
Artist's commentary
Serpent of Fate
Cleopatra committed suicide with a venomous snake.
It was after Egypt was conquered by Rome, and not the Rome of Caesar or Antonius, but of Octavius, her hated enemy.
She was locked in her own palace, but refused to become a prisoner.
Instead, she offered her arm to be bitten by a poisonous snake that had hidden among a basket of figs.
The snake is said to have been a cobra.
Oh, what an ironic coincidence.
Or perhaps it was fate, inevitability, or maybe even the will of the old gods?
The snake "Uraeus" was the symbol of the kingship and divinity of the ancient line of pharaohs.
It, too, took the form of a cobra...