Antony was bewitched by Cleopatra’s charm and intelligence; he’s love for Cleopatra was portrayed as madness (book 1, Reputations, p.9). On the second part of this passage we can see that Antony was willing to impress Cleopatra at any cost. He took her fishing once, but he was frustrated for having bad luck and Cleopatra was there to see, therefore he was pretending it was him who caught the fishes, but instead he got help from his servant, who fastened the fishes to his hook under the water. In this passage we can see that Antony was frustrated with himself as he was trying to impress Cleopatra with his fishing skills. However, Cleopatra (who was an astute woman) figured Antony’s trick and diced to play her own trick on Antony. She invited her friends to come along on the following day and as soon as Antony let down his line, she ordered her servant to fasten to his hook a salted herring. Everyone started laughing at Antony as a kipper is not a great catch for someone with fishing skills.
Plutarch’s view of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra was that, on the one hand, Antony was mad in love with her, where he abandoned his old lifestyle to embrace her way of living, but on the other hand he was needed by Cleopatra to save her kingdom. To Plutarch’s mind, the involvement of Cleopatra with Antony was only a matter of power from her side, where she thought she would be able to save her people from the Romans with her association with Antony. Plutarch does not say that there wasn’t any love between them, as we know they got married and had three children. On both passages he mentions the games they used to play together, like lovers.
It’s also important to bear in mind that Plutarch’s ‘Life Antony’ of was written 150 years or so after the events that have involved Antony and Cleopatra, so it means that Plutarch’s Life is not a primary source of what really happened at the time but a secondary source. As we know ancient historians work in a different way from those of modern times, where they didn’t feel obligated to give references of their sources. So how come Plutarch knew what exactly happened at that time? We can say that this text is more of a “novel” than a historical text.
Word count (524)
References:
E. Moohan (2008) AA100 The Arts Past and Present, Book 1, Reputations, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Cleopatra VII, Copy Right © 1996–2011 Tour Egypt, All Rights Reserved. Web Development & Design by AKNsolutions.com () Accessed 15/10/11
Plutarch, Life of Antony, 29-30; reprinted in AA100 Assignment Booklet (October 2011), Milton Keynes, The Open University, p18.
‘Light, dark and colour’ (2010) (AA100 online video), Milton Keynes, The Open University.