Cleopatra, Patriarchy, and the Trap of Honor

CW// self-harm and suicide

Kara and Amber take on the most famous death in all of antiquity—Cleopatra VII’s—and ask what “honor” really means when the sources are Roman, i.e. biased AF, and the stakes are imperial, that is Octavian is using Cleopatra’s fall to condense all power into the hands of one person, his own.

Starting with a timeline of events, Kara and Amber unpack Octavian’s propaganda about Cleopatra’s death by suicide, and Kara argues that the suicide story serves Rome far more than it serves Egypt’s last queen. Using David Graeber’s Debt as a lens, they consider the ways in which honor, debt, and violence travel together in patriarchal systems—and how those rules are gendered. Antony’s suicide reads as “honorable,” while Cleopatra’s is framed as hysterical and selfish and maternal abandonment—all the worst things a woman within patriarchy could do. They probe the politics of narratives about “honor” that trap women who rule (with nods to Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Zenobia). The result is a sharp, feminist read of Cleopatra’s end.

Or, as Kara likes to say: Suicide my ass… he straight up killed her and lied about it.

Fight me. :)

Show notes

David Graeber’s Debt

Check out our other episodes on Cleopatra:

Episode #57 – Reception, Ownership, and Race: Netflix’s “Queen Cleopatra”

Episode #60 – Part II: Reception, Ownership, and Race: Netflix’s “Queen Cleopatra”

Episode #82 – The Death of Cleopatra: Murder or Suicide?

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