ASP By Unique Manigault

"With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool Be angry, and dispatch."
—Cleopatra

I did some research this summer on the Suicide of Queen Cleopatra and the symbolic creature she’d used to kill herself - the Asp. Of course, as it is known, the once great Octavian declared war on Cleopatra due to the great amount of power Antony had given her. This war is also known as the battle of Actium (31 BC). Octavian defeated her fleet of ships and Cleopatra and Antony then hurried back to Egypt to defend their kingdom on land. Unfortunately, when Octavian attacked Alexandria in the battle he was told that Cleopatra had died during the battle. Antony found himself brokenhearted and distraught. Thus threw himself upon his own sword killing himself! But truth be told, Cleopatra had still been alive. All that time she had been hiding in the tomb she had built in Alexandria. She had hidden herself from Octavian’s capture knowing he would love to take her back to Rome as evidence of his victory over Egypt. This was something she could not permit to happen. And so she killed herself by applying a poisonous asp to her breast and allowing it to bite her. And there went the last pharaoh of Egypt.

It is probably dumb of me to put more emphasis on the asp and not on the Queen Cleopatra, but I found it fascinating that she chose the asp to take her own life away instead of any other weapon. She could of thrown herself upon a sword as Octavian had done so and many others in history. But she didn’t! Through my research I learned that the asp was basically a symbol of royalty and according to Egyptian myth, its bite was believed to make the victim immortal. Then I later discovered that Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and animals for daily entertainment. When she was through she concluded that the bite of an asp was the least terrible way to die. So perhaps she chose to die this way because it would be an easy death. Or it could have been that she was punishing herself for lacking to save Egypt from Octavian and for her testing of various poisons on people and animals as a form of entertainment. I guess it was a bite for a bite!