Medicamina Faciei Femineae and Related Texts
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O v i d o n C o s m e t i c s i Also available from Bloomsbury Ovid and his Love Poetry, Rebecca Armstrong Th e Metamorphosis of Ovid, Sarah Annes Brown Prescribing Ovid, Yasmin Haskell Ovid’s Myth of Pygmalion on Screen, Paula James Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ , Genevieve Liveley Ovid: Love Songs, Genevieve Liveley ii Ovid on Cosmetics Medicamina Faciei Femineae and Related Texts M a r g u e r i t e J o h n s o n Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY iii Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC 1B 3 DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 © Marguerite Johnson, 2016 Marguerite Johnson has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN : HB : 978-1-47251-442-4 PB : 978-1-47250-657-3 e PDF : 978-1-47250-674-0 ePub: 978-1-47250-749-5 Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Ovid, 43 B.C–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Ovid on cosmetics : Medicamina faciei femineae and related texts / [Ovid] ; Marguerite Johnson. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4725-1442-4 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4725-0657-3 (pb) — ISBN 978-1-4725-0749-5 (epub) 1. Cosmetics—Poetry—Early works to 1800. 2. Didactic poetry, Latin—Translations into English. 3. Ovid, 43 B.C.–17 A.D. or 18 A.D.—Criticism and interpretation. I. Johnson, Marguerite, 1965– author, translator. II. Ovid, 43 B.C–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. De medicamine faciei. III. Ovid, 43 B.C–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. De medicamine faciei. English. IV. Ovid, 43 B.C.–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Ars Amatoria. Selections. V. Ovid, 43 B.C–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Ars Amatoria. Selections. English. VI. Ovid, 43 B.C.–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Amores. Selections. VII. Ovid, 43 B.C.–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Amores. Selections. English. VIII. Title. PA6519.D4O95 2015 871’.01--dc23 2015018895 Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk iv T o m y d a u g h t e r , K a t h e r i n e S c a r l e t t B e a t r i x J o h n s o n , whose face gleams like golden fl owers. v vi C o n t e n t s List of Illustrations viii Preface x Acknowledgements xii Ovid’s Works xiii Introduction 1 1 Medicamina Faciei Femineae 41 2 Amores 1.14 83 3 Ars Amatoria 3.101–250 97 4 Remedia Amoris 343–356 125 5 Ars Amatoria 1.505–524 131 Appendices 137 Appendix 1: Notes on the Latin texts 137 Appendix 2: Glossary of cosmeceutical terminology 141 Appendix 3: Ingredients in the Medicamina recipes 142 Appendix 4: Roman weights and measures and equivalents 142 Bibliography 143 Index of Passages 159 General Index 167 vii Illustrations 1. Roman container with cosmeceutical cream. Mid- second century AD . © Museum of London. 11 2. Bronze cosmetics container. Fourth to third century BC . Th e Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource. © Photo SCALA , Florence. 12 3. Box containing toiletries, from Cumae, Campania. First century AD . National Archaeological Museum, Naples. © Photo SCALA , Florence. 13 4. Gilded bronze mirror depicting the Th ree Graces. Second century AD . Th e Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource. © Photo SCALA , Florence. 14 5. Roman double- sided ivory comb. First century BC to second century AD . © Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. 14 6. Stele of P. Ferrarius Hermes. First century BC to second century AD . © Museo della Civilità Romana. 15 7. Barley (Hordeum vulgare ). Robert Bentley. Medicinal plants . (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1875–1880). Vol. 4. Plate 293. Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 62 8. Bitter vetch ( Ervum ervilia [sic]). Joseph Jacob Ritter von Plenck. Icones plantarum medicinalium . (Viennae: Apud Rudolphum Graeff er et Soc., 1788–1812). Vol. 6. Plate 566. Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 63 9. Narcissus (Flora Parisiensis ). Pierre Bulliard (Paris: P. Fr. Didot le Jeune, Libraire, quai des Augustins, 1776–1783). Vol. 2. Plate 170. Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 66 10. White lupin ( Lupinus albus ). Johannes Zorn. Icones plantarum medicinalium (Nürnberg: auf Kosten der Raspischen Buchhandlung, 1779–1790). Vol. 4. Plate 321. Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 69 viii Illustrations ix 11. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ). James Sowerby. English botany, or, Coloured fi gures of British plants (London: Hardwicke, 1863–1886). Vol. 4. Plate 601. Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 79 Preface Th is book is about Ovid’s interest in female beautifi cation with an emphasis on cosmetics and cosmeceuticals, the related accoutrements of clothing and jewellery, and the knowledge, technology and science that underlie them. As such it privileges the somewhat neglected Medicamina Faciei Femineae ( Treatments for the Female Face ). It also extends its textual reach to Amores 1.14, a section from Ars Amatoria Book Th ree, and a passage each from Remedia Amoris and Ars Amatoria Book One (on male adornment). Ultimately, what becomes clear is not only the breadth and depth of Ovid’s knowledge of the arcana of the mundus muliebris (‘woman’s toilette’) but that of its owners as well. In addition to the technical knowledge contained in the Medicamina and the related passages, the works reveal Roman attitudes towards cosmetics and cosmeceuticals and Ovid’s opinions on them. Th is book also addresses such opinions, juxtaposing Ovid’s views to those of his predecessors and contemporaries to underscore the contested history of female adornment in Rome. As such it considers attendant themes such as the value system Ovid applies to adornment, namely cultus , mollitia and ars , and explores the links between the embellished female body, sexualities and moralities. In this respect the study follows Ovid’s cues as it engages with a complex mix of beauty products, hair treatments, jewellery and fi ne clothes, entangled with issues pertaining to female agency at a crucial time in the history of Roman women. As women of the early imperial age attempted to participate in the material opportunities proff ered by national prosperity and international trade, they encountered a new state authority with a moral agenda that aimed to take both them, and their male guardians, back to a pristine, idealized past. Ovid is the self- appointed chronicler of all these interrelated and competing dialogues, capturing a signifi cant moment in time while simultaneously injecting his works with a suite of poetic techniques, which also require attention. x Preface xi In view of all this, the book, like much of Ovid’s work, retains a hybridity, as it constantly attempts to harness (almost) too many things at once. With cosmetics and cosmeceuticals as its focus, it may be best described as a cultural- literary analysis and, therefore, not limited to a specifi c audience. Instead it aims to make a modest contribution to the post- postmodern shift in the direction of a shedding of the rigidities of scholarly disciplines and specifi ed scholarship within them, off ering instead some useful information to divergent lines of enquiry. A new translation of the Medicamina and the related passages are provided with a focus on accuracy rather than artistic interpretation on the translator’s part. Each translation is accompanied by a Latin text based on Kenney’s 1995 edition with signifi cant textual variations or problems noted in Appendix 1. While it is anticipated that many readers will be interested in the contents of the poems rather than the Latinity, the Latin text and notes have been provided for those who prefer to read the passages in the original. As the text is not aimed at undergraduate language students, grammatical points and related apparati have not been included (although the details provided on the individual ingredients listed, particularly in the Medicamina , may prove useful to Latin classes studying the passages). Th e Commentaries are usually structured according to the sequential unfolding of themes in each piece and, only occasionally, on individual couplets. Accordingly, headings are used to highlight section topics. While this approach is somewhat artifi cial, it reinforces the structure of each poem or excerpt and, for the purpose of clarity of analysis, is an eff ective means of dealing with the, at times, overabundance of information in the fi rst three texts. Th e four passages that follow the Medicamina each have a brief introduction at the start of the Commentaries in order to provide a poetic context for them. In view of the comparatively small length of passages four and fi ve , Remedia Amoris 343–356 and Ars Amatoria 1.505–524, these Commentaries take the form of small essays. For readability, abbreviations have been kept to a minimum in the Commentaries and have been applied only to titles by Ovid.