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July 20, 2007

Strange But True!

Q. Queen Cleopatra is undoubtedly history's most famous suicide by snakebite. She had lived fast and died young, having chosen her weapon wisely. How was she a calculating woman to the end?

A. “Poor venomous fool, be angry, and dispatch,” she implored the serpent, in Shakespeare's “Antony and Cleopatra,” as she pressed it to her breast. Imprisoned, Cleopatra probably used an Egyptian cobra to make her exit, says Marty Crump in “Headless Males Make Great Lovers.” Envenomation by a viper would not have left a good-looking corpse but rather one swollen and disfigured. The cobra bite left her more dignified. “She likely had difficulty breathing but felt little pain or anxiety, lapsed into a coma, and died peacefully and beautifully.”


 
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