Hi there, you're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast, interview episode on the reception of Cleopatra in the Islamic world with Yentel Love.

Hi everybody, joining us today is Yentel Love, creator and writer of the website Thequeerclassicist.com.

Passionate about the classics in ancient history, she has written a number of articles ranging from sexuality in the Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds to reinterpretations of the Iliad.

Recently, she has written an article entitled, Kalubatra, the Muslim Queen Cleo, discussing

the reception of the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Cleopatra the Seventh, in the

Islamic world.

Firstly, I like to say, welcome to to the show and thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself regarding your experiences and what led you to your love of the ancient world and the conception of your website?

Are there any particular influences from books, teachers or films?

Yes, so growing up, my parents always talked to me a lot about ancient Greek mythology.

That was kind of our go-to for story times.

But then growing up, I used to read a lot.

Like many other people, I was obsessed with Percy Jackson book and there we have a

series in the UK called Horrible Histories which is just kind of a kid-friendly way of teaching history

and I used to be obsessed with all of the ancient horrible histories. So that kind of introduced me to the

world of classics and ancient history as a kid.

And then when I was 16, I was lucky enough to move to a school which offered classical civilizations,

which is pretty rare in the UK, particularly in non-private education.

It's quite rare to be able to study that, so I was very lucky that I could.

And I had two excellent lecturers, Ed and Graham, who really inspired me to carry on with ancient history.

I was actually meant to be going to study politics at university, but I went to a museum exhibition

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