Comparative Essay: Cleopatra and Empress Wu Zetian
Silke Karla Vinyard
Strayer University
Professor Mayhall
HUM111346SC034-1164-001 (World Cultures 1)
May 24, 2016

Cleopatra and Empress Wu Zetian

Cleopatra and Empress Wu Zetian were two very powerful women of their time. Cleopatra, Last Pharaoh of Egypt. As queen of Egypt, Cleopatra is one of the most famous female rulers in history. Cleopatra’s family ruled Eygpt for more than 100 years before she was born around 69 BC.
Empress Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty. She was one of the concubines of Emperor Taizong; she was the empress of Emperor Gaozong; she was the mother of Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong; she was once a nun in the temple. But her most glorious title was that she was the only female emperor in Chinese history who actually ruled the whole country for almost half a century. How Cleopatra and Empress Wu Zetian gained their power Most nations of note have had at least one great female leader. Not the United States of course, but one thinks readily enough of Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt, Russia’s astonishing Catherine the Great, or Trung Trac of Vietnam.
These women were rarely chosen by their people. They came to power, mostly, by default or stealth; a king had no sons, or an intelligent queen usurped the powers of her useless husband. However, they rose, though, it has always been harder for a woman to rule effectively than it was for a man-more so in the earlier periods of history, when monarchs were first and foremost military leaders, and power was often seized by force.
So queens and empresses were forced to rule like men, and yet roundly criticized they did so. Of all female rulers, though none has aroused so much controversy, or wielded such great power, as a monarch whose real achievements and character remained obscured behind layers of obloquy. Her