Sciences Participating with Arts & Culture in Education

Looking like a God

Lipsticks, hair dye, eyelash curlers, Botox... how far are you willing to go to attain perfection? And how much are you willing to pay?

Our society is often criticized for the standards of beauty it expects women to live up to. Even the briefest inspection of our media uncovers pages upon pages of preternaturally gorgeous models, airbrushed and edited to perfection. Though many find this worship of youth and symmetry off-putting, the cosmetics industry continues to flourish as women invest in products that promise to transform them. Perfume production alone is evaluated at some 19 billion dollars a year. Some consider this a bad omen, the sign of a culture growing more and more obsessed with aesthetics, becoming detrimentally shallow. However, before worrying about the future, it is important to examine our past. Though it may seem recent, the pursuit of perfection has been progressing for several thousand years.

Beauty and Class

During the Classical period, Athenian women used many beauty products to try and achieve the aesthetic ideal of their time. The Classical Greeks had an undoubtedly specific conception of female beauty, as evidenced by numerous depictions of the goddess of Love, Aphrodite, in the art of the time. Her face is perfectly proportioned, pale and devoid of blemishes. Aphrodite served as a template for Athenian women who, to achieve this desired appearance, turned to various forms of makeup. This was especially true of upper class women, who were noted to have possessed an armoury of mirrors, hairpins, scent bottles, and pots for rouge and creams. These beauty products additionally served as a way for them to announce or disguise their incomes. Their quest for physical perfection coincided with one for social elevation. Elaborate makeup, for example, was a luxury restricted to use by wealthy women.

Beauty products served a very similar purpose within the Roman world. Roman women used various forms of makeup, such as chalk to colour their faces white, fucus to give a rouge effect and ashes or antimony for the darkening of eye-brows and eyelids. Much like the women of the Classical era, Roman women used these beauty products in order to attempt to satisfy the fashion-conscious ideals of their time. These beauty products were also exclusive to high class women who could afford the exotic materials that these products consisted of.

The use of beauty products to announce social status was even more prevalent in the use of perfumes. In Athens, most women used common perfumes that were made locally from olive-oil and herbs. Wealthier Athenian women could afford foreign and expensive perfumes, often imported from Corinth, which had specialized in producing and exporting fragrant oils.

The Economics of Perfume

Archaeological evidence for the economic significance of beauty products during this period has been uncovered in recent years. Perfume was a particularly strong business on the island of Delos, where the most appreciated perfumes came from. Numerous wine and oil presses have been uncovered so far. Especially telling is the large number of press beds which were found at Delos’ busy shopping area. Whether these were used to create wine or oils has been disputed, however many argue that they were primarily producing oils for various perfumes. This implies that perfume production was a significant business during the Classical period, as these press beds suggest the existence of many perfume shops in Delos’ busier districts.

Perfume production also had a significant economic impact on Rome. Campania was a region of Rome where perfume production reached near-industrial levels. Several cities in Campania show archaeological evidence of businesses producing perfumes on a major scale. An excavation in the city of Pompeii unearthed what seems to be a commercial flower garden in the massive Garden of Hercules. Evidence found at the garden, such as the identification of many perfume bottles, suggests that it produced flowers for perfumes. In addition to this, olive pollen and carbonized cherries were uncovered. These are both key ingredients to perfume production and strongly imply that this garden was meant to meet the large needs of the perfume industry in Campania.
The northeast corner of the forum in the city of Paestum, once excavated, has been shown to hold a room with a marble press bed not unlike the press beds found in Delos. By analyzing the erosion patterns of the press bed, its decay can be attributed to the release of oleic acid. As such, it is certain that this press bed was primarily used to produce oils.
The perfume production industry constituted one of the region’s economic resources as early as the fourth century B.C., being an exceptionally lucrative venture. The price of a high-quality perfume could cost up to 12 drachmai, while a regular agricultural worker would have been paid between 1 and 2 drachmai per day. The perfume business was lucrative enough to allow perfumeries to charge prices that were completely out of range for the lower classes.

Cultural Significance of Perfume

Beauty products also played significant cultural roles Classical Greece and Ancient Rome. Classical Athens, for example, made ceremonial use of vases which held beauty products. Corinth, which specialized in producing fragrant oils, now contains a vast amount of ancient perfume vases such as the aryballos and the lekythos. Aryballoi were used for ritual celebrations. Lekythoi were perfume vases that served as an offering during funerals. The different purposes of these types of perfume containers exemplified their ceremonial significance in ancient Greece.
The Romans also attributed ceremonial values to their beauty products. Similarly to the Classical lekythoi, the Roman Period saw the introduction of the unguentarium vase. These were often shown on grave reliefs, reflecting their function as offerings.  Although the contents of unguentaria vases tended to vary, they were almost always filled with a perfume or perfume ingredient. This includes oil or honey as well as powdered substances such as incense. Some have even been discovered containing ochre powder, which was likely used as a cosmetic.

This body of archaeological evidence has made it clear that makeup was as important to Classical women as it is to the public of today. In fact, to draw parallels between its roles in modern and Classical society would be incredibly easy. The cosmetics industry, in both our times, has been an economic force to be reckoned with, and used to broadcast both wealth and social standing. Though past use of perfume in rituals may seem unusual in the today’s context, there’s no way to predict whether our own use of cosmetics will be seen as excessively reverent thousands of years in the future.

While our dedication to aesthetics may seem counterproductive and unhealthy, consider that the Classical and Roman periods are seen as times of prosperity in which human creativity blossomed. Could a flourishing cosmetics industry be a sign of an artistic and affluent society?
No matter the answer, progress marches onwards, and a glimpse into the future seems to promise makeup so effective our Classical ancestors would certainly have considered it magic. Miraculous creams, interactive mirrors and home laser therapy are just some of the products future consumers may have access to.