Ars Gratia Cultus

Ovid as Beautician

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9380378
AutoresPeter Green (0000-0002-5701-0168, autor de correspondencia)
Año1979
Volumen100
Número3
Páginas381-381
Fecha de publicación1979-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe American Journal of Philology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-9475 • E-ISSN: 1086-3168
EditorialJohns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/293934
PMID11620116
OpenAlexW2396340110
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7

The surviving fragments of Ovid's Medicamina Faciei Femineae have received scant attention from editors and commentators.Their interest, such as it is, has been predominantly textual.1No one has thought of investigating the five recipes for face packs, to improve the complexion or remove various skin defects, which take up the whole of the second fragment (lines 51-100).2The clear implication is that they are, by definition, not worth any scholar's serious attention.Like ancient board games, another remarkably neglected topic,3 they are ignored as frivolous-and, therefore, it is assumed, unimportant.This attitude may well have been reinforced by the undoubted fact that, in general, our ancient sources for medical or pharmacological prescriptions are riddled with old wives' tales and outr6, if not downright disgusting, materials.Here the Elder Pliny's Natural History4 is one of the worst See, e.g., A. Kunz, P. Ovidii Nasonis Libellus de Medicamine Faciei, Vienna 1881 (hereafter 'Kunz'), and F. W. Lenz, Heilmittel gegen die Liebe: Die Pflege des weiblichen Gesichtes, Berlin 1960 (hereafter 'Lenz').Both print somewhat perfunctory exegetical notes, which make only the slightest of attempts to come to grips with the subject matter under discussion. 2 This omission extends even to R. J. Forbes's essay on 'Cosmetics and Perfumes in Antiquity,' which forms ch. 1 (pp.1-50) of his Studies in Ancient Technology, vol.3, 2nd ed., Leiden 1965, and is, by and large, one of his less satisfactory investigations.3The lack of modern scholarship on both Greek and Roman board games is remarkable when one considers the evidence, both literary and archaeological, which is available-but no more remarkable than the wild theories that flourish unchecked in such authorities as do exist.See, e.g., L. Becq de Fouqui,res, Les Jeux des Anciens, 2nd ed., Paris 1873: H. Lamer, 'Lusoria Tabula,' PWK vol.13 (1926) cols.1900-2029 (in particular cols.1988 and 2008ff., on the wholly imaginary '36-Felderspiel'); and S. G. Owen's edition of Ovid's Tristia, bk. 2 (Oxford 1924) 252ff.There is little that is reliable to consult except for two sensible and unpretentious articles by R. G. Austin, 'Roman Board Games' (I) and (II), in Greece and Rome 4 (

Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · History · Philosophy