Playing with Cleopatra. About the Image of the Egyptian Queen in Products for Children and Young Adults (Introduction to Research)

Abstract

In the more than two millennia that have passed since her death, Cleopatra has inspired generations of artists in immortalising their own visions of her image. In the process of reception, she was transformed into a hybrid of a historical figure and a pop-cultural image saturated with complex symbolism based on representations in literature, art, and film, and thereby reduced to an easily identifiable and stereotypical character. The paper focuses on some case studies including figurines, costumes, and games (board and video).