In a history full of killings and suicides, none is more fascinating than the enigmatic death of Cleopatra : the last Pharaoh empress of Egypt.
Full 14 years after the death of Julius Caesar and in the wake of Mark Antony's tragic suicide, when Cleopatra came to know that Octavian's (The founder of Roman Empire who came to be known as Augustus later) forces have entered Alexandria and the doom is round the corner, she sent him a message. It read somewhat like this : "I wish to lie in an eternal slumber with Mark Antony and I am embarking on my journey for the same." Octavian's men hurried as soon as they received this message and stormed into Cleopatra’s castle, but it was already too late by then.
30th August. 30 BC. Cleopatra took a milk-bath. Adorned herself with Gold. Then she took out an Asp snake (Egyptian Cobra) from its basket and started playing with it in an erotic way. She allowed the lethal snake to bite on her right breast. By the time Romans would reach there, she was already dead. When they asked her attendant Charmion if the empress did this all by herself, she famously replied, "Yes sir, and she did it very nicely too."
The eternal beauty, who was desired by many emperors and warriors, died by a "Kiss of Death". A venomous snake had the last chance to kiss her breast. This mythology of beauty and mortality is as intriguing as it can get.
A lot of it is part of the legends, of course. Greek physician Strabo was said to be the first person to see the dead Cleopatra and the Asp snake moving on the floor. On his account, Roman poet Plutarch described this scene in his book "Life of Antony". Later Shakespeare affirmed this myth further in his play "Antony and Cleopatra." Shakespeare unforgettable words go : "Here, on her breast, there is a vent of blood." Virgil, Horace, Propertius, all these Roman poets have repeated this myth of Cleopatra's death with slight changes in narrative. But the mystery never fails to intrigue us and still haunt like anything.
