Cleopatra VII's perfume

When Antony awoke one morning with his eyes open, he found the Queen Cleopatra VII lying in his arms. The queen was still sleeping so soundly that he could not bear to wake her. So he continued to let her sleep in his arms!

At some point, an ethereal scent from the Queen's body entered his nostrils and he could not resist taking a deep breath close to her, as he tried to identify the source of the scent!

As Anthony's nose neared the neck of the Queen's hair, her voice rang in his ears: "Good morning! Are you so hungry you want to eat me up?"

"My dear! Good morning! You're teasing me about being a reincarnated white tiger again! To be honest, I'd like to turn into a white tiger and bite you!" Antony took the bait and started teasing her too!

"Why would you want to bite me? You can ask the maid to prepare breakfast if you're hungry!" Cleopatra VII reminded him.

"I'm not hungry, but my nose is hungry! Why, my dear, do you always have a faint smell on you?" Antony asked his question.

"Because I am a graceful, fresh-smelling water lily! Lying in your arms, nourished by true love, opening quietly ..." Cleopatra VII said softly in her musical voice.

"Ha ha! My dear sleeping beauty has awakened to a poet! Will you tell me the true secret of the ethereal scent you carry?" Antony pressed on.

"Caesar loves my eye make-up and you are enchanted by the ethereal scent I wear! Every man likes something different! Men are wonderful!" Cleopatra VII said with emotion.

"That's better, I don't want to be a copy of Caesar! I want to be your unique lover, to have a different place in your heart than Caesar! I like your eye make-up too, but the ethereal scent of your body appeals to me more!" Antony couldn't resist inhaling deeply as he approached the Queen's noble and beautiful neck!

"Since you're so enamoured with my scent, I'll take you somewhere after we get up, wash up and have breakfast!" The Queen said as she got up and finished washing up and asked Angela to bring her breakfast over. As she was taking Anthony out and about today, the Queen had her maid make the simplest local Egyptian scones wrapped in mashed fava beans and cream tea for breakfast. She also had arrangements made for little Caesar to be washed and for the day's learning programme.

"After breakfast, where are you taking me?" Anthony asked curiously as he ate his breakfast.

"You'll find out later ..." the Queen said mysteriously!

After breakfast, both the Queen and Anthony set off on their handsome, tall white horses, making a gallant journey! There were several bodyguards and attendants riding behind them! It didn't seem long before Cleopatra VII rode with Antony to the Nile!

"My dear Queen, is this the mysterious place you speak of, by the Nile? Are you joking with me? What does the edge of the Nile have to do with the ethereal scent you carry?" Antony asked, puzzled, as he jumped off his horse.

"Look! Above the sparkling waters of the Nile, too, there are elegant and noble queens! They are the most beautiful water queens of my heart!" Cleopatra VII jumped off her favourite white horse, handed the tether to her attendant, went to the bank of the Nile and pointed her finger at the white water lilies in the Nile and said.

"Water lilies? You are the most beautiful queen in my heart! But today the Queen seems to be dressed to rival the water lilies!" Antony couldn't help but take another look at the Queen, Cleopatra VII today in a white riding dress with matching pearl crown plus white pearl earrings and necklace, shining in the sunlight like the most beautiful water lily on the water, elegant in a gallant way.

"Apart from roses, my favourite flower is the water lily!" The Queen looked at the water lily with eyes full of love!

"Why do you love water lilies?" Antony asked curiously.

"Because water lilies are elegant and holy. Look at the water of the Nile, where a water lily blooms in the middle of the green leaves, like a beauty in a bath. The water lily is so spiritual and elegant that I can't help but fall in love with it!" The water lily is the national flower of Egypt! The Nile River in Egypt was once the home of the water lily. Long before the pyramids were built, the rich land on both sides of the Nile was covered with standing lotus flowers. Water lilies symbolise reincarnation and resurrection and it was believed that they could bring people back from the dead, which is why they were also put inside mummies.

"Beautiful indeed! I have just discovered that there are red, white and blue water lilies on the Nile, and that watery look is as beautiful as my dear Queen after her bath!" Antony said with emotion.

"I also love water lilies because they symbolise undying holy love: in Egyptian mythology there is the story of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and learning, who had the head of a heron and the body of a man, and had a virtuous and faithful wife, Eh-Amouna, who deliberately offered her husband a bunch of lotus flowers as an expression of her undying holy love for him. The water lily was used as a token by lovers in Egypt. For everyone wanted to have a holy love that was faithful and unfailing."

"My Queen, I give you this white lotus flower with the most loyal love of my heart!" Antony listened to the Queen's story as he picked a water-lily flower, which he thought was the most beautiful, close by and gave it to her.

"Thank you! Anthony! I wish everyone could have faithful love! For faithful love is priceless and can make love sacred and great!" Cleopatra VII said hopefully. "That is why I am going to promulgate the relevant law: Egyptians are free to love and marry but have to remain faithful to their partners, and I hope that this law will raise the moral level of Egyptians and make loyalty raise the value of love!"

Antony saw that the water lilies on the Nile were more beautiful than the others and picked some blue, purple, red and white water lilies himself to give to the Queen. The Queen took the water lilies in her hands and took Antony's hand for a walk along the Nile.

It is worth mentioning: in addition to water lilies, there are many flowers in Egypt, such as: yerba mate, ambergris, tuberose, lilies of the valley, jasmine, wild poppies and henna. All these flowers were used by the Queen in the development of her perfumes!

So, on her walks, Cleopatra VII picked at random, from time to time, all kinds of flowers that bloomed near the Nile to take back to her perfume workshop!

The Queen and Antony then rejoined their horses, on which they rode slowly along the Nile, whose valley was always lined with cotton fields and fragrant with rice flowers. The winding Nile is like a green walkway, full of infinite life, amidst the Sahara and Arabian deserts that lie to the left and right. Egypt's imposing temples are in stark contrast to the winding Nile next to them.

The Nile basin differs from the two river basins in that it is bounded by the Libyan desert to the west, the Arabian desert to the east, the Nubian desert and cascading waterfalls to the south, and the harbourless coast of the Delta to the north. Within the embrace of these natural barriers, the ancient Egyptians could enjoy a peaceful life in safety!

It was in this way that the Queen was in the mood for a scenic ride along the Nile with Antony on horseback, with the breeze blowing and the view in full view! Antony and the Queen rode along the river for several hours before they reluctantly returned to the palace, after which the Queen led Antony to a secluded studio-like place.

"What is this place?" Antony followed the Queen into the studio and a fragrance wafted into his nostrils.

"This is my secret room of ethereal fragrance!" Cleopatra VII winked at him mysteriously.

"Oh! I see! Did you develop all this yourself? What are these?" Antony said as he looked at the different heights, sizes and shapes of bottles and jars that lay on the table in the Queen's special chamber.

"These are perfumes that I made myself! This bottle is White Angel, a perfume developed with white rose as the main fragrance. I call it White Rose Angel! Take a whiff!" Cleopatra VII handed Antony the white, clear liquid in a glass bottle in the shape of a rose!" It's called Pink Lady and it was developed with pink roses as the main fragrance!" The Queen said to Antony as she held out a bottle of the pale pink liquid.

"Wow! What a fragrance! Pure ethereal fragrance and roses alike!" After smelling the white and pink rose perfume, Anthony couldn't help but take a deep breath.

At the same time, Anthony saw another bottle somewhat in the shape of a water lily and asked curiously, "What about this bottle?"

"It's a perfume developed with white water lilies as the main fragrance, and water lilies are one of my favourite flowers! That's why I call it Cleopatra VII perfume!" Cleopatra VII opened the lid of the perfume and placed it under Antony's nose for him to smell.

"So, this is the Queen's secret: Cleopatra VII perfume! The Queen must have used this perfume today, for the Queen is all over her body as if she were an ethereal water lily!" Antony said with a smile.

"If you like the white water lily-based fragrance of Cleopatra VII, then you must also like this blue-violet perfume called Princess Violet! It was also developed with a blue and purple water lily as the main fragrance!" Cleopatra VII said as she handed him a bottle of perfume that emitted a distinctive blue-purple ethereal light.

"An elegant scent! Very special. It seems to have the aura of heaven!" Antony said with admiration as he took a sniff.

Afterwards, Antony saw a strange bottle and asked curiously, "What is this?"

"This perfume I call Secret of the Nile! The ingredients include: the scent of myrrh (extracted from the resin of the myrrh tree in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula), cardamom, olive oil and nutmeg. The fragrance is both strong and spicy, with a musky note that lasts a long time. It can be used by both men and women." Cleopatra VII said.

"There are a number of places on the streets of Egypt where people also sell perfume, did you develop all of those?" Antony asked curiously.

"Some of the perfumes on the streets of Egypt were developed by me, and some by individual perfumers! Some of the perfumes I developed were so popular with the Egyptian people that I allowed them to produce and sell them in order for the Egyptian commercial economy to develop, so that the Egyptians could earn a good financial income! From time to time, I develop new perfumes! I give permission to my perfume factory near the Red Sea in Ein Gedi to produce and sell them! You see, this is the perfume I'm working on! Its main scent is the poppy! I call it: Goddess of Peace!" Cleopatra VII said as she held out a bottle of the unique perfume and handed it to Antony. "The poppy, known in Egypt as the divine flower, symbolises peace because of its pain-relieving, calming and sleeping properties, which can bring peace and tranquillity to the sick by removing their pain! Poppy husk is flat, sour and astringent, poisonous and contains more than 30 alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, narcotine and poppyine, which are analgesics, cough and diarrhoea medicines, used for lung deficiency and prolonged cough, various kinds of pain in the chest and abdomen and tendons, and prolonged dysentery and frequent diarrhoea; it is also used for spermatorrhea and slippery sperm caused by kidney deficiency." Cleopatra VII said as she picked up a delicate red poppy from the table in the perfume chamber, and after gazing at it for a moment, said with some sadness and disappointment, "But I fear that this beautiful flower of peace will in the future become an evil tool for the demons to make profits and control the minds and bodies of the people of Earth! If that is the case, then this flower of the Goddess of Peace will become the Devil's Kiss, the Love of Death!"

"Such a beautiful flower! Great medicinal value! How could it change from the Flower of the Goddess of Peace to the Devil's Kiss and the Love of Death?!" Antony asked in confusion.

"Time will tell! If the moral level of the people of Earth could be raised, knowing spiritual practices at all times and controlling the desire to worship gold and material things, then this flower would be the flower of the Goddess of Peace forever, providing mankind with the medicinal benefits of anti-inflammation, pain relief, tranquillity and bringing peace. But what goes around comes around! If the people of Earth are morally corrupt, this flower may become a slave to money and endanger the spirituality and morality of the people of Earth, and I fear that this flower may aggravate our mission of salvation! ..." The profound expression of Cleopatra VII's words made Antony a little puzzled. But he knew that if the Queen didn't want to talk, no matter how much he asked, she wouldn't tell him! So he had to give up! Moving on to the other perfume, Antony seemed to want the fragrance to smoke away all unknown fears and worries!

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