Woman at a banquet in antiquity: Cleopatra VII

Résumé

In the Life of Antony, Plutarch reports on the sumptuous banquet offered by Cleopatra VII, the last Hellenistic queen and ruler of Egypt, to Mark Antony, who reciprocates, on the occasion of their meeting in Tarsus; a fact also described, with some differences, by Socrates of Rhodes. Starting from these sources, the article aims to reflect on women at banquets in antiquity by comparing past and present, from Homer to the end of the Hellenistic age or the beginning of the Augustan age, between the Mediterranean East and West, the Greek world and the Etruscan and Roman worlds. Returning to Cleopatra, we examine other banquets organised by the queen together with Antony in relation to the circle of the ‘Inimitable Living Ones’ founded by the two: invitations in the name of luxury and entertainment but with other purposes. Finally, the image of Cleopatra drinking wine at a banquet offers the occasion for reflection, again in a comparative key, on the relationship between women and wine in antiquity.