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Beauty
LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES
There are as many conceptions of beauty as
there are cultures. Every society defines beauty,
predominately female beauty, according to a
set of commonly held criteria operating
around the construction of gender, class, and
aesthetics which are specific to a time and a
locale. The beauty code of women in early
modern Japan (artificially whitened skin, elaborate hairstyles, bound body) thus contrasts
markedly with some Sub-Saharan ideals of
female beauty (painted dark skin, partial
nudity, shaved or plucked scalps), but not necessarily with other early modern European
fashions (white skin, elaborate powdered
wigs, corsets), although the fashionable
“look” through which concepts of beauty are
articulated (“the mode”) may differ. In antiquity, we find societies accepting common
shared ideals of beauty over a wide geographical and chronological framework, although
we can also pinpoint more unique forms
of beauty in almost all individual ancient
cultures.
All ancient societies (with the exception of
monotheistic Israel) accredit their gods with
holding and extolling the ideals of beauty.
Divinities by definition are beautiful: Inanna’s
beauty radiates like the dawn, and Ishtar too,
in a piece of divine self-promotion, declares
that, “at my appearance my glow is like the
sun’s” (see INANNA (ISHTAR)). The beauty of
the gods (including HOMER’s Olympians) is
augmented by having shining skin, sometimes
of gold, and hair of lapis lazuli. The virgin
goddesses of the Greek and Roman pantheons
are particularly prized for their beauty, and a
common mythological topos revolves around
the male (mortal and immortal) desire to sexually possess and dominate the beautiful female.
The male gaze falling on the beauty of goddesses
is not without its consequences, however: goddesses may well revel in their looks, but the
unsolicited ogling of a man invokes their anger
and retribution (most famously, Akteon and
Teiresias suffer for looking at the naked beauty
of ARTEMIS and ATHENA).
The beauty myth comes to its fullest fruition
in the figure of the demi-goddess HELEN of Troy.
The particular beauty of Helen’s face has the
power to render kings and warriors speechless;
in the myths, Helen’s breasts cause an even
greater stir: Menelaus, when he caught a
glimpse of Helen’s naked breasts, dropped his
sword. Beauty can be desirable yet destructive.
This is best seen in a series of mythological
beauty contests found in ancient Greek literature. In Greece, the beauty contest (kallisteion)
in which prince Paris has to judge between
the goddesses Athena, HERA, and APHRODITE
becomes the aetion for the outbreak of the
Trojan War. ATHENAEUS OF NAUKRATIS (13.554c)
records the foundation myth of the temple
of Aphrodite Kallipygos which included a
beauty contest probably in homage to the
Trojan cycle. The Old Testament book of
Esther (2:8–18) puts the Jewish heroine in a
beauty line-up when she is chosen as the fairest
woman in the Persian Empire, a theme echoed
in CHARITON’s Greek novel Callirhoe (5.3),
where the heroine goes head to head in a
beauty contest in King Artaxerxes’ harem.
Ancient texts often speak of beauty in
abstract terms, employing rich metaphors
and similes (usually drawn from nature) to
evoke the qualities of beauty. Egyptian love
songs of the New Kingdom offer a vivid set of
examples: mouths are lotus buds, breasts are
mandragoras, arms are branches, and teeth are
pomegranate seeds. The biblical Song of Songs
is clearly composed in the same tradition: eyes
are doves, hair is a flock of goats, teeth are
newly shorn sheep, the neck is an ivory tower,
and the breasts are twin gazelle fawns. Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian descriptions of
beauty tend to be less coy in their eroticism:
“My vulva [is a] wet and well-watered
ground . . . Your right hand you place on my
vulva, the left on my hair.” Greek and Roman
literature tends to concentrate on the beautiful
power of the eyes and pale skin: “white armed”
and “white footed” are commonly used epithets for beautiful women. Thus, Penelope’s
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Figure 6 Standing barely knee-high to her illustrious spouse, Ramesses II, the Great Royal Wife
Nefertari-Merytmut epitomizes Egyptian conceptions of feminine beauty: with her narrow waist,
full hips, and pert breasts, the queen lives up to her
name “The Beautiful Companion, Beloved of Mut.”
Photo by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones.
skin is “whiter than sawn ivory” (Hom.
Od. 18.196). Luster is also important for a
beautiful image: hair and skin must shine and
glow for a truly natural beauty to be noticed.
Beauty ideals of luminous paleness are shared
throughout all ancient cultures, and therefore
the female voice in the Songs of Songs has to
apologize to her beloved that, while she is black
and, indeed, beautiful, her darkened skin comes
from an overexposure to the sun as she worked
in the fields beside her brothers (1:6).
In ancient art (Egyptian, Greek, and Roman
especially), women tend to be depicted as
slim and lithe. The reality must have been different. Given the osteoarchaeological evidence,
mummy remains, and our knowledge of the
multiple pregnancies or somewhat inactive or
secluded lives of many women of various ancient
societies, numerous women would have had
a tendency to run to fat; it is only an artistic
conceit that depicts them slim-hipped and flat
bellied. But fatness was not necessarily undesirable: the paleolithic “Venus figures” certainly
demonstrate that, and ancient Near Eastern art
too celebrates the beautiful, chunky female
figure. Images of Greek women in the shortlived genre of blatantly pornographic vasepaintings of the late Archaic and early Classical
periods are ample and desirable in their fatness.
Throughout most of human history, fat has
been thought to be the best feature of the female
body, the most desirable and beautiful stuff of
all. When the Israelite women of Samaria
are criticized by the prophet Amos for their
luxurious lifestyles (4:1), he labels them “cows
of Bashan”; in other words, well fed and beautiful, albeit stupid and lazy. Greek and Roman
prostitutes are recorded as padding their hips
and breasts to achieve a more desirable fuller
figure (Alexis, fr. 18¼PCG. G).
Needless to say, clothing, cosmetics, and
wigs artificially enhanced aspects of beauty.
Egyptian and Near Eastern literature put little
censure on the wearing of cosmetics (goddesses and heroines are routinely depicted putting on wigs or painting their eyes), but
classical texts frequently warn that make-up
and wigs are deceptive and aimed at causing
confusion. The beautiful maiden Pandora,
crafted by the gods as a gift to mankind, and
adorned with jewels and fine garments, is seen
as the ultimate kalon kakon, or “beautiful evil,”
because her external beauty masks a corrupt
character. Nonetheless, Greek and Roman
women seem to have consulted beauty manuals on how best to achieve a fashionable
make-over. Ovid’s Medicamina faciei femineae
is a rare example (or parody) of what was
probably a popular genre.
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Male beauty was equally prized. Good musculature, bronzed skin, and well-dressed and
oiled hair or wigs are eulogized in many successive ancient societies. Male beauty contests
are also attested in Greek society. Sparta
displayed the beauty of its men in contest,
and in Athens a contest of manliness was held
to find the best in bodily strength and beauty
(Xen. Mem. 3.3.12).
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Foster, B. R. (2005) Before the Muses: an anthology of
Akkadian literature. Bethesda.
Foster, J. L. (1974) Love songs of the New Kingdom.
Austin.
Fox, M. V. (1985) The Song of Songs and ancient
Egyptian love songs. Madison.
Hawley, R. (1998) “The dynamics of beauty in
ancient Greece.” In D. Montserrat, ed., Changing
bodies, changing meanings: 37–54. London.
Llewellyn-Jones, L. (2009) “The big and beautiful
women of Asia: ethnic conceptions of ideal
beauty in Achaemenid-period seals and gemstones.” In S. Hales and T. Hodos, eds., Material
cultures and social identities in the ancient world:
171–200. Cambridge.
Maguire, L. (2009) Helen of Troy: from Homer to
Hollywood. Oxford.
Rousselle, A. (1988) Porneia: on desire and the body
in antiquity. Oxford.