Ovid on Cosmetics
Johnson, Marguerite (University of Queensland, Australia)
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.
The Medicamina Faciei Femineae is a didactic elegy that showcases an early example of Ovid's trademark combination of poetic instruction and trivial subject matter. Exploring female beauty and cosmeceuticals, with particular emphasis on the concept of cultus, the poem presents five practical recipes for treatments for Roman women. Cov...