious to her death by suffocation. All’s well that ends well?

The researchers will present their full findings on Adventure Science, screened by German TV channel ZDF today at 10.15pm. The full documentary ‘Kleopatras Tod’ is available on the network’s website here. (It also contains some nice underwater footage from the excavations by Goddio, subject of the current exhibition ‘Cleopatra: the search for the Last Queen of Egypt‘.)

The Myth of a Serpent

But then why did the myth of suicide-by-snake become history?What does the snake symbolize? The documentarysuggeststhe Egyptian queen staged it all, a case of deliberate misinformation. After all, Cleopatra was constantly identified with snakes throughout her life: the snake was the emblem of the royal house of Egypt, as well as associated with the goddess Isis. A snake swallowing its own tail is a symbol of immortality, yet because of its poison is is also an omen of death. Quite appropriate a symbolic way to die, then?

Adding a sexual side to the Queen’s ‘brave’ suicide scene (and escape from capture) must have benefit Octavian as well: Cleopatra, the promiscuous queen, Egypt’s sex kitten, defeated by Octavian, restorer of Roman virtue. Contemporous historians must have decided Cleopatra was a serpent, of sinful nature, destroying two great Roman men, hypnotizing, poisoning and smothering them?

Nowadays, Cleopatra putting the viper to her breast just mainly makes for good TV and high viewing ratings. So, what’s your guess for the upcoming Cleopatra film? Will we see Angelina Jolie die by a toxic potion, by the hand of a vicious Roman or by snake? And if by snake (my guess), arm or breast? !

Jobs for Witches at Wookey Hole Caves

Wookey Hole Caves, is planning to bring its ancient history to life by hiring a resident witch to live in the caves and teach tourists about their history and craft. Hours are seasonal, but this is no pocket money summer job the owners of the caves are offering 50k (pro rata) for the right witch.

The original Wookey Witch is thought to have lived in the caves during Britains Dark Ages, and put a curse on a local romance, before being turned into a stallagtite in return.

The Dark Ages are thought to have begun when the defeat of the last Western Roman Empire leader Romulus Augustulus in 476AD brought about the fall of the Roman Empire, bringing Britain down with it. There are few written records from the period, and scant evidence even of pottery, and historians are unsure of what went on during this unilluminated era.

The original Wookey Witch would be a far cry from the idea of witches that we have today. Despite her bad rep, the witches of the Dark Ages were generally thought of as doddering and harmless old ladies, eccentric and self-sufficient, with a knowledge of herbs – although this particular witch clearly had a bit of a chip on her shoulder when it came to courting. One writer explains:

‘During the darkest of dark ages in Britain… witches were thought to exist on the outer fringes of society, dabbling in various dark arts but not necessarily in evil or in practices harmful to the larger community. During these undocumented centuries, they were thought of as mostly isolated, curious figures, interested in magic or fairies. Examples might be those such as the Merlin character in the King Arthur legends or the fringe figures in Shakespeare’s MacBeth.’

Later, when the number of witches increased, conventional society took umbrage, and the image of witches evolved into the evil incarnation that children still think of today. By this time, society was just finding its religious feet again after the squabbling of the Dark Ages, and religious leaders decided to clamp down forcefully on the practice. By the Middle Ages, thousands of women were being killed across Europe in the now-famous witch hunts.

Lions and Hyenas and Mammouths… oh my!

But the Wookey Witch wasnt the first inhabitant of the caves. Archaeologists have discovered that the caves have been used by humans for 50,000 years. Artefacts from the Iron Age have been found, as well as evidence of Roman occupation. According to The Modern Antiquarian:

Only the first chamber, lit by daylight, was occupied. In 1912 an archaeologist Herbert Balch excavated the site. Pottery found there dates this occupation to the late Iron Age and into the time after the Roman occupation. The discovery of the bones of two goats, a pot, and the remains of a tethering post indicate that part of the outer chamber had also been used as a goat pen; and nearby was found an almost complete skeleton of an old woman, plus a dagger, knife, billhook and a stalagmite / alabaster ball…

‘Workmen digging the canal in 1857 found the remains of prehistoric man, including flint tools, as well as the bones of animals such as hyenas, mammoths, rhinoceros and lions.

Caverns of the Stars

The caves are now transformed into a major tourist attraction, with its own museum and all the usual facilities, plus its own-brand cheddar cheese (the temperature of the caverns are perfect for cheese-making). They have also been used as a set for films, including several scenes from the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as well as Robin of Sherwood and an episode of Dr Who.

Despite the ancient setting, the life of the new Wookey Witch will be a far cry from that of his or her spiritual ancestors. Public perception of British witches has come full circle, from harmless eccentrics to feared sorceresses, and back to harmless eccentrics again. But this time, there’s a very attractive salary package on top.

Auditions take place at Wookey Hole Caves on 28th July.