Asterix and Cleopatra
Encyclopedia
Asterix and Cleopatra is the sixth book in the Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...

 comic book series by René Goscinny
René Goscinny
René Goscinny was a French comics editor and writer, who is best known for the comic book Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and for his work on the comic series Lucky Luke with Morris and Iznogoud with Jean Tabary.-Early life:Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, to a family...

 and Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo
Albert Uderzo is a French comic book artist, and scriptwriter. He is best known for his work on the Astérix series, but also drew other comics such as Oumpah-pah, also in collaboration with René Goscinny.-Early life:...

. It was first published in serial form in Pilote
Pilote
thumb|Cover of the first Pilote teaser issue, #0.Pilote was a French comics periodical published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as Astérix le Gaulois, Blueberry, Achille Talon, and Valérian et...

 magazine, issues 215-257, in 1963.

Synopsis

The book begins with an argument between Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

, in which Caesar belittles the accomplishments of the Egyptian people. Infuriated, Cleopatra makes a wager with Caesar promising to build a new palace in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 within three months. Cleopatra summons Edifis, who claims to be the best architect in Egypt. She promises Edifis that if he builds the palace on time he will be covered with gold; if he fails, he will be a meal for the sacred crocodiles.

A worried Edifis thinks he needs magic to help him, enlists the help of the Gauls, Asterix
Asterix (character)
Asterix is a fictional character, the titular hero of the French comic book series The Adventures of Asterix.The series portrays him as a diminutive but fearless Gaulish warrior living in the time of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Asterix was created in 1959 by writer René Goscinny and illustrator...

, Obelix
Obelix
Obelix is a fictional character from the French comic book series Asterix. He works as a menhir sculptor and deliveryman, and is Asterix's best friend. Obelix is noted for his fatness, the menhirs he carries around on his back and his superhuman strength...

, Getafix, and Dogmatix
Dogmatix
Dogmatix is a fictional character, a tiny white dog who belongs to Obelix in the Asterix comics. Dogmatix is a pun on the words dog and dogmatic. In the original French his name is Idéfix, itself a pun on the French expression idée fixe meaning an obsession...

. Thanks to Getafix and his magic potion, the work goes forward on schedule, despite multiple attempts by Edifis's arch rival, Artifis, to sabotage the construction after Edifis says he doesn't want to get help of them. Edifis tells the workers to demand less whipping, which would slow construction. However Getafix gives the workers magic potion. Artifis bribes the stone-delivery man to throw his quarry away, before Obelix beats him up, causing him to reveal the truth, a henchman tries to lock the Gauls inside a pyramid but Dogmatix helps him find his way out, he tries to frame the Gauls by sending a poisoned cake to Cleopatra, but Getafix makes an antidote enabling the Gauls to eat it, then cures the taster and claims eating too much rich food was giving him a bad stomach. Edifis is kidnapped and hidden in a sarcophagus in the house of Artifis, but Obelix frees him. Edifis and his henchman are forced to work on the palace, but without magic potion.

Just before the palace is due to be completed, Caesar intervenes by sending legions to try and arrest the Gauls, after he realises the three Gauls are in Egypt when a spy disguises himself as a worker, and sees the effects of the magic potion. The Gauls fight off the Roman soldiers, but the commanding officer proceeds to shell the building with his catapult
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...

s. In desperation, Asterix and Dogmatix deliver the news to Cleopatra. A furious Cleopatra then hurries to the construction site to berate Caesar. Caesar's legions are required to fix the damage they caused (without any magic potion to help them) and the palace is successfully completed on time. Cleopatra wins her bet and covers Edifis with gold. Edifis and Artifis reconcile and agree to build pyramids together, and Cleopatra gives Getafix some papyrus manuscripts from the Library of Alexandria
Library of Alexandria
The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...

 as a gift.

Allusions to other works

The title alludes to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's play Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...

. However, the book itself is largely an extended parody of the then-recent film Cleopatra
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Cleopatra is a 1963 British-American-Swiss epic drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy...

, starring Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

 and Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...

. The book's cover parodies the film's poster.

A running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....

 throughout the album (and also later albums) is Cleopatra's beautiful nose, which is admired by everyone. This is an allusion to the French philosopher Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...

, who had articulated the historical significance of Cleopatra's beauty by saying in his Pensées
Pensées
The Pensées represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. "Pascal's Wager" is found here...

 that "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed".

On page 10, Edifis's scribe says "anyone who can draw can write." This is a reference to an advertising slogan of the ABC school of drawing and painting, "Si vous savez écrire, vous savez dessiner" ("If you can write, you can draw"), a joke about the graphical nature of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

On page 23, while looking at the pyramids, Getafix says to Obelix: "20 centuries look down upon us." This alludes to Napoleon, who told his soldiers in front of the pyramids, "40 centuries look down upon you."

In the original French, Artifis reads a newspaper called the Pharaon Soir (a pun on the France Soir
France Soir
France Soir is a French daily newspaper that prospered during the 1950s and 1960s, but it has declined since then under various owners. It was re-launched as a populist tabloid in 2006.-History:...

) and the feuilleton
Feuilleton
Feuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...

 Chère-Bibis can be viewed on the back page. In the English version, the newspaper is the Daily Nile (The Daily Mail), and the comics are "Pnuts" (Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

) and "Ptarzan" (Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

).

On page 39, the Roman legion makes use of a "tortoise attack". When they flee, a small caption says they are now using the tactic of the hare, an allusion to the fable of the The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...

.

Allusions to history

When Edifis introduces the Gauls to his scribe, he says that he "speaks several living languages such as Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 (Ancient), Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 and Gaulish." The joke is that all these languages (with the exception of Celtic, or Gaelic, which is still spoken in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, in selected areas (Irish Gaelic
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

) and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 (Scottish Gaelic) are now dead languages.

On page 30, Cleopatra says she's tired of having her portrait done in profile and wants to be portrayed in three-quarter face. Her sculptor demurs: "Oh well, you know what I think of modern art." This is a reference to the permanent profiles in Ancient Egyptian art.

On page 47, Asterix offers Cleopatra further Gaulish help, and suggests that they could build a channel between the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 and the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

. This is a reference to the French involvement in building the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

.

When the Gauls visit the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza , commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt....

, a parodic explanation is provided as to how the Sphinx lost its nose.

Wordplay

A convention in the Asterix books is that Gaulish names end in -ix. In this book, many of the names of the Egyptians end in -is, including Edifis (a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...

 on edifice) and Artifis (a pun on artifice
Artifice
Artifice is a biannual nonprofit literary magazine founded in 2009 which showcases fiction, non-fiction and poetry that is "aware of its own artifice"...

).

In the original French, Edifis says to Getafix on page 7: "Je suis, mon cher ami, très heureux de te voir" ("My dear friend, I'm very glad to see you."). Getafix responds "C'est un alexandrin". The joke is that un alexandrin can mean both an Alexandrian (someone from Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, like Edifis) or an alexandrine
Alexandrine
An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...

, a line of verse with 12 syllables, like the sentence Edifis had just spoken. In the English version the pun is preserved, with Edifis saying, "My dear old Getafix, I hope I find you well?" Getafix explains to his friends, "An Alexandrine."

On page 9, Edifis says that Artifis has "many talents". When Asterix asks him if that means Artifis is a fine architect, Edifis responds, "No, rich. He has a lot of gold talents. That's the money we use in Egypt". This is a pun on the ancient coin known as the talent
Attic talent
The Attic talent , also known as the Athenian talent or Greek talent, is an ancient unit of mass equal to 26 kg, as well as a unit of value equal to this amount of pure silver. A talent was originally intended to be the mass of water required to fill an amphora . At the 2009 price of $414/kg, a...

.

On page 10, Obelix is baffled by the Lighthouse of Alexandria
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos of Alexandria , was a tower built between 280 and 247 BC on the island of Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt...

 which guides ships to the harbor. Getafix responds: "It's a world wonder, Obelix," referring to the fact that the lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the World refers to remarkable constructions of classical antiquity listed by various authors in guidebooks popular among the ancient Hellenic tourists, particularly in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC...

.

When the Gauls visit Luxor
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896 , with an area of approximately . As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", as the ruins of the temple...

, Obelix wants to take one of the obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

s with him. After an argument with Asterix, he says "We shall never be in Concord over this". The joke relies not only upon the fact that Obelix' name is a pun on the word "obelisk", but also to the fact that Napoleon's soldiers took a Luxor Obelisk
Luxor Obelisk
The Luxor Obelisk is a 23 metres high Egyptian obelisk standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France...

 with them to France and that it can still can be viewed in the Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Relationship to other Asterix books

In most Asterix books, Obelix is not permitted to drink the Magic Potion, but Getafix makes an exception due to an extraordinary requirement (the need to force open a solid stone door inside a pyramid which apparently, even Obelix's regular level strength is incapable of doing). Obelix notices no difference, but keeps asking for more potion in subsequent volumes.

Obelix's dog, Dogmatix, is named for the first time in this story. It is also the first story in which Dogmatix takes a significant role (rescuing the heroes from a maze inside a Pyramid).

The recurring pirate characters appear in this book, though on this occasion they sink their own ship rather than endure a punch-up with the Gauls. The captain's son Erix (seen in the previous book Asterix and the Banquet
Asterix and the Banquet
Asterix and the Banquet is the fifth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo . It was first serialized in the magazine Pilote, issues 172-213, in 1963.-Plot:...

) is mentioned as having been left as a deposit to pay for the short-lived ship. After he and his crew have been forced to take jobs as galley slaves on Cleopatra's barge, the captain expresses the unusual determination to wreak revenge on the Gauls — in other books, he simply wishes never to encounter them again.

Adaptations

Asterix and Cleopatra has been adapted for film twice: first as an animated 1968 film entitled Asterix and Cleopatra
Asterix and Cleopatra (film)
Asterix and Cleopatra is a Belgian/French animated film released in 1968; it is the second Asterix adventure to be made into a feature film...

, and then as a live-action 2002 film called Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra
Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, originally titled Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, is a 2002 French-German film based on the comic book Astérix et Cléopatre by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo and a sequel for the 1999 movie Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar. It was the most expensive French...

.

An audiobook of Asterix and Cleopatra adapted by Anthea Bell
Anthea Bell
Anthea Bell OBE is a British translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German, Danish and Polish to English...

 and Derek Hockridge
Derek Hockridge
Derek Hockridge was born in 1934 in Wales and brought up in Birmingham. His degree at the University of Wales, Cardiff, was followed by teacher training at St Edmund Hall, Oxford...

 and narrated by Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...

 was released on Hodder and Stoughton's Hodder Children's Audio.

In other languages

  • Arabic: أستريكس وكليوباترا
  • Ancient Greek: Αστερίκιος και Κλεοπάτρα
  • Bengali: Asterix o Cleopatra
  • Catalan: Astèrix i Cleòpatra
  • Croatian: Asteriks i Kleopatra
  • Czech: Asterix a Kleopatra
  • Danish: Astèrix og Kleopatra
  • Dutch: Asterix en Cleopatra
  • Finnish: Asterix ja Kleopatra. This was the first Asterix adventure to be translated into Finnish.
  • German: Asterix und Kleopatra
  • Greek: Αστερίξ και Κλεοπάτρα
  • Hindi: Estriks aur Klyopetraa
  • Icelandic: Ástríkur og Kleópatra
  • Indonesian: Ásterix dan Cleopatra
  • Italian: Asterix e Cleopatra
  • Norwegian: Asterix og Kleopatra
  • Polish: Asteriks i Kleopatra
  • Portuguese: Astérix e Cleópatra
  • Serbian: Астерикс и Клеопатра
  • Slovak: Asterix a Kleopatra
  • Spanish: Asterix y Cleopatra
  • Swedish: Asterix och Kleopatra
  • Turkish: Asteriks ve Kleopatra
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