Bérénice II of Egypt
See also: Bérénice
Bérénice or Bérénice de Cyrène was the girl of Magas, king of Cyrène and Arsinoé, born around -267/-276. She makes assassinate its first husband Démétrios Kallos, half-brother of the king of Macedonia Antigonos Gonatas. She then marries in -246 Ptolémée {{III}} Evergètes {{Ier}} with which she exerts a Co-regency between -246 and -222. She is the first queen to beat a currency with her effigy.
Genealogy
During the absence of her husband during a military forwarding in Syria, it made wish with the goddess Venus sacrifice its marvellous hair to him. Her husband having returned healthy and except, it cut his hair and made of it an offering with the temple of the goddess with Zéphyrium. The hair having disappeared in a mysterious way, Conon de Samos, the astronomer of the court, explained it in a romantic way by indicating a stellar cluster and saying that the offering had rained so much with the goddess that it had translated it with the skies. This Astérisme (then become Constellation) is still called the Chevelure of Bérénice.
Callimaque de Cyrène celebrated this incident in a poem, whose only some lines remain, but there remains to us also a translation by Catulle. Little time after the death of her husband (-221), it was assassinated on order of his/her son Ptolémée {{IV}}.
See too
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