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Age cannot wither her," Shakespeare wrote, "nor custom stale her infinite variety." Elizabeth Taylor portrayed her 3½ centuries later as a gold-encrusted, exotic ideal. But those images of the Queen of the Nile need a serious overhaul, according to a new exhibition at Chicago's Field Museum. Conceived by curators at the British Museum in London, "Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth" is the first show to bring together coins minted during her reign, newly identified Egyptian statues and 2,000 years of often fanciful portraits. What's missing is evidence to suggest that Cleopatra was a beauty queen.

Instead, scholars now believe, she was an irresistible combination of brains and charisma. "There was an aura about her that she promoted," says the British Museum's Dr. Susan Walker. "She was good at mystique." Born in 69 B.C., Cleopatra VII inherited the throne at 17. To bolster her power she learned several languages. She also married her two brothers and later killed one. When Julius Caesar took Alexandria in 48 B.C., she smuggled herself into his palace in a bedroll. After his murder in 44 B.C., Cleopatra took up with Mark Antony, who would later battle co-ruler Octavian for control of the Roman Empire. Antony's defeat and suicide in 30 B.C. led her to end her own life with the sting of an asp.

Octavian promoted the myth of Cleopatra as a harlot, but her alliances with powerful men had little to do with her looks. Says David Foster of the Field Museum: "She was one of the most politically savvy people alive."

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1963 A.D. Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra shared one quality with the actual queen, says Dr. Susan Walker of the British Museum: "Cleopatra was the kind of person who lit up a room."

51-30 B.C. A bronze 80-drachma coin, minted in Alexandria during her reign, shows the image of a Cleopatra who was fierce and regal.

2001 A.D. Graphic artist Steve Caplin called on the latest technology to make this computer-generated rendering of Cleopatra for the London Times. But some scholars dispute its accuracy.

51-30 B.C. This black basalt statue follows Egyptian traditions as old as the second century B.C. The double cornucopia the queen carries is a symbol of royalty.

50-30 B.C. The softness of Cleopatra's features in this Roman bust may have been caused by abrasive modern chemicals used to treat the marble.

Late 1960s A Giovanni Guercino drawing shows Cleopatra just before her suicide by : snake bite. "Cleopatra the tragic heroine," says Walker, was a popular theme in Baroque art.

About 1960 A.D. A gold-and-enamel cased watch made in Amsterdam shows another view of Cleopatra's death. "There is still a lot we don't know about her," says Egyptologist Dr. Sally-Ann Ashton.

1946 A.D. Vivien Leigh starred in the film of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, playing opposite Claude Rains. The Field Museum's Foster says the show debunks the myth "that Julius Caesar went gaga over this little sex kitten."

51-30 B.C. A century after her death, Plutarch wrote of Cleopatra (in limestone), "As far as they say, her beauty was not...such as to strike a person who was just looking at her; but her conversation had an irresistible charm."

50-30 B.C. When in Rome, Cleopatra (in a marble bust excavated from a Roman villa) was an object of fascination. "There was Egyptmania," says Walker, adding that women copied Cleopatra's hairstyle and "noted her every move."