A young Cleopatra VII gets her hair braided by her mother along the banks of the Nile River. As she works, Cleo's mom promises her daughter of the future greatness that may await her. And so the seeds of Cleopatra's ambitions are sown...

The identity of Cleopatra VII's mother remains unknown for certain (although her father would have been Ptolemy XII), but here I was working with the hypothesis that she may have been a native Egyptian concubine. In which case, she might have told stories to little Cleo about the great Egyptian Queens of the past, including the mighty Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Now imagine how inspired a young Cleopatra might have felt if she ever learned who Hatshepsut was!

I had a tough time drawing the pose of Cleopatra's mom braiding her hair. Even finding decent photo references took some digging through the Internet. Nonetheless I thought it made for a cute mother/daughter moment.