You don't leave the house without makeup? Two thousand years ago, you would have been ... laughed at! Ancient Greeks and Romans did not like puffed ladies with powdered faces and painted eyes. They valued naturalness - and did not mince words, criticizing women for trying to "make themselves godlike."
The poet and philosopher Lucretius warned in the first century BCE that the ideals of female beauty are very different from reality. (...) He was aware that men "passion often blinds us, telling them to see virtues in their mistress that do not exist".
A woman who took proper care of herself could blind you. The gods set an example. According to Homer, the goddess Hera, getting ready to seduce Zeus, did not neglect any detail in her appearance. She rubbed her body with the fragrant ambrosial oil, braided her hair into curls, put on a wonderful Aphrodite headband and a beautiful robe from Athena. Out of her rich jewelry, she chose a gold belt, a pendant belt, and jeweled earrings, and put on tasteful sandals over her smooth feet. In short:she made herself a god.
But it seemed that what befits a goddess offends in the case of mortals . The ancients always complained about women's care for appearance.
Old clutter and toothless scarecrows
“In a woman, everything is artificial, words and looks. If any of them appear beautiful, it is undoubtedly the result of the ointment. Her beauty is made of myrrh, hair dyes, and lipsticks. When you deprive a woman of these artificialities, she looks like a jay from a fairy tale, stripped of her feathers "- we read in the erotic romantic novel The Adventures of Leukippa and Kleptophon by Achilles Tatios from the turn of the 2nd and 3rd century CE.
Hera used various beauty methods to seduce Zeus. But what a goddess can afford is not befitting mere mortals.
Earlier, a Roman satirist from the 2nd century BC Lucylius targeted the perfumes:“A woman smells good when she doesn't smell at all. Because all these old rubbish pouring perfume, those toothless scarecrows covering the ruins of their beauty with powder like a cook making a stew from the leftovers of various sauces. " Ovid was no less cruel when he wrote two thousand years ago that you can easily heal your feelings if you look at your lover's body without embellishments.
In classical Greece, there were also complaints about women's cosmetics. A man called Ischomach from The Economics of Xenophon complains about his wife's dyes and lipsticks because they mislead him. He does not perceive them as lovingly endeavoring to give him more sexual stimuli. He is irritated by the fact that his spouse uses lead white to lighten her complexion (...). He is furious that his wife stands in front of him in high sandals to look slimmer. I don't think he writes anything just about eye painting, because no decent Atenka could afford that - the defiant gaze was a weapon from the arsenal of prostitutes.
"It's a deception that can deceive strangers, fail to impress the husband with whom you live and who can therefore see your wife coming out of bed, sweating, in tears, and even in a bath, 'explained the historian Michel Foucault. “However, Ischomach criticizes this ruse primarily because it violates a fundamental principle of marriage. Well, the community of goods precludes fraud, and a man would be wrong with his wife if he made her believe in riches that she does not have (...) ".
"Lion that is dead, don't nibble on the beard"
Well, if all the women of antiquity listened to Ischomacha, it would be very boring. Fortunately, neither Xenophon, nor the moralists advising women to stay at home and spin ad nauseam, have not become the favorite authors of the Romans, unlike, for example, the scandalous Ovid.
And this one focused on constructive advice not only for men, but also for women. For example, regarding hairstyles:(...) a woman should show off her gorgeous, lush hair. Because they always arouse men, act like an aphrodisiac . As long as it is her own hair, not a blonde wig of Germanic slaves!
The mane is different, not on the head, but in undesirable places. Hair had to be removed from there. "Armpits cannot smell like a goat - do you remember ?! And that the legs cannot get bristled? " Ovid alarmed. Pubic hair depilation was also not forgotten. Already Greek women got rid of such hair by tanning it with lamps. Later, intimate hairstyles could be taken care of by young specialists in Rome, called picatrix.
However, not all men liked the female intimate parts shaved, some preferred them full of hair . And the tease Marcjalis traditionally complained about the old matrons, pointing out that they could already skip the depilation of the bikini area:
Well, Ligejo, you're gonna nibble on
Aged womb? Leave the ashes in the grave!
(…)
It will - you think - serve as bait
Something that has long since crumbled?
Shame on you, Ligejo, give up these sunsets
And do not pluck the beard of a dead lion!
Unnecessary plaster on the face
(...) The Romans dyed their hair, painted their lips and eyebrows, used powders and perfumes. We do not know the recipes of most of the miraculous oils, the composition of some of them is similar to the composition of cosmetics used by men. We know, however, that on the Tiber there were legends about the beneficial properties of women's milk baths - they were supposed to be the secret of the beautiful complexion of Cleopatra and Poppaea, Nero's wife.
The scandalous Roman poet Ovid urged women to apply makeup secretly if they have to make up.
The mystery of "making yourself deity" was an important thing. That is why Ovid advised:“Remember my advice, taking care of the appearance of a woman:Never make your toilet in the presence of men. (…) Close the door when working. Show the complete whole. " (…)
Maybe a woman shouldn't allow men to see her make up and beautify herself ? Although Roman women used lipsticks and eye shadows more boldly than Athenians, however, according to Ovid, observing women during these treatments did not have a good effect on their sex appeal. Especially when women who already had something to correct themselves were bothered with make-up. This would be confirmed by Marcalis, outraged by the behavior of a woman in termas:
You cover beauty with a black mixture of faces,
And you dare to make us water with your unborn body.
Listen, the goddess is speaking through us, mortals:
Either take the plaster off your face or bathe in your tunic.
Source:
The above text originally appeared in Adam Węgłowski's book The Age of Shamelessness. Sex and erotica in antiquity , which was published by the CiekawostkiHistoryczne.pl publishing house.
The title, illustrations with captions, boldface text, explanations in square brackets and subheadings come from the editors. The text has undergone some basic editing to introduce more frequent paragraph breaks.