Penn Museum puts spin on Girls Gone Wild

Seductresses and torrid love affairs - these were the topics of conversation last night at the Young Friend of Penn's second-annual Valentine's Day celebration at the Penn Museum.

Almost 200 people attended "Ancient Girls Gone Wild," in which museum researches regaled the audience with the drama-filled lives and sinful details of some of ancient history's most impassioned women.

Afterwards, cocktails, chocolate and short massages were available, providing an early mini celebration of Valentine's Day.

Logan Everett, a second-year graduate student who also attended "Sex and the (Ancient) City" last year, described the night as "very entertaining and fun."

First on the steamy agenda was Elin Danien, a research associate in the American section of the Museum, presenting "He Done Her Wrong: Hernan Cortes and La Malinche."

According to Danien, La Malinche was regarded by Cortes as most other women were at this time -"clearly an inconvenience." After Cortes scorns La Malinche for another woman, he kills her to prevent her from speaking out against him, yet another "convenient" measure.

But Brian Rose's "Exposing Helen of Troy" showed that men aren't the only ones who desire convenience. Most of us know that Helen of Troy bribed Paris to pick her in a beauty contest - but most people don't think that we continue to do the kind of thing today.

"In terms of judging beauty," Rose said, "antiquity and modernity are indistinguishable."

The final installment of the night was of Cleopatra, "one of the penultimate girls gone wild," said Jennifer Wegner, a research scientist in the Egyptian section.

Wegner's presentation of Cleopatra's "historical humpin' and bumpin'" explains why literature turned Cleopatra into a legend. But, Wegner proposes, "She was more like a serial monogamist."

Interestingly, Wegner's extensive research shows that, while Cleopatra remains a popular figure - with her face on beauty products, cola and lingerie - Marc Antony's face has only ever appeared on boxes of citrus fruit.

The audience clearly thought the event was a huge success.

Engineering sophomore Robert Mozia perfectly summed it up, saying, "This is one of the reasons Penn Museum is one of the hidden jewels of Philly."

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