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Cleopatra and Milk Baths
#2
(03-31-2017, 07:01 PM)rocktupac Wrote: Does anyone know of any reference to Cleopatra bathing in milk from any ancient source?

Not Cleopatra, no - Nero's wife Poppaea Sabina was the one, it seems:

Quote:The extremes of luxury indulged in by this Sabina I will indicate in the briefest terms. She caused gilded shoes to be put on the mules that drew her and caused five hundred asses that had recently foaled to be milked daily that she might bathe in their milk. For she bestowed the greatest pains on the beauty and brilliancy of her person, and this is why, when she noticed in a mirror one day that her appearance was not comely, she prayed that she might die before she passed her prime.

Cassius Dio, 62.28


The 1932 film Sign of the Cross has a famous scene of Poppaea bathing in milk (pretty risque at the time) - it seems possible that the idea transferred in popular imagination to other Roman ladies, and then on to Cleopatra...
Nathan Ross
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Messages In This Thread
Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by rocktupac - 03-31-2017, 07:01 PM
RE: Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by Nathan Ross - 03-31-2017, 08:04 PM
RE: Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by rocktupac - 04-01-2017, 12:40 AM
RE: Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by john m roberts - 04-01-2017, 03:52 PM
RE: Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by Iverson - 10-25-2017, 10:09 AM
RE: Cleopatra and Milk Baths - by Robert Vermaat - 10-25-2017, 11:29 AM

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