Duane W. Roller

Rome, in Egypt the queen was still a source of power. At Koptos is a
boat shrine that may commemorate her Nile voyage with Caesar. 76
Further upstream at Hermonthis is the unfi nished Kiosk, another eff ort
by the queen. 77 Also at Hermonthis was a shrine, popularly considered
a birthing temple (demolished in 1861), where Cleopatra was depicted at
the birth of Isis’s son Horus, a clear allegory to the birth of Caesarion. 78
She also built a temple to Isis near Ptolemais Hermiou in Upper Egypt;
the project was implemented in 46 b.c. by Kallimachos, the longstanding
governor of the region. 79
A further prerogative of Hellenistic royalty was the foundation of
cities, and there are at least three places named Kleopatra/Kleopatris
in Egypt. 80 Th e best known is at the head of the Gulf of Suez, where the
city of Suez is now, at the mouth of the ancient canal that connected
the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. 81 Th is was probably the Ptolemaic
naval base for operations on the Red Sea and to India, and although
not well located (aside from being the point on the Red Sea closest to
Alexandria) it continued in use until the nineteenth century. It was
here that Aelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, embarked on his ill-fated
Arabian expedition in 26 or 25 b.c., with Strabo on his staff . Th e city
was formerly called Arsinoë, and Cleopatra may have wished to remove
her hated sister from the topographic map of Egypt, especially such an
important place, although the name probably belongs to Arsinoë II.
Another Kleopatris or Kleopatra (whether this is one site or two is not
clear) was west of the Nile near Hermopolis but is virtually unknown
archaeologically, although the toponym was still known in the eighth
century. 82 Th ere is no certain association of Cleopatra VII with any of
these towns, but she was more likely than her homonymous predecessors
to be involved in city foundation.
114 Cleopatra
Isis and Dionysos
From the beginning of Ptolemaic rule Isis and Dionysos had been associated
with the dynasty, culminating in the adoption of their divine
attributes by Cleopatra and Antonius. Isis was a popular divinity
who was not only an agricultural and harvest goddess but also one
of marriage and maternity issues, equated with Greek Demeter. As a
single mother, she would have resonated with Cleopatra. Th e father of
Isis’s child Horus (or Harpokrates in more Hellenized versions) was