It has been pointed out to me this morning that there were at least 10 Cleopatras in ancient Egypt
The famous one is known as Cleopatra VII. Of Mark Anthony fame. Last of the Pharaohs. She lived circa 69 BC to 30 BC.
The first six were married to the Ptolemaic Pharoahs.
Her daughter was Cleopatra Selene II, making eight.
Cleopatra VII, although sometimes described as beautiful, is actually depicted on Roman coinage with a hooked nose, and was in fact ugly, or to be more generous, striking in appearance. She was brave, fighting the Romans on board ship in the attack. She initially married two of her brothers, the first when she was 13 and he was 9. He died young.
Following the eight, there were two more.
Cleopatra the Physician (Late 1st century AD) was a Greek medical writer and author of a manual entitled Cosmetics. Six fragments of her Cosmetics survive in quotation from later medical writers.
And finally Cleopatra the Alchemist. “Cleopatra the Alchemist (c. 3rd century AD) was a Greek alchemist, author, and philosopher. She experimented with practical alchemy but is also credited as one of the four female alchemists who could produce the philosopher’s stone. Some writers consider her to be the inventor of the alembic, a distillation apparatus.”
Before Cleopatra VII was Cleopatra V Tryphaena. Tryphaena translates as “dainty”. “Cleopatra V (died c. 69–68 BC or c. 57 BC) was a Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt. She is the only surely attested wife of Ptolemy XII. Her only known child is Berenice IV, but she was also probably the mother of Cleopatra VII. It is unclear if she died around the time of Cleopatra VII’s birth in 69 BC, or if it was her or a daughter named Cleopatra VI who co-ruled Ptolemaic Egypt with Berenice IV in 58–57 BC during the political exile of Ptolemy XII to Rome. No written records about Cleopatra V exist after 57 BC and two years later Berenice IV was overthrown by Ptolemy XII, his throne restored with Roman military aid.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_VI
Co-ruler of Egypt with Berenice IV.
Then there’s Cleopatra Selene, queen consort of Egypt and later of Syria. Not to be confused with Cleopatra Selene II daughter of Cleopatra VII.
Cleopatra III (c. 160–101 BC) was a queen of Egypt. She ruled at first with her mother Cleopatra II and husband Ptolemy VIII from 142 to 131 BC and again from 127 to 116 BC. She then ruled with her sons Ptolemy IX and Ptolemy X from 116 to 101 BC.
Cleopatra II Philometor Soteira (c. 185 BC – 116/115 BC) was a queen of Ptolemaic Egypt who ruled from 175 to 115 BC with two successive brother-husbands and her daughter—often in rivalry with her brother Ptolemy VIII.
Cleopatra I Syra (c. 204 – 176 BC) was a princess of the Seleucid Empire, Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt by marriage to Ptolemy V of Egypt, and regent of Egypt during the minority of their son, Ptolemy VI, from her husband’s death in 180 BC until her own death in 176 BC.
Possible images exist of Cleopatras I to VII. None could be called strikingly beautiful.
