Cleopatra Dismounts

by Carmen Boullosa

"Cleopatra Dismounts is an imagined life of the Egyptian queen, called Queen of Kings by her subjects and widely said to be the incarnation of the goddess Isis. In the opening section, with Marc Antony dying in her arms, Cleopatra bewails the ignominious end to her larger-than-life career through the political world of ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Mediterranean. But is this really the true Cleopatra? Through the intervention of Cleoptra's scribe and informer. Diomedes, Boullosa creates two previous Cleopatras, and in effect two deliriously wild other lives for the young monarch - a girl escaping the intrigues of royal society, fleeing in the back of a horsecart to Ascalon, to disguise herself and take up residence with a band of pirates; and the young queen who is carried across the sea on the back of a magical bull, to live among the Amazons and become part of their society, learning their battle techniques and stories of love. In each adventure, Cleopatra reveals the roots of her g