# Cleopatra in Denial **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815 "2003-02-04T23:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Jiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jiminy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/1 "2003-02-04T23:57:20Z")
Is it true that Cleopatra (well-known one) dropped on her knees literally. What I’m going at is if she was the milkmaid and the soldiers were the cows. She was named something like Marchione (sic?) or something like that. Well, grown-ups, did she gape for the apes or what? ---
**Author:** ![Jiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Jiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jiminy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/2 "2003-02-05T00:04:06Z")
sorry, it’s “Merichane”. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe you shouldn’t be here ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/3 "2003-02-05T00:14:03Z")
What’s your General Question, exactly? “Was Cleopatra the most famous performer of oral sex in the ancient world?” Intentionally munged URL, not sure about workplace standards. www dot [world-sex-records.com/sex-248.htm](http://world-sex-records.com/sex-248.htm) > [@](#): > > Most famous fellatrice in Ancient Egypt > > A fellatrice is a woman - often a prostitute - who specialises in the art of fellatio, i.e. exciting the male genitals by means of mouth, lips, and tongue. Cleopatra of Egypt has been represented as the “most famous free-love fellatrice of the ancient world.” Cleo is said (I do not know how reliable the authority) to have performed fellatio on a thousand men. Perhaps this is why the Greeks chose to call her Merichane (Gaper) - “she who gapes wide for ten thousand men- the wide-mouthed one; the ten-thousand mouthed woman.” Cleopatra was also known as Cheilon (Thick-Lipped). It was said that she fellated a hundred Roman noblemen in one night. (A. Edwardes & R. E. L. Masters). I’ll let someone else tackle the “Truth or Fiction?” aspect of this, as I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/4 "2003-02-05T00:20:13Z")
Well, considering the kind of sources we have from that time period, how would we prove it was true? Just because someone wrote it down? I’m not aware of specific ancient Roman or Greek authors who make this accusation, but this sounds like the kind of nasty rumor that would have spread about an enemy of Rome. Demonization of Cleopatra as a decadent, unnatural Eastern ruler (the fact that she was a woman was even worse) was a part of Octavian/Augustus’ tactics in the war against Antony and Cleopatra. It put her in the spotlight and was an attempt to make it seem less like a civil war and more like a war with a foreign power (Egypt). Bottom line, I doubt it’s provable even with ancient citations that make the allegation, and it sounds like a nasty rumor, probably of Roman origin. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/5 "2003-02-05T00:45:22Z")
There is absolutely no evidence that Cleopatra ever slept with anyone besides Marc Antony and Ceasar. Rumors of her sexual promiscuity weren’t necessarily to discredit her, either, but to comment on the weakness of Marc Antony. The purpose was to highlight Antony’s debauchery and un-Roman love of decadence. The Romans despised Antony for his un-manly passion for Cleopatra. When he gave her Roman territories for her children, the Romans were outraged. By giving her Cyprus, the Cilician coast, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, Judea and Arabia, it allowed Egypt to build strength against Rome, who itched to make the wealth of Egypt its own. Antony’s nemisis, Octavian, started anti-Antony propaganda, designed to strip Antony of his power, and give the leadership of Rome to Octavian. The rumors of Cleo’s sexual excesses were only part of it, which included rumors of luxurious living and wild spending, (unfitting of a soldier of Rome) and had Antony pictured as doing nothing but feasting, drinking and making love with this “monstrous” woman. (Remember the story of Cleo disolving a pearl in vinegar?) When Octavian opened Antony’s will and disclosed to the Senate that Antony wished to be buried in Egypt, it was the last straw. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra with the full backing of Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleopatra-in-denial/152815/6 "2003-02-05T00:46:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jiminy \* > \*\*sorry, it’s “Merichane”. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, maybe you shouldn’t be here \*\* Are we at least allowed to lurk, our lives fulfilled by your erudition?