ABSTRACT
Although there is no explicit evidence of queens’ patronage in the early generations of Ptolemies, the frequent dedication of encomiastic poems to queens (especially Arsinoë II and Berenike II) by Alexandrian learned poets suggests an involvement of royal women in shaping their public image as patrons and lovers of the arts, in full agreement with the cultural program of their husbands. The queens are presented as Muses or Graces, goddesses who traditionally protect poetry. A queen was likely to endorse not only learned poetry, but also more “popular” forms of entertainment, like lyric song performed in public cults (Theok. Id. 15). The fourth Ptolemaic couple, Arsinoë III and Ptolemy IV, funded literary competitions (Museia).
