Cleopatra is made up of the same elements, in reverse order, as the name of Achilles’ companion
Patroclus, while Berenice means “She who brings victory (nike).” The Ptolemies were also the
successors to the age-old dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs, and had to represent themselves to their
Egyptian subjects in appropriate fashion. Figure 67 shows Queen Arsinoe II, the wife (and full sister) of
the Macedonian King Ptolemy II, as represented by an Egyptian sculptor in the style traditional for
Egyptian queens. At the same time, the Ptolemies presented themselves to the Greek and Macedonian
inhabitants of their kingdom as typical Macedonian monarchs: Figure 68 is a coin bearing a double
portrait of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II under the inscription, in Greek, “the siblings.” Both Ptolemy and
Arsinoe were nicknamed Philadelphus, or “sibling-loving,” because of their marriage, a marriage which
had a precedent in that of another pair of divine siblings, Zeus and Hera.
Figure 67 Detail of granodiorite statue of Queen Arsinoe II; height of statue 1.595 m, ca. 270–246 BC.
Shigaraki, Miho Museum.
Source: Shigaraki (Shiga Prefecture, Japan), Miho Museum.