Caesar and Cleopatra

The Great Sphinx is a widely recognized symbol for ancient Egypt, yet it is also a mystery of antiquity. There are no mentions in ancient writing that explain the enormous statue’s construction, purpose, or cultural significance, and it has been the subject of much archeological speculation and theorization. Historians don’t even know what the Sphinx was called by the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Greeks, who had trade and contact with Egypt, adopted the Sphinx into their own mythology; the name “Sphinx” is a Greek word.

When Caesar approaches the Sphinx in the play, he is clearly only familiar with the Greek version of the beast, and possibly Shaw was as well. He refers to the Sphinx as part-woman, but the Egyptian Sphinx is masculine, most likely modeled after a pharaoh. He also alludes to the Sphinx’s riddle, which comes from Greek myth in which the gods send the Sphinx to guard the city of Thebes. She asks her riddle to anyone who passes by and eats anyone who answers incorrectly. Oedipus finally defeats the monster by solving the riddle, and the Sphinx destroys herself by throwing herself off the mountain.

The Sphinx in the play is Cleopatra’s spiritual twin. In the first act, when Caesar is approaching and Cleopatra is missing, Ftatateeta knows immediately that Cleopatra will have run away to the Sphinx, which she believes is more powerful than even Caesar. Cleopatra speaks to the Sphinx through her sacred cats. She decorates it with flowers and offers a yearly sacrifice on her birthday. Cleopatra claims that she is part cat, descended from the Nile River and his marriage to a black kitten of the sacred white cat.

When Caesar comes across the Sphinx, he immediately also sees the statue as his double, deciding that the Sphinx is a visual representation of his genius. However, much the other cultural aspects of Egypt, Caesar doesn’t fully understand what he is claiming. He is surprised when Cleopatra informs him that the Sphinx that she is hiding atop is a much smaller version of the Great Sphinx in Giza—“a dear little kitten” and her “pet Sphinx” (19).

Later in the play, when Caesar suggests that they start a new empire together. Cleopatra calls for a miniature Sphinx so she can contact the god of the Nile and ask him to name it, although she comments that prayers are more effective when she kills something. Caesar, who has not taken her gods or religion seriously, is astonished when Cleopatra’s ritual seemingly causes the light to change. At that moment, Ftatateeta carries out Cleopatra’s secret order and kills Pothinus. Though Caesar is impressed by the statue, it is ultimately a symbol of Egyptian identity and power that will elude his full comprehension.