Charmion (Cleopatra's servant)

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Charmion ( Greek  Χάρμιον ) (* 1st century BC; † August 12, 30 BC in Alexandria ) was, like Eiras, one of the most trusted servants of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra . When she staged her suicide after being captured by Octavian , Charmion and Eiras followed suit.

The little known information about Charmion and Eiras has been passed down by the ancient Greek philosopher and biographer Plutarch . This first mentions the two servants of Cleopatra in his Antonius Vita in the year 32 BC. In the propaganda war that raged between Octavian and Marcus Antonius , Cleopatra's lover, and which preceded the final war between the two triumvirs , the Caesar heir had contemptuously remarked after the declaration of war on his adversary that Antonius was under the influence of drugs and was out of his mind . The impending battle is not primarily fought against Antonius, but against the eunuch Mardion, and also against Potheinos, Cleopatra's hairdresser Eiras and lady-in-waiting Charmion, because these people actually headed the Egyptian government.

After Antony had finally lost the war and the imminent capture of Alexandria by Octavian's troops threatened, he threw himself into his sword on the false news of Cleopatra's death. When he found out that the queen was still alive, he was seriously injured and carried himself to the mausoleum where Cleopatra had holed up. She had only taken two maids with her to the grave, who were not named by Plutarch, but who were unanimously identified with Charmion and Eiras by the ancient historians Werner Huss , Michael Grant and Christoph Schäfer . In any case, these two women helped Cleopatra to pull Antony up the walls of the mausoleum with the help of ropes and to let him into the interior through an opening, where the former triumvir died in the arms of his beloved.

Cleopatra then fell into Octavian's captivity and decided to put an end to her life. Exactly how this happened is controversial. According to Plutarch, Cleopatra and her trusted servants managed to commit a triple suicide without their guards, who supposedly should have prevented this, noticing. The Queen had sent Octavian a letter, from the contents of which he had at once guessed her intention; but people hurriedly sent by him would have found Cleopatra dead, Eiras dying, and Charmion staggering as the tiara was adjusted on the queen's head. To the angry exclamation of one of the people sent by Octavian, Charmion replied that this behavior was befitting of a descendant of so many kings, and immediately sank down.

Charmion also plays an important role in many of the dramatic adaptations of the Cleopatra subject, for example in William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra (1606/07). In the 1934 film Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert in the lead role, the character of Charmion was played by Eleanor Phelps . Isabel Cooley played Charmion in the 1963 film Cleopatra , in which Elizabeth Taylor played the Egyptian queen.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ The different form of the name Charmonion can be found in Zonaras (10, 31) and in several manuscripts of the Antonius biography of Plutarch .
  2. ↑ An Egyptian minister named Potheinos was 48 BC. Was executed by Caesar ; that of Plutarch ( Antonius 60, 1) for the year 32 BC. The Potheinos mentioned above should not have been a historical figure (so Konrat Ziegler : Potheinos 2). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XXII, 1, Stuttgart 1953, Sp. 1177.)
  3. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 60, 1.
  4. ↑ According to Cassius Dio (51, 10, 6) Cleopatra was accompanied into the mausoleum by a eunuch as well as by the two servants.
  5. ↑ Werner Huss, Egypt in the Hellenistic Period 332–30 BC Chr. , P. 748.
  6. ↑ Michael Grant, Cleopatra , p. 308.
  7. ↑ Christoph Schäfer, Cleopatra , p. 241.
  8. ↑ Plutarch, Antonius 85.
personal data
SURNAME Charmion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Χάρμιον (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Servant of Cleopatra VII.
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 30 BC Chr.
Place of death Alexandria