Earth and Space News: Was Cleopatra VI Tryphaena Really the Sixth Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra?

Summary: Was Cleopatra VI Tryphaena really a sixth Ptolemaic queen named Cleopatra and another daughter of Cleopatra V or has she been confused with her mother?

ca. first century BCE white marble sculpture from Lower Egypt identified as rare representation of famous Cleopatra VII's presumed mother, Cleopatra V, by Swiss art historian and archaeologist Ines Jucker (April 29, 1922-Sep. 8, 2013); marble sculpture photographed by French photographer Hervé Deschamps-Dargassies; accession number RA-80, Musée Saint-Raymond, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, southwestern France: CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Was Cleopatra VI Tryphaena really the sixth Ptolemaic queen named Cleopatra and another daughter of Cleopatra V, or has this shadowy figure been confused with her mother?

Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (Ancient Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Τρύφαινα, Kleopatra Tryphaina; ?-ca. 57 BCE) appeared in fragments of a lost history of Ptolemaic Egypt written at least three centuries after her supposed life by third century CE Roman Phoenician Neoplatonic historian and philosopher Porphyry of Tyre (Ancient Greek: Πορφύριος, Porphyrios; Arabic: فُرْفُورِيُوس, Furfuriyus; ca. 234-ca. 305 CE). Christian scholar Eusebius of Caesarea (Ancient Greek: Εὐσέβιος τῆς Καισαρείας, Eusebios tes Kaisareias; ca. 260-ca. 340 CE) incorporated Porphyry's fragments into the first part, Chronography (Ancient Greek: Χρονογραφία Chronographia, "Annales"), of his two-part history, Chronicon or Chronicle (Ancient Greek: Παντοδαπη ἱστορία, Pantodape historia, "Universal history").

"In the reign of the new Dionysus, a three year period was ascribed to the rule of his daughters Cleopatra Tryphaena and Berenice, one year as a joint reign and the following two years, after the death of Cleopatra Tryphaena, as the reign of Berenice on her own," wrote Porphyry, according to Attalus.org website founder and classicist Andrew Smith's translation of the Armenian language-based Latin translation of Chronicle authored by German classical philologist and literary history Alfred Schoene (Alfred Curt Immanuel Schöne; Oct. 16, 1836-Jan. 8, 1918) and German orientalist Julius Heinrich Petermann (Aug. 12, 1801-June 10, 1876).

Cleopatra VI Tryphaena's existence would have boosted Ptolemy XII's number of children from five to six, according to Porphyry's account. Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus Philopator Philadelphos (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Νέος Διόνυσος Φιλοπάτωρ Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaios Neos Dionysos, "Ptolemy the new Dionysus," Philopator Philadelphos; ca. 117-51 BCE) is credited with five children during his only known marriage. He fathered three daughters, including history's most famous Cleopatra, and two sons. His three daughters received dynastic names as Berenìce IV Cleopatra Epifania (Ancient Greek: Βερενίκη Κλεοπάτρα Ἐπιφανεία, Berenike Kleopatra Epiphaneia; ca. 79/75-55 BCE); Cleopatra VII Philopator (Ancient Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ, Kleopatra Philopator; ca. 69-Aug. 10 or 12, 30 BCE); and Arsinoe IV (Ancient Greek: Aρσινόη, Arsinoe; 69/60-41 BCE). His two sons were given the male dynastic Ptolemaic name as Ptolemy XIII Philopator (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλοπάτωρ, Ptolemaios Philopator; ca. 62/61-47 BCE). Ptolemy XIV Philopator Philadelphus (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Φιλοπάτωρ Φιλάδελφος, Ptolemaios Philopator Philadelphos; ca. 60/59-44 BCE).

Ptolemy XII's children were numbered at five, according to Greek geographer and historian Strabo (Ancient Greek: Στράϐων, Strabon; from adjective στράϐων, strabon, "cross-eyed") in Book 17 of his 17-book Geography (Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά, Geographika). "He, however, was banished by the Alexandrians; and since he had three daughters, of whom one, the eldest, was legitimate, they proclaimed her queen; but his two sons, who were infants, were completely excluded from service at the time," wrote Strabo, according to the translation published in 1932 by American classical scholar, philologist and translator and Cornell University Professor of Greek Horace Leonard Jones (March 15, 1879-Oct. 31, 1954).

Ptolemy XII's oldest daughter was specified as Berenice, according to Roman historian Lucius Cassius Dio (ca. 155-235 CE), known as Dio Cassius, in Roman History (Ancient Greek: Ῥωμαϊκη Ἱστορία, Historia Romana), his historical compendium of ancient Rome, written in Greek. "B.C. 57. While this was going on, the people of Alexandria, who for a while did not know that he had departed for Italy, or supposed he was dead, placed Berenice, his daughter, on the throne in his place," wrote Dio Cassius, according to the English translation published by American classicist Earnest Cary (Feb. 25, 1879-) in 1955 (Dio's Roman History, vol. III, Book XXXIX: 13.1, page 327).

Strabo's delineation of Ptolemy XII's progency derived from the Greek geographer's extensive stay in Egypt, occurring "within living memory of the Ptolemaic regime," noted British-born American Egyptologist Christopher "Chris" John Bennett (1953-Jan. 10, 2014) in "Cleopatra V Tryphaena and the Genealogy of the Ptolemies," published in 1997 in volume 28 of Ancient Society (page 63). Contrastingly, Porphyry's account, which was written more than two centuries after the described event, has survived only in fragments in the redacted fourth-century chronology by Eusebius. Accordingly, Strabo's enumerating and naming of Ptolemy XII's offspring has been favored, over Porphyry's presentation, by Chris Bennett as consistent with known Ptolemaic genealogy.

If Cleopatra VI Tryphaena were not a daughter of Ptolemy XII, then who was this shadowy royal described as "Berenice's ephemeral sister or her mother" (page 35) and "obscure sister of Cleopatra VII" (page 237) by British archaeologist and Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley (born Feb. 25, 1960) in Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt, published in 2008? Cleopatra VI Tryphaena likely has been conflated with Ptolemy XII's only known wife, according to Joyce Tyldesley (page 237) and in accordance with Chris Bennett's profile of Cleopatra V (note 16) in the section on Ptolemaic Dynasty: The Genealogy on his Tynsdale House-provided website, Egyptian Royal Genealogy. Ptolemy XII's marriage to his historically sparsely-detailed second cousin, Cleopatra V Tryphaena (Ancient Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Τρύφαινα, Kleopatra Tryphaina; ca. 100/95-ca. 57 BCE), took place before the 8th day of Tybi (Ancient Greek: Τυβί, Tubi; from Egyptian tꜣ-ꜥꜣbt, “the offering”; Coptic: Ⲧⲱⲃⲓ, Tōbi), year 2, equated to Jan. 17, 79 BCE. It was the first and only known marriage for both the groom and his second cousin.

Also, the five children known to have been fathered by Ptolemy XII, including famous Cleopatra VII, came from his one marriage, as assessed by Chris Bennett. Strabo's "dubious" designation of Berenice as Ptolemy XII's only "legitimate" daughter represents the only instance of questioned maternity of this pharaoh's children. Accordingly, this isolated, unsupported illegitimacy claim has influenced Chris Bennett to "reasonably conclude" the postulate of Cleopatra V Tryphaena as the only mother of Ptolemy XII's children ("Cleopatra V Tryphaena and the Genealogy of the Later Ptolemies," pages 62-63).

ca. first century BCE marble sculpture of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra V Tryphaena's cousin-husband; accession number Ma 3449; gifted 1944 by English-French bibliographer, epigrapher and Egyptologist Seymour de Ricci (Seymour Montefiore Robert Rosso de Ricci; May 17, 1881-Dec. 26, 1942); Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum), Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines (Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities), Salle 339, Aile Sully, Niveau 0 -- Art grec classique et hellénistique (Classical and Hellenistic Greek Art); Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, 15:22, image: Marie-Lan Nguyen (Jastrow), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

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Thursday, February 24, 2022

Was Cleopatra VI Tryphaena Really the Sixth Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra?

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