This image demonstrates a profound lack of historical understanding of Ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic period.

Even Hypatia would have face-palmed.

#history #ancientegypt #ptolemaic #histodons #cleopatra #netflix #neoplatonism

@paninid
I had a hard time caring about this one. Does it really matter who the actor is? Women tend to play Peter Pan in the theater for example. I haven't watched it though. Were they making out like she wasn't Greek?

@Woodchaz I was mainly very annoyed by the producer’s aggressively ahistorical take on the entire enterprise.

I watched it and it was okay.

The premise of the race/ethnology of Cleopatra is based on two (pun intended) “black holes” in her genealogy, which people can choose to assume was whomever they want (in this case Nubian influence, I suppose).

We’ll never know, it’s inconsequential, and doesn’t actually hurt or help anyone.

@paninid
I think I'll skip it. These things always happen, trying to shoehorn messy historical events into the culture of the day. But I'm looking for more depth in what I consume these days.

@Woodchaz I mean, I learned some stuff.

I didn’t realize Cleopatra was in Rome on the Ides of March.

@paninid
Huh. I didn't know that either. I know next to nothing about Ptolemaic Egypt. That Cleopatra was Greek was basically trivia. I'm very curious at the moment, since I realized Carl Jung was interested in #alchemy. If he thought it was relevant to psychology, I am too. I'm not interested in spiritualism, but I am interested in how my mind works.
@Woodchaz I think #Plotinus ate magic mushrooms 4 times in his life, achieving transcendental clarity with the Ineffable that inspired the #Enneads. I think there was a lot of foraging of mushrooms in and around the ancient Mediterranean. https://www.wired.com/story/the-psychedelic-scientist-who-sends-brains-back-to-childhood/

@Woodchaz
In the first 15 min, it glosses over contradictions not resolved for the sake of art:

1) indigenous Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish populations of Alexandria did not necessarily like / socialize with one another
2) giant holes where Cleopatra’s mother and grandmother are left openings to imagine who they could have been
3) the Ptolemaic pharaohs adopted some native indigenous practices for 3 centuries, including royal incest, but NOT for the mother/grandmother holes in the family tree