Cleopatra Selene Quotes

Selene's life is a lesson to us that the trajectory of women's equality hasn't always been a forward march. In some ways the ancients were more advanced than we are today; there have been setbacks before and may be more in the future. ~ Stephanie Dray

They'll try to make you forget who you are or try to make you ashamed. But you mustn't forget and you mustn't be ashamed. ~ Stephanie Dray

I especially treasured my glimpses of Mother, Queen Cleopatra VII. She sat on a golden throne, looking as resplendent as one of the giant marble statues guarding the tombs of the Old Ones. Diamonds twinkled in a jungle of black braids on her ceremonial wig. She wore a diadem with three rearing snakes and a golden broad collar, shining with lapis lazuli, carnelian, and emeralds, over her golden, form-fitting pleated gown. In one hand, she held a golden ankh of life, while the other clasped the striped crook and flail of her divine rulership. Her stillness radiated power, like a lioness pausing before the pounce. It left me breathless with awe. ~ Vicky Alvear Shecter

You must make a choice," the Goddess said.

"Is that my only choice – to choose between men?" I asked. "I want what Mother had!"

"Your mother chose two men," she said with light laughter.

"No! She chose independence for her country. She chose power and freedom," I yelled.

Almost as if in response, a pulsating energy moved up from the ground into my bare feet. It thrummed up my body and radiated out in a bright light, first from my toes, then from my fingertips, then the top of my head.

"I choose power," I said. "I choose freedom. ~ Vicky Alvear Shecter

I'm probably the highest paid outdoor entertainer since Cleopatra, ~ Gypsy Rose Lee

A capable, clear-eyed sovereign, she knew how to build a fleet, suppress an insurrection, control a currency, alleviate a famine. An eminent Roman general vouched for her grasp of military affairs. Even at a time when women rulers were no rarity she stood out, the sole female of the ancient world to rule alone and to play a role in Western affairs. She was incomparably richer than anyone else in the Mediterranean. And she enjoyed greater prestige than any other woman of her age ... Cleopatra descended from a long line of murderers and faithfully upheld the family tradition but was, for her time and place, remarkably well behaved. She nonetheless survives as a wanton temptress, not the last time a genuinely powerful woman has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one. ~ Stacy Schiff

And for her, now, replaced by the plain language of the dogs, who in a few syllables have everything to say. ~ Cleopatra Mathis

In ancient times when Pandora's box was opened-"
"Pandora?" Kendra interrupted. "Are you talking about the myth?"
Catty nodded solemnly. "It isn't a myth," she stated firmly and continued, "The last thing to leave the box was hope. Only Selene, the goddess of the moon, saw the creature that had been sent by the Atrox to devour hope. Selene took pity on the people of earth and gave her Daughters, like guardian angels, to perpetuate hope. I'm one of those Daughters. A goddess. ~ Lynne Ewing

These heads sheltered by umbrellas
be they of Zeb-un-Nisa, or Catherine
of Cleopatra or Fenichka
live with their own stories ~ Suman Pokhrel

what good are objects?I spat...""What good are keepsakes when you can't keep the people ~ Selene Castrovilla

Everything about you offends me," Sunder said, and though his words rang harsh the look in his eyes was unguarded, ragged with expectation. "I don't understand how you can be the way that you are. You are brash, and thoughtlessly brave. You do exactly the thing that is the least expected and the most destructive. You are a puzzle and a curse. ~ Lyra Selene

She was not a white woman. She was not a Greek ... Until the emergence of the doctrine of white superiority, Cleopatra was generally pictured as a distinctly African woman, dark in color. ~ John Henrik Clarke

For the next three seconds, he still dared to let himself hope.
Perhaps she was making a grand entrance. Perhaps she would be carried in like Cleopatra, hidden in a roll of fine carpet.
Perhaps
Three porters, grunting, pulled in a handcart.
A crevasse opened before him and in fell his heart. No need to remove the tarpaulin wrapping. He recognized the stone slab
by its size and weight.
She had returned his present. She would have nothing more to do with him. ~ Sherry Thomas

The horror was, Cleopatra meant something to these modern people of the twentieth century which was altogether wrong. She had become a symbol of licentiousness, when in fact she had possessed a multitude of amazing talents. They had punished her for her one flaw by forgetting everything else…Remembered, but not for what she was. A painted whore lying on a silken couch. - Ramses ~ Anne Rice

From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me - the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: 'Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things'. ~ Hesiod

Cleopatra had one great advantage. She lived at a time when female sovereigns were not anomalies. And when women enjoyed rights they would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years. You could call them early feminists, if I may use a dirty word. ~ Stacy Schiff

It is no surprise that the only woman in antiquity who could be the subject of a full-length biography is Cleopatra. Yet, unlike Alexander, whom she rivals as the theme of romance and legend, Cleopatra is known to us through overwhelmingly hostile sources. The reward of the 'good' woman in Rome was likely to be praise in stereotyped phrases; in Athens she won oblivion. ~ Sarah B. Pomeroy

The heat compounded, and ugliness settled its cloud over us, profound as human speech, although by then we were not speaking. ~ Cleopatra Mathis

New Agers can often be a precious breed of born-again goody-goodies. They are unbelievably delusional about their own spirituality, fully believing they're the reincarnation of Julius Caesar or Cleopatra ~ Karl Wiggins

As Anthony said to Cleopatra as he opened a crate of ale: Oh, I say, some girls are bigger than others, Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers. ~ Steven Morrissey

He kissed her, over and over, printing blood-flavored kisses on her cheek, her throat, her jaw, her mouth. ~ Lilith Saintcrow

The interesting thing about Cleopatra is that she is such a shape-shifter. I mean through history we've all molded her to our times and our places. So there's room for a movie for her, but I don't think it will hew to the book. ~ Stacy Schiff

...here I am Antony: Yet cannot hold this visible shape... - Antony and Cleopatra ~ William Shakespeare

The Ptolemies were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra approximately as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor. The word 'honey skinned' recurs in descriptions of her relatives and would presumably applied to hers as well, despite the inexactitudes surrounding her mother and paternal grandmother. There was certainly Persian blood in the family, but even an Egyptian mistress is a rarity among the Ptolemies. She was not dark skinned. ~ Stacy Schiff

MESSENGER
I didn't say free, madam. No, I didn't say that. He's bound to Octavia.

CLEOPATRA
For what favor?

MESSENGER
For the favor of sleeping in her bed.

CLEOPATRA
I am pale, Charmian.

MESSENGER
He's married to Octavia, madam.

CLEOPATRA
May you die of the worst disease! ~ William Shakespeare

However highly you may consider yourself, I can assure you: Whatever you're planning, you are outnumbered, outpaced, and outwitted. You are neither as brave nor as clever as you imagine yourself to be. ~ Lyra Selene

I intend to put an end to the rumors of the darling Princess Selene once and for all. ~ Marissa Meyer

Anxiety has forged another weather. ~ Cleopatra Mathis

While Egyptian speakers learned Greek, it was rare that anyone ventured in the opposite direction. To the punishing study of Egyptian, however, Cleopatra applied herself. She was allegedly the first and only Ptolemy to bother to learn the language of the 7 million people over whom she ruled. ~ Stacy Schiff

Tell you?" Sunder's eyebrows winged up toward his hairline. "Tell you, an ignorant, unreliable, loudmouthed provincial with delusions of grandeur and an entitlement complex as big as this château? Your grasp of the intricacies of intrigue boggles the mind. ~ Lyra Selene

It is notable that when she is not condemned for being too bold and masculine, Cleopatra is taken to task for being unduly frail and feminine. ~ Stacy Schiff

You think you understand this world, demoiselle," he whispered, leaning closer. That sharp tang of genévrier needles slapped me in the face. "You think you hear Dexter, or Sinister, and you know what that means. Good, evil, legacy. Pain, poison, power. You imagine these words bound up and trussed away, with clear outlines and hard borders. But they are alive, seething with a complexity you refuse to acknowledge. ~ Lyra Selene

Leave the fishing-rod, Great General, to us sovereigns of Pharos and Canopus. Your game is cities and kings and continents. ~ Cleopatra

Time, because it is so fleeting, time, because it is beyond recall, is the most precious of human goods and to squander it is is the most delicate form of dissipation in which man can indulge. Cleopatra dissolved in wine a priceless pearl, but she gave it to Anthony to drink; when you waste the brief golden hours you take the beaker in which the gem is melted and dash its contents to the ground. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

You're right," she said. "Selene doesn't need you to be warriors. Maha Kesley certainly wasn't, but she was brave and believed in our cause. That resolve is what this revolution needs."

"A few more warriors wouldn't hurt," Strom muttered, grabbing a stick away from the nearest civilian, who shrank away. "Everyone - back in formation! Let's see if we can't make you look a little less pathetic. ~ Marissa Meyer

To Selene (Moon)

Hear, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light, bull-horn'd and wand'ring thro' the gloom of Night.
With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide Night's torch extending, thro' the heav'ns you ride:
Female and Male with borrow'd rays you shine, and now full-orb'd, now tending to decline.
Mother of ages, fruit-producing Moon [Mene], whose amber orb makes Night's reflected noon:
Lover of horses, splendid, queen of Night, all-seeing pow'r bedeck'd with starry light.
Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife, in peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:
Fair lamp of Night, its ornament and friend, who giv'st to Nature's works their destin'd end.
Queen of the stars, all-wife Diana hail! Deck'd with a graceful robe and shining veil;
Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright, come moony-lamp with chaste and splendid light,
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp'rous rays, and pleas'd accept thy suppliant's mystic praise. ~ Orpheus

The April's in her eyes: it is love's Spring,
And these the showers to bring it on.. ~ William Shakespeare

and Anthony,
Enthroned i'th'market-place, did sit alone
Whistling to th'air, which but for vacancy
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in Nature. ~ William Shakespeare

Those darling byegone times, Mr Carker,' said Cleopatra, 'with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How dreadfully we have degenerated! ~ Charles Dickens

BRET
She looked like a Parisian river..

JEMAINE
What, dirty?

BRET
She looked like a chocolate eclair..

JEMAINE
That's rare.

BRET
Her eyes were reflections of eyes..

JEMAINE
Ohh, nice.

BRET
And the rainbows danced in her hair..

JEMAINE
Oh yea.

BRET
She reminded me of a winter's morning..

JEMAINE
What, frigid?

BRET
Her perfume was Eau De Toilette..

JEMAINE
What's that mean?

BRET
She was comparable to Cleopatra..

JEMAINE
Quite old?

BRET
She was like Shakespeare's Juliet..

JEMAINE
What? 13? ~ Flight Of The Conchords

Here you have an incredibly ambitious, accomplished woman who comes up against some of the same problems that women in power come up against today. Cleopatra plays an oddly pivotal role in world history as well; in her lifetime, Alexandria is the center of the universe, Rome is still a backwater. ~ Stacy Schiff

So you don't mind," I managed, "if I'm a monster?" "No." He rocked closer, and his closeness sent a thread of desire stitching up my spine. "Because I'm a monster too. ~ Lyra Selene

These were the dreams that had carried me from the edge of the daylight world, but they were scorched with humiliation, shackled with thorny vines, stained with the gratuitous blood of gangling youths. I'd beaten them down so many times, throttling them and denying them, smothering them with rules even as I begged them to obey me. ~ Lyra Selene

Love Fiction for Fiction Lovers ~ Selene Grace Silver

The famous courtesan Clarimonde died recently, as the result of an orgy which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something infernally
magnificent. They revived the abominations of the feasts of Belshazzar and Cleopatra. Great God!
what an age this is in which we live! The guests were served by swarthy slaves speaking an unknown tongue, who to my mind had every appearance of veritable demons; the livery of the meanest among them might have served as a gala-costume for an emperor. There have always been current some very
strange stories concerning this Clarimonde, and all her lovers have come to a miserable or a violent end. It has been said that she was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe that she was Beelzebub in person. ~ Theophile Gautier