Hellenistic Poetry and the Cult of Queens: the Tradition of Offering of a Hair Lock from Berenice II to Arsinoe III

The epigram “The Lock of Berenice,” describing Berenice II’s dedication of a lock of her hair and its subsequent catasterism, composed by the poet Callimachus and regarded as the most vivid example of the literary representation of the image of a deified queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was examined. The cultural sources of this ritual – Greek, Egyptian, or a synthesis of the two – were identified. This episode was compared with another dedication of a hair lock performed by Berenice II’s daughter, Arsinoe III, which was described in the epigram by the poet Damagetus. The nature of the borrowing and the key differences between the two works, which at first glance describe completely identical episodes but involving two different queens, have been identified.  As a result of the analysis of texts and evidence of similar rituals in Egypt, it was noted that the ritual of offering a lock of hair by Berenice II was more characteristic of the Greek religious tradition, and Arsinoe III, in making the offering, probably deliberately imitated her mother, continuing the tradition that had been started, although subsequent representatives of the dynasty did not perform similar rituals. Thus, the ritual did not develop properly and, accordingly, did not become a stable element of the cult, but remained a unique example of the synthesis of court poetry and ideological message, reflecting the specificity of the religious and artistic practices of the Ptolemies. The scientific novelty of this work lies in clarifying the nature of Arsinoe III's imitation and establishing the limits of the functioning of the motif of offering a lock of hair as an instrument of dynastic propaganda. Other evidence has been studied, confirming that the offering of locks of hair by queens did indeed take place and was not an invention of court poets.

 EDN LYAELB 

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