It had to happen: there is a gap in the new edition of the Dictionary portable! There is much reference to "Cleopatra's nose" (in the test pages 702-703), but nowhere in the book the term is explained
... Here I am caught in my own trap, I who, in response to our friend "Phoenix naive," judged essential to know the major cultural expressions (cf. the comments after Presentation 2, where I traced the history of Portable).
"It scandâââle! "Georges Marchais had said, requiring the author's self-criticism in good and due form. Not only because Pascal has built Cleopatra cultural reference, but Goscinny and Uderzo's no shortage of celebrating the "nose" of heroin (in Asterix and Cleopatra ), and I do not speak of the many movies or books that are depicts the Egyptian queen to beauty legendary.
But let's get the facts. In Thought 162 (Brunschvicg edition), Pascal wrote: "Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole face of the earth has changed. "He wants to show and causes tiny can have terrible consequences. Because of its beauty, due to a long nose, Cleopatra was indeed successively beloved of Caesar, then Antony. It goes without saying that the history of the Roman Empire would have been very different if, decked out with a shorter nose (- a sign of ugliness at the time!) our Queen had not aroused the enthusiasm of our emperors. This illustrates, according to Pascal, the vanity of love and things of this world.
Since then, alluding to the "Cleopatra's nose" is not just a grown man's vanity is a cultural reference , whose function is precisely to return, beyond of Thoughts Pascal, a broad debate on both philosophical and historical. It would have been a pity to deprive the readers of Portable Dico, hungry for knowledge, this precious phrase. That is partially my oblivion repaired ... pending an upcoming edition!
BH
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