Laurence Totelin - "Not Just a Pretty Face: Intimate Cosmetics in Greco-Roman Antiquity"

Ancient Greek and Latin medical texts include numerous recipes for intimate cosmetic products, that is, cosmetics for the sexual organs and for the breasts. While there is a growing body of scholarship on ancient cosmetics, it is heavily focused, quite naturally, on the care of the face and the hair. It also tends to centre on the use of cosmetics by young white women, when people of all genders, ages and ethnicities would have used them. In this paper, Dr. Totelin will analyse some of the preserved recipes for intimate cosmetic products and replace them within the context of the ancient cosmetic treatises, only fragments of which survive. She will explore the cultural expectations of beauty that are implicit in these recipes and discuss the status of the people who consumed those products.

 

For more information please contact cwebster@ucdavis.edu

Event sponsored by UC Davis Classics Program