RT Article
T1 R. Cleopatra? Constructions of an Egyptian Queen in the Babylonian Talmud
JF Journal of ancient Judaism
VO 13
IS 2
SP 224
OP 251
A1 Bonesho, Catherine E.
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1807827313
AB Informed by the political power of the image of Cleopatra VII Philopator in late ancient southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, this study investigates the Babylonian Talmud’s portrait of the Egyptian queen. I argue that depictions of the queen in classical rabbinic literature may not be as negative as previously thought and that the figure of Cleopatra acts as a potent character for the rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud to assert rabbinic authority because of the depth of her knowledge about the human body and her fight against Rome. The portrait of Cleopatra serves a variety of purposes, first to support certain rabbinic concepts, like resurrection and menstrual impurity, through references to Cleopatra’s knowledge of embryology and the human body, and second, to elevate and include the rabbis themselves in the famous struggle of Cleopatra versus Rome, East versus West, with the goal of further authorizing the rabbinic project itself.
K1 Zenobia
K1 Rome
K1 Resurrection
K1 Medicine
K1 Babylonian Talmud
K1 Cleopatra
DO 10.30965/21967954-bja10020