Cleopatra's Moon Quotes

“You must make a choice,” the Goddess said.

“Is that my only choice – to choose between men?” I asked. “I want what Mother had!”

“Your mother chose two men,” she said with light laughter.

“No! She chose independence for her country. She chose power and freedom,” I yelled.

Almost as if in response, a pulsating energy moved up from the ground into my bare feet. It thrummed up my body and radiated out in a bright light, first from my toes, then from my fingertips, then the top of my head.

“I choose power,” I said. “I choose freedom.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“I especially treasured my glimpses of Mother, Queen Cleopatra VII. She sat on a golden throne, looking as resplendent as one of the giant marble statues guarding the tombs of the Old Ones. Diamonds twinkled in a jungle of black braids on her ceremonial wig. She wore a diadem with three rearing snakes and a golden broad collar, shining with lapis lazuli, carnelian, and emeralds, over her golden, form-fitting pleated gown. In one hand, she held a golden ankh of life, while the other clasped the striped crook and flail of her divine rulership. Her stillness radiated power, like a lioness pausing before the pounce. It left me breathless with awe.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“I groaned inwardly, hating how men blamed their own lusts on women’s “magic.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“What caused the gods to fall upon my family like starved lions in a Roman arena?”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“I stared at the sea, trying to breathe, trying to understand how I came to be here. A motherless daughter, and now a brotherless sister. How was it that I went from a princess of Egypt — the daughter of the most powerful queen in the world — to a prisoner of Rome, and now the bride of a petty ruler in the scrubs of Africa? I closed my eyes, remembering Mother’s soft breath on my ear as she whispered, “You have the heart of a great and powerful queen.” Her last words to me. I spent my whole life trying to live up to them. But I failed. I lost everything, lost every single person I ever loved. Why? Why have you cursed me? I asked the gods. Why have you cursed my family? But no answer came. I heard only the creaking of ropes, the flapping of sails, the splash of water against the hull.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Juba made a scoffing sound in his throat, and I urged my horse to trot ahead of his. Which one of us was right? Was it better to stoically accept what the Fates handed you? Or to push back, to use the emotional energy that the Stoics strived so hard to control, to shape your own fate, like Alexander? When did acceptance become acquiescence to an intolerable situation? Should I follow Mother’s lead and fight until the end, controlling even my own death? Or should I be more like Juba, creating a safe little life in the shadow of that which ultimately sought to oppress or destroy me?”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“is just that I am not so sure — as a writer — how I feel about him using poets and historians of their caliber to push —” “Lies?” I asked. Hadn’t Octavianus used a masterful campaign of besmirching my mother to turn all of Rome against my father? “Public policy,” he said flatly.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Oh, but how I do miss our lovely city,” he sighed. “In Alexandria, there was beauty and learning and tolerance. Here, I see ugly buildings and people who want only to watch the bloody gladiatorial games.” He threw up his hands in disgust. “Where are the libraries? Where are the scholars, the poets? This is a place of brutes and beasts, not brains.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“The important question is not ‘Why was I saved?’ but ‘What will I do with the life that the gods decided to spare?’“ I was taken aback by his intensity, especially since he always seemed so calm and unflappable. “You are a Stoic, then,” I muttered, remembering Euphronius’s lessons.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Livia frowned and narrowed her eyes at me, a look that could melt a Roman broadsword. It only made me want to raise my chin higher. Her stare of dominance was good, but it did not come anywhere near Mother’s Horus stare.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“The temple column grew wider, taller, blocking out the sky. “If we don’t perform the sacred rites with the Priest of Anubis,” I said, “Father’s and Mother’s kas will not travel to the Realm of Osiris. Their spirits will haunt you until even Fortuna turns from you in disgust. You do not know the power of the dead in Egypt.” Rage and fear fought for dominance on Octavianus’s face. I pressed my advantage. “Without the rites, their restless spirits will call on all of the angry and evil spirits of the dead, deep within the secret burial places of this ancient land, and … and …” “Stop!” Agrippa ordered. “Let them have their ceremonies,” he whispered to Octavianus. “You cannot start your reign here by angering their gods.” “The ship leaves in three days,” Octavianus said through clenched teeth. “And these bastards will be on it.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Still, the shock of her suicide created such a jolt in my being that huge chunks of memory fell away, like the details of a nightmare that fade into mist, leaving only the horror intact. Some images, though, remained: Alexandros’s glazed eyes, staring into nothing for hours. Ptolly putting his thumb in his mouth even though he had long ago stopped the habit. The wind moving through the nearly abandoned palace, echoing like soft moans of grief. Zosima later said that I did not speak for days.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Genestho,” under her breath. It was the word she used to sign all her royal decrees — “Make it so.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon

“Alexandros’s baiting and my experience at the Jewish temple opened my eyes to the fact that most men thought women inferior. After all, I had grown up under the shadow of the most powerful woman in the world. I saw great men prostrate themselves at her feet. I worshipped at the altar of the greatest Goddess of All, Isis.”
― Vicky Alvear Shecter, Cleopatra's Moon