Cleopatra's Daughter

 

If modern people were asked about the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII (70/69 BC–30 BC) they would most likely draw upon the knowledge they gained by watching Elizabeth Taylor as the enticing femme fatale in the movie from 1963. However, there are several other actresses who have appeared in movies about the famous queen's life, like for instance, Vivien Leigh in a movie from 1945. And what's more the histprical Cleopatra was so much more than those depicting her ....

There is a tradition of turning the queen into some sort of sex-goddess who first and foremost gained her fame from seducing the powerful men of her day: Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. However, much indicate that she was a smart woman who knew more than most Egyptian rulers before her. According to Plutarch she had an aptitude for languages and spoke several foreign languages, thus being able to negotiate, discuss or just talk with people of other countries. As a token of her acclaimed smartness she even saw to it that the belief in her divinity as "the reincarnation of the goddess Isis" was established.  

The most famous movie love couple Cleopatra VII and Roman Triumvir Mark Anthony definitely is Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As far as I remember the movie only depicted the young son Cleopatra had by Julius Caesar, namely Caesarion. He is assumed to have been the only biological son of Julius Caesar and that made him an important pawn in the fight for power in The Roman Empire. That fact must be the reason why he was killed by Octavian whom we know as Augustus, i.e. the first Roman emperor.

Caesarion (47 BC-30 BC)

However, Cleopatra had several other children, one of them being her namesake, Cleopatra Selene II, i.e. the daughter she had by her lover, Mark Anthony. After the defeat and suicides of her parents she succeeded in surviving the turmoil of Augustus' rise to emperor and being paraded as a prisoner of war with her twin brother in the streets of Rome. Her survival may have been made easier by her stay with Augustus' sister, Octavia the Younger, who had been married to her father, Mark Anthony. As to her two brothers they "disappeared" from the historical annals and are presumed dead, either by illness or murder.

A Roman bust of either Cleopatra VII or her daughter Cleopatra Selene

Not only did Cleopatra Selene survive, but she also became the queen consort of Juba II of Numidia and Mauretania. As such she had great influence on everything concerning government decisions. It seems that she was especially interested in trade and architecture, making her mark on that part of the country's success.

 

Presumably Cleopatra Selene

When Augustus decided to confer the newly created client kingdom of Mauretania on Cleopatra Selene and Juba II the young rulers renamed the new capital Caesarea in honor of him. Through her granddaughter - or great-grandaughter, Drusilla, the lineage of Cleopatra VII and Mark Anthony was intertwined with the Roman nobility.

Wikipedia

https://movieweb.com/best-movies-about-cleopatra/ 

 

 

Prison And Artistic Fulfillments

 

When I think of what prisons were e.g. in The Middle Ages and then look at something like this "Swedish prison cell" then I get some very mixed feelings: 1) Good that we don't starve or torture inmates anymore (unless it's done in secret ....) and 2) What the HELL is this? Is that supposed to be punishment for crimes that definitely should get punished????? No, it looks more like part of a cosy holiday cottage, and THAT's WEIRD when it comes to crimes and punishments. Some of the most heinous criminals who were caught and sentenced to prison were done so at an immense expense to the tax-payers of his/her country and these law abiding citizen may never even get close to such a nice looking habitat as this prison cell. 

This book - and others by the same author - came into being because he was sentenced to prison. Robert Franklin Stroud (1890-1963) was a convicted - and feared - murderer, but being in prison he gained a reputation as a great ornithologist and became known as "The Birdman of Alcatraz". He had not changed his ways in prison as he, for instance, attacked and killed a guard. However, somehow all his misdeeds were overshadowed of his well deserved reputation as an ornitologist. 

Robert Franklin Stroud

Would he have become an ornithologist if he had not been incarcerated for his crimes? That's not likely as he set out as a pimp and a murderer. In my opinion there are several angles to his biography and that may always be the case of inprisoned criminals who obtain fame by skills they gain while in prison. I, for one, don't want to forget what he did before going to prison over his achievements as a prisoner. He is/was a criminal who got the perfect setting for studies and writings: A prison cell. Without that cell and the sentence that sent him there he would never have achieved anything academic.

Theodore John Kaczynski 

The exploits of the so-called "Unabomber", Ted Kaczynski (born 1942) include bombs that killed three innocent people as well as wounded almost thirty. These crimes go hand in hand with his considerable intelligence as a mathematician. What's also of a considerable size is his narcissistic personality that, luckily enough, made him confess to his crimes so that he wouldn't be declared insane ....  

While in prison The infamous Unabomber has gained new fame with two books he wrote in his cell, one of them is "Technological Slavery", and the other one is "Anti-Tech Revolution". Would he have been able to publish these books had he not been in prison? Maybe, if he had not committed his crimes, but it was the prison that gave him the opportunity when he had ruined his chances of being an aknowledged part of the society.

Dante Alighieri

Neither Robert Stroud nor Ted Kaczynski has written "prison literature", i.e. books or articles about their life in prison. Both of them wrote about subjects that interest them and which they might also have taken up had they never been incarcerated. It wouldn't have been likely, but in theory, it might have happened. They got caught, were sentenced and imprisoned and that was the situation that started their literary career. On some points they resemble a great author like e.g. Dante Alighieri who wrote his masterpiece "The Divine Comedy" in exile. Others, like Sir Thomas Malory wrote "Le Morte d'Arthur" while imprisoned as did several other great writers. One of them wasn't in any way "great", but famous he is and will always be: Adolf Hitler. 

I must admit that I don't like the lack of reason behind some prison sentences, and I do have mixed feelings about prison sentences that give criminals the perfect settings for writing and publishing or painting. Maybe the problem is that these thieves, murderers, muggers, etc., etc., are NOT all that different from ordinary people who don't commit these crimes. Many who toil in low-paid jobs without any status, although they are the ones who make the wheels turn around in our society, would benefit from some time in a modern prison cell like the one above. I'm indignant of such a life being called a "punishment" as it would be a blessing to many good hard working, but under paid people.

https://incarcerationlaw.com/chapter/chapter-6-gallery/ 

 

https://www.nownovel.com/blog/12-incarcerated-writers/ 

 

Wikipedia

 

The Castration Game

 

Anna Bachmeier, what an angel!

This pretty German girl of seven, Anna Bachmeier, had the misfortune of catching the eye of a well-known pedophile and repeated sex offender, namely the 35 years old butcher, Klaus Grabowski. He told her that he had kittens in his home and she, who was a great animal lover, came to see them. Nobody seems to have warned her or her Mom, Marianne Bachmeier (1950-1996), of this sex crazed man who kidnapped, raped and killed the child when she came to see his presumed kittens on the 5th of May, 1980. Sadly enough this kidnapping and repeated rapes are not an uncommon scenery, because it has happened all over the planet, over and over again. Many women and girls have lost their lives because some man had an urge to commit these crimes, but still, this case is in many ways different from most of them as the mother of the victim, 30 years old Marianne Bachmeier, decided to revenge her child. When Klaus Grabowski was put on trial in 1981 she shot him in the courtroom, shouting: "This if for you, Anna!"

The bereaved mother sparked international interest and that may have helped her in her own trial as she only received a conviction of manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm. She was sentenced to six years in prison, but was released on bail after three. Many, all over the world, sympathized with her and found this short span of prison time appropriate for a killer like her: The bereaved mother. More came to be known of her life which may also have been in her favour: Her father, who was a heavy drinker, had been in Hitler's Waffen SS and he brought his Nazi brutality into the home of his family. At the age of 16 Marianne got pregnant and had to put the child up for adoption. Two years later the same happened once again, but when she godt pregnant the third time she decided to keep the child, her daughter Anna. 

The father of the child didn't commit to either her or their daughter so she had to do everything herself. The mother and daughter seem to have been very attached to each other even though it can't have been easy to be an unwed mother at that time. However, Marianne managed.

Two people lost their lives because of the sad assault on this child: Anna and her attacker, Klaus Grabowski. However, both might have lived had the sex maniac butcher not dodged the medical treatment he had been sentenced to receive after one of his repeated offences.

He was supposed to take testosterone suppressers, but cheated and even succeeded in getting hormone boosters from doctors who didn't know about him and his previous crimes. Had he accepted the medical treatment he would have been virtually castrated. Actually, Germany is one of the countries which adhere to this treatment of criminals who commit grave sexual offences. Denmark, along with Britain and Sweden, also use medical castrations when it's deemed necessary. Surgical castrations are more rare, but also in e.g. USA there are chemical castration laws, including in California, that's the first state to legalize the measure.  

However, private castrations as a female weapon against men and their various kinds of tyranny when it is at its worst is not all that uncommon. One of the best known cases is that of Lorena Bobbitt and her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, but they are not the only ones. Women have sought revenge or protection against male assaults by harming one of the most vulnerable spots on their body, e.g. their penis, either by hand or by knife. A swift movement downwards of an erect penis may lead to a more or less untreatable injury that puts a stop to rape for all eternity, but strangely enough a severed penis like in the Bobbitt case may be treated surgically and (presumably) be cured. At least that's the message we get from Bobbitt's porn career after the attack by his wife. He did everything in his power to prove that he and his penis were still functional.

Several of these women who feel that they have to defend themselves by cutting off a man's penis say they did so to avoid rape. There are other ways, like e.g. this gadget: 

Some women who feel very vulnerable to males with criminal sex urges may resort to something like this "Rapex". I bet it works when used, but I doubt it's pleasant to the woman to wear. As to the men who meet a "Repex" or another gadget like it when they feel safe to force their way then I'm sure they will regret their actions ....

The vigilante mother, Marianne Bachmeier, became quite a "celebrity" after her deed

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/calls-for-germany-to-end-surgical-castration-of-sex-offenders-1.454019 

 

https://www.evidencelockerpodcast.com/transcripts/transcript-68-vigilante-mother-germany  

 

 

https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/sex-offenders-and-sex-offenses-overview.html 

 

 

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/calls-for-germany-to-end-surgical-castration-of-sex-offenders-1.454019 

 

 

https://www.oddmurdersandmysteries.com/the-murder-of-anna-bachmeier/ 

 

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15223029/women-who-chopped-off-penises-more-than-once/ 

 

 

https://nypost.com/2023/02/27/woman-allegedly-cut-off-mans-penis-after-a-fight-about-sex/ 

 

 

https://firstcuriosity.com/featured/marianne-bachmeier-the-woman-who-killed-her-daughters-rapist-and-murderer-in-court/ 

 

 

https://decider.com/2019/02/19/lorena-john-wayne-bobbitt/ 

 

 

Wikipedia