Keep in mind that I know she was not white, she was Greek. But she DEFINITELY wasn't black either. Take a look at some of these reconstructions people did:
https://i.redd.it/m9bezzu663a51.jpg
https://justmademyday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1608050737_4a2041605df3b18cec42d4b9a67ebbaa.jpg
https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/royalty-now-digital-manipulation-20.jpg
You do know that Greeks are white, right? They're Europeans. Plenty of people in ancient Greece were blonde for Pete's sake. According to Historian and Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great and some members of the Macedonian-Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt (i.e. Cleopatra's dynasty) had blond hair, such as Arsinoe II and Berenice II. And since the Ptolemies were heavily inbred, they probably didn't mix their genes with their native Egyptian subjects to any great extent, and so were still ethnically Greek.
Blonde hair was rarer among the Greeks than northern Europeans, which is why they tended to idolize it as special, but Greeks were still Europeans. Like most Mediterranean peoples, they tended to darker hair and olive skin, but they were still white.
I wouldn't doubt that Cleopatra was lighter than Sub-Saharan brown, but nobody ever talked about what color her hair and eyes were. If she had possessed light hair and eyes, somebody somewhere would have written it down, due to it being so rare. The fact that dark hair and dark eyes are so common in that region, and the fact that it was never written down, indicates she probably was a brunette with dark eyes, with much lighter skin than the native Egyptians. However, her family did follow ancient Egyptian traditions involving shaving of one's head and wearing wigs, so it's possible people had no idea what color her real hair was, if she ran around wearing wigs made from black human hair.
If that Roman sculpture truly is her, she might have acted the chameleon and adopted Roman fashions while visiting Rome, including wearing Roman wigs of other hair colors.
Dark hair is hardly exclusive to Egyptians or Greeks. My ancestry, according to ancestry.com, is mostly Irish, with some English, Welsh, Scottish, French, and Swedish in my DNA. I am about as lily white as one gets. Exclusively northern European ancestry, not even any central, eastern, of southern European ancestry, never mind Amerindian, Asian, or African.
And before it turned gray, my hair was coal black, and my eyes are still very dark brown. People with my exact coloring are common in Ireland, and all over northern Europe really. Cleopatra's having dark hair and eyes simply doesn't mean for an instant that she wasn't ethnically, genetically, Macedonian/Greek.
Too swarthy to be considered white. Closer to arab. This has been known since antiquity
shareShe was Greek. This has been known since antiquity. Her exact coloring is not attested to in any of the ancient sources -- if you disagree, cite the source. A primary source. Greeks are not non-white. She also likely had some Persian and Sogdian Iranian ancestry, as the Ptolemies had intermarried with the Seleucid dynasty. She probably did not have a drop of actual Egyptian blood in her veins, as there is no known Egyptian wife of a Ptolemaic king.
Iranians aren't that dark-skinned. They actually look pretty dang white as well to be honest. Cleopatra probably had white or light-olive complexion, and doubtless would have described herself as Greek.
Greeks are caucasian. Even Persians etc. are caucasian.
https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/royalty-now-digital-manipulation-20.jpg
Looks a lot like Dana DeLorenzo.
They should have cast her I guess.
Native Greeks, based on my observations, book writings, and what people who have met Greeks have told me, usually have olivine skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, particularly if they're from southern Greece. Northern Greeks tend to be lighter in skin, eyes, and hair, but there are also facial features that differentiate the entire group from us lily-white, northern Europeans. Not everyone would pick up on the facial feature thing unless it was really obvious, like having a Roman nose, or an extreme jaw shape, or ears in a shape not normally seen in northern Europeans. There are even cases of Greeks with darker skin, but light eyes at the same time, which looks attractive to a lot of people.
Granted, I don't believe for one minute that Cleopatra looked like Elizabeth Taylor, but she certainly wasn't black either.
That is all correct - but that also means she was "white".
White, as part of being Caucasian.
Whatever Greek you might think of, that's Caucasian. And that's "white".
The trouble with using Elizabeth Taylor was, she nailed the personality of Cleopatra, but she didn't look quite right for the role. Her skin was not only light, it was too light, her face was the wrong shape, she had a curvy hourglass figure, and they made these ridiculous, sewn-together pseudo-1950s-meets-fake-Ancient-Greece dresses for her to wear.
It should also be noted, that if you live in climates as sunny as Egypt or even southern Italy, no matter how hard you try to stay out of the sun, you'll eventually form a light tan. It's impossible to be as pale and pasty as a vampire in that kind of environment. As someone who lived for years in a sunny state, I can attest to that.
I never said anything in favor of Taylor, my whole point is really just that it is totally fine to consider Cleopatra, the real one, as "white" and that white does not necessarily mean pale skin and blue eyes.
shareThere's another issue that makes people angry about this series: haven't you noticed a concerted effort to erase what people are calling "white culture?" Like it's all about supremacy and that nothing we ever did was good? Doesn't that bother you at all?
shareWhere did I say anything like that at all?
No seriously, what did I even say that warrants this post of yours?
You're literally 180Β° wrong here with your assumptions about me.
All I did, was to say it is perfectly correct to refer to Cleopatra as "white" since she was ultimately what we'd consider Caucasian, which her Macedon ancestry is part of. Olive skin and black eyes does not mean she wasn't white. Ask any Greek, he will tell you he's white. Well, their pride considered they might just say they're Greek but you get my meaning.
Uh, Greeks are white.
shareGal Gadot really is nearly the perfect option to play Cleopatra. Granted she's more beautiful than Cleo likely was but hey it's Hollywood!
https://i.ibb.co/Tb2Y4Kj/IMG-5644.jpg
Hopefully the Gadot Cleopatra project still happens though it's looking like it might not come to fruition. Sadly some absolute idiots were complaing about Gal as a casting choice, the same idiots who probably think Cleo should be black.
Her playing the part will only work if she can nail Cleopatra's cunning and intelligence, as well as her expert political maneuvering. She did great as Wonder Woman, but I'm hoping she won't use that same personality for Cleopatra. I've seen it happen before with actors.
share'Greek isn't white'...
Okay... π€¦ββοΈπ
I didn't need to read the username to know that you were American.
Greeks are white, you ignoramus.
If you saw us Germanic/Nordic/Irish/British types standing next to them, you'd see the difference, trust me. Plus, quite a few Greeks (particularly those from the southern half of the country and the nearby islands) are dark and swarthy, and prefer to pour gallons of cologne on themselves instead of bathing, particularly the men. They may have laid the foundation to our civilization, but there are a lot of things we whites don't have in common with them.
shareYes, they are a different ETHINICITY, but they are of the same race.
And not bathing, is in no way relevant.