No matter how enlightened the age, no woman can maintain the image
of being devoted to pleasure completely comfortably. And no matter
how hard she tries to distance herself from it, the taint of being easy always
follows the Siren. Cleopatra was hated in Rome as the Egyptian whore.
That hatred eventually lead to her downfall, as Octavius and the Roman
army sought to extirpate the stain on Roman manhood that she came to
represent. Even so, men are often forgiving when it comes to the Siren's
reputation. But danger often lies in the envy she stirs up among other
women; much of Rome's hatred for Cleopatra originated in the resentment
she provoked among the city's stern matrons. By playing up her innocence,
by making herself seem the victim of male desire, the Siren can somewhat
blunt the effects of feminine envy. But on the whole there is little she can
do—her power comes from her effect on men, and she must learn to ac-
cept, or ignore, the envy of other women.
Finally, the intense attention that the Siren attracts can prove irritating
and worse. Sometimes she will pine for relief from it; sometimes, too, she
will want to attract an attention that is not sexual. Also, unfortunately,
physical beauty fades; although the Siren effect depends not on a beautiful
face but on an overall impression, past a certain age that impression gets
hard to project. Both of these factors contributed to the suicide of Marilyn
Monroe. It takes a genius on the level of Madame de Pompadour, the Siren
mistress of King Louis XV, to make the transition into the role of the spir-
ited older woman who continues to seduce with her nonphysical charms.
Cleopatra had such an intellect, and had she lived long enough, she would
have remained a potent seductress for many years. The Siren must prepare
for age by paying attention early on to the more psychological, less physical
forms of coquetry that can continue to bring her power once her beauty
starts to fade.