英語美文：埃及艷后

　　英語美文：埃及艷后
　　Three centuries later, shortly before the birth of Christ, Egypt was still ruled by a living goddess, Cleopatra, a Greek descended from one of Alexander's generals. She looked back to the Golden Age of Alexander's world empire and was determined to do even better herself.

　　Alexander died at the age of 32. By the time Cleopatra was 23, she had gone ever further than Alexander making her entrance into Rome as Queen of Egypt and consort of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in the world.

　　These were complex times. To keep your throne, you had to be adaptable, ruthless, intelligent and a great politician. Cleopatra had all these traits which is why history has provided us with lots of interpretations of Cleopatra. Renaissance poets saw her as a heroine dying for love. And painters alluded to her eroticism in their bare breasted portrayals of the dying queen. Hollywood reinforced the image of Cleopatra as a vamp starting with Theda Bara's seductive portrayal in 1917.

　　But who was the real Cleopatra? What did she really look like?

　　We're in Berlin because this is the best portrait of Cleopatra in the world. There are very few ancient sculptures that are existing. So this is probably as close as we're ever going to get to how she really looked. She's rather plain looking, isn't she? Look at her hair. It's tied up in a simple bun. It's a classical Greek hairstyle. It's practical but not exactly designed to captivate a Roman general.

　　We know from ancient sources that her hair was a reddish color, wavy. But look at her nose. It's a little bit too long and hooked at the end. And her mouth, is not exactly sensual. She's not wearing any jewelry. There are no earrings, no necklace. This is not the portrait of a femme fatale.

　　The ancient sources tell us she was intelligent, witty, charming, a linguist and along with this, she had a tremendous determination. It was this amazing combination of abilities that made Cleopatra the most famous woman in history. It wasn't her beauty.

　　Women in Egypt had always been powerful: Queen Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and now Cleopatra. But during the era of the Ptolemy's, the role of Greek women had changed. They gained an identity apart from that of their husbands or families. Women participated in the arts and civic life and marriage became a union of two people, not just two houses. The portraits of the women of this period show strong individuals looking back at you with confidence. They're almost haunting. Women would not have this power again until the 20th century. Cleopatra was well educated, strong minded with ideas of her own and a female.

　　As a intellectual, Cleopatra would have been heartbroken: when during fighting between Egyptians and Caesar's Roman troops, there occurred one of the greatest tragedies of the ancient world - the burning of the library of Alexandria. It's sad to think about what was lost in the fire at Alexandria. There are the missing manuscripts of Aristotle and Plato. They were probably there. There was an entire room with editions of Homer. Maybe even there were early manuscripts of the Old Testament, which could probably help settle Biblical questions today.

　　Cleopatra was eventually able to replace 200,000 of the manuscripts. Books were very important to her. It's ironic that today everybody knows her for her beauty, but it was her intelligence that was most important asset she had.

　　耶穌誕生的三百年后，埃及依然在克莉奧帕卓女王的統治下，她是亞歷山大大帝手下一名將領的后代。她一面追懷著亞歷山大帝國的黃金時期，一面決意自己做得更出色。

　　亞歷山大于32歲駕崩，當時埃及艷后僅23歲，她遠行得疆界比亞歷山大更遠，她以埃及王后和世界上最有權力的人——朱利安·愷撒情人的身份走進羅馬。

　　當時局面非常復雜。要保住王位則必須是一名靈活，無情、機智兼出色的政客。這些特點埃及艷后全部具備，這也解釋了為什么我們會從歷史上看到關于她的多種不同說辭。文藝復興時期的詩人將她視成為愛情獻身的女英雄。畫家們把她描繪為裸胸垂死的貪欲的女王。好萊塢的電影強化了她的蕩婦形像——第一部始于桑德·芭拉在1917年媚人的扮演。

　　可是埃及艷后究竟是什么樣的人？她的外貌是怎樣的呢？

　　于是我們來到了柏林，這兒有全世界最好的埃及艷后的肖像。現在僅存的古代雕像已是鳳毛麟角，所以這一尊也許能幫助我們盡多地了解她的外貌。她長得挺平常的，是不是？看看他的頭發，結的是個簡單的髻。這是希臘古典發型。風格樸實，并非特別設計來俘獲羅馬將領的愛情。

　　我們從古代資料了解到她的頭發是淺紅色的，有波紋的。可瞧她的鼻子，是稍有點長的鷹鉤鼻。嘴也算不上性感。她不飾帶任何珠寶。沒有耳環，沒有項鏈。這并非一個性感尤物的相貌。

　　古代資料還告訴我們，她聰明、詼諧、迷人、精通多種語言，而且，她還具有驚人的毅力。正是集合了這種種才華而決非美貌，才使得埃及艷后成為歷史上最負盛名的女性。

　　過去，埃及婦女的勢力向來不弱，如：哈特謝普蘇特女王、奈費爾提蒂女王，以及想在這位克莉奧帕卓女王。但在托勒密王朝時期，希臘婦女的角色改變了。她們取得獨立于丈夫和家庭外的身份，參與到藝術和市民生活中，并以兩個個人而不是兩家人的名義締結婚姻。這一時期的婦女形象表現除了強烈的個性與自信。那令人印象深刻。21世紀以前婦女們都沒有再擁有過這種權力。埃及艷后便是受過良好教育、意志堅強、有自己思想的一位女性。

　　在埃及人與愷撒的羅馬軍隊作戰期間發生了古代一大慘劇——亞歷山大圖書館的焚毀。作為一位知識人士，這一悲劇定曾讓埃及艷后為之哀慟不已。要說亞歷山大圖書館在那次火災中的損失是令人傷心的。遺失的亞里土多德和伯拉圖手稿估計就在其中。有一整個房間里放的是荷馬的作品。如果《圣經舊約》的早期文稿沒有在那時遺失的話，也許今日我們對《圣經》的許多疑惑已經解開了。

　　埃及艷后最后找回了二十萬冊文稿。書籍對她太重要了。諷刺的是她以美貌蜚聲于今日世界，而其實智慧才是她最最可貴的資產。