Medicamina Faciei Femineae

Medicamina Faciei Femineae (Cosmetics for the Female Face, also known as The Art of Beauty) is a didactic poem written in elegiac couplets by the Roman poet Ovid. In the hundred extant verses, Ovid defends the use of cosmetics by Roman women and provides five recipes for facial treatments. Other writers at the time condemned women's usage of cosmetics.

Background

The title and approximate date of the poem are known from a brief mention in another of Ovid's works, Ars Amatoria, in the third book of which the poet states that he has already written "a small work, a little book" on medicamina, or cosmetics.^[1] The Medicamina must then predate the third book of Ars Amatoria, a work whose composition has been variously placed between 1 BC and AD 8, the year of Ovid's exile.^[2] Only one hundred of an estimated five to eight hundred original lines survive.^[3] These fall neatly into sections, each exactly fifty lines long. The first section is an elaborate introduction in which Ovid introduces and defends his subject matter; the second comprises five recipes for cosmetic treatments which include common ingredients and precise measurements.

Form

The poem is Ovid's first attempt at didactic elegy.

Before going into detail about ancient Roman cosmetics, Ovid emphasizes manners as a timeless feature of beauty and attractiveness. [7]

In the second half of the Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Ovid displays his command of the poet's art in taking a practical manual replete with technical details and transforming it into effective verse.

The majority of the ingredients Ovid prescribes are in fact effective skin treatments, and several, such as oatmeal, wheat germ and egg white, are still used in the manufacture of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals today.[11] On this point, Ovid contrasts favorably with the Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, whose compendious treatment of facial remedies often includes exotic, poisonous, or disgusting ingredients.^[12]

Notes