Beautification seems to have been a way of life for women in antiquity, especially in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. In the Cretan-Mycenaean area, a number of utensils and beauty tools have survived from all phases of the Bronze Age, but more so from the Late Bronze Age.
Among other things, tongue-shaped or single-edged razors, hair tweezers, mirrors, with luxurious handles, wooden, bone, ivory, decorated in relief. For the hair, in addition to combs, hook-shaped forks and clamps created and held the elaborate hairstyles depicted in the frescoes.
Women in ancient Greece usually groomed themselves in their homes, as there were no beauty salons in the modern sense. Grooming was a private activity that took place in the gynaekonitis, the part of the house reserved for women.
Important elements of the beautification included:
Assistants and slaves: Wealthy women had personal slaves, known as hairdressers (or kekriphaloplokoi for hairstyles), who helped them with bathing, combing, and makeup.
Beauty products: They used a wide variety of natural ingredients, such as olive oil (for moisturizing and cleansing), honey, yogurt, and various mineral and plant pigments for eyes, lips, and cheeks.
Baths: Public baths existed and were places for cleanliness and socialization, where tools such as the stele (a curved metal tool) were used to remove sweat and dirt after applying oil. However, complete grooming was mainly done at home.
Cosmetics: Cosmetics were sometimes considered a ploy of women of free morals (such as courtesans) in ancient texts, but were widely used by women of all classes, with the wealthy demonstrating their ability to stay indoors and maintain pale skin.
In summary, women in ancient Greece did not go to outdoor spaces like today's beauty salons for their daily routines, but took care of their appearance in the private space of their homes with the help of servants and natural materials.
The Beauty Parlors
In all the cities of Greece except Sparta, hairdressers, in addition to cutting and combing hair, also performed the well-known cosmetic tasks. Specifically, cutting nails, removing calluses, painting nails, painting lips and cheeks, dyeing hair, dyeing eyebrows, etc. They dyed their hair with a black dye based on antimony. Very rarely, they dyed it blonde. For the skin of the face, they used a cream based on lead carbonate.
The "title of Beauty Contest" has been pursued by women since ancient times. The institution of beauty contests has Greek origins, an ancient history and international influence.
The Kallisteia (from the word καλλος, meaning beauty) were existing institutions in ancient Greece, both in reality and in mythology, although the majority concerned male beauty contests.
Mythological Kallistia
The most famous "beauty contest" of antiquity is the Judgment of Paris, a mythical event that led, according to tradition, to the Trojan War.
The goddess Eris, angry at not being invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, threw a golden apple with the inscription “τῇ καλλίστῃ” (to the most beautiful).
The goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite claimed the apple.
Zeus appointed the mortal prince of Troy, Paris, as judge.
Each goddess tried to bribe him. Paris finally chose Aphrodite, who promised him the love of the most beautiful mortal woman, Helen of Troy.
Historically Kallistia
In fact, there were various beauty contests (καλλιστεῖα) in various regions of Greece, which were often associated with religious festivals.
For Women
Although rare, some female beauty contests are recorded:
Lesbos and Tenedos: Competitions were held in honor of the goddess Hera, where women competed for the prize of the most beautiful.
Arcadia: In the region of Palladio, during a festival in honor of Demeter of Eleusis, women known as Chrysophoroi (those who wear gold) participated in a competition.
For Men
Male beauty contests were much more common and were associated with athletic prowess and physique:
Elis: A competition for men was held, where the winner received a suit of armor as a prize, which he dedicated to Athena.
Athens: Within the context of the Panathenaic Games, there were the Evandrias (good + bravery) games, which emphasized size, strength and general physical fitness, and the Evexias games, which resembled bodybuilding competitions, focusing on symmetry and muscle tone.
Sparta, Rhodes, Sistos: References to Evandria competitions exist in these cities as well.
In conclusion, beauty pageants in ancient Greece existed, but they differed significantly from today's: they were inextricably linked to religion, often included men, and placed great emphasis on physical harmony and physical strength as a reflection of virtue.
Now let's talk about the Institutes of Kallon in ancient Athens. We have the testimony of Athenaeus (170 AD - 230 AD) who tells us the following:
Athenaeus: Deipnosophists – Book 13 .568 .23
Performance by Theodoros G. Mavropoulos
- Alexis, in his dramatic play entitled Equilibrium, thus summarizes the preparation and elaborate hairstyles of the companies:
First of all, in the face of profit and the exploitation of others, everything else is secondary to them and they plot against everyone. When they become rich, they take into their homes new concubines, inexperienced in the art.
They immediately transform them, so that neither in their manners nor in their form are they any longer what they were before. Does one happen to be short? Cork is placed in her shoes. Is one tall? She wears thin slippers and goes out with her head turned over her shoulder—this reduces her height. Does she have big buttocks? She sews and puts cloths underneath, so that those who see her buttocks exclaim how fat they are. Does she have a big belly?
There are breast augmentations like those of comedians, adding them upright to whatever covers the belly, as if with poles, they project their breasts forward. Does she have any shiny eyebrows? They paint them with soot.
Does anyone happen to be a brunette? She gets smeared with breadcrumbs.
Is it a very white one? It is rubbed with red.
Is there any part of the body that is beautiful? It is displayed naked.
Does she have nice teeth? She must necessarily laugh, so that those who are near can see how elegant her mouth is. If she doesn't like to laugh, she stays inside all day, like the ones that butchers always leave aside when they sell heads of houses, with a thin stick of myrrh, standing upright, between her lips - so over time, whether she wants to or not, she takes it out to laugh.
[With these tricks they transform their appearance].
Athenaeus Soph., Deipnosophistae
Book 13, Kaibel ¨ 568 paragraph 23, line 1 -Line 31
Ancient Text
Alexis IV in the inscribed drama Isostasy-
13.23.2
the company's preparation and the technical ones
The hairstyles of the partners are thus displayed (ib. 329);
First of all, for the sake of profit and the destruction of
13.23.5
pelas
Everything else is done for them as a side job, but they sew.
You advise everyone. Because they will never prosper,
They took on new partners, pioneers of the art;
They directly reproduce these, so that not even the ways
13.23.10
nor do the same aspects exist anymore.
He has small ears; cork in his mouth.
It is long; it wears a thin veil.
He puts his head on his shoulder and goes out;
This is the length of the aphelion. It has no hips;
13.23.15
I have disguised this word, so that the eupygia
They cry out to those who enter. He has a <inert> belly;
Stand up for yourself, like those comedians have;
It is correct to add such things to the abdomen.
The evening is approaching, but I will lead you to the front.
13.23.20
The eyebrows of Pyrrha are painted with a brush.
It happened to be black; it was transformed into a loaf.
Who is very white? He is rubbed like a child.
What good is there in the body? This is shown naked.
He has sharp teeth; he laughs out of necessity,
13.23.25
so that those present may consider the mouth as elegantly worn.
But if she doesn't laugh and rejoice, she spends the day
inside, like the cooks who are always nearby,
If they sell goat skulls, woodcutter
Myrrh, having a thin, upright lip;
13.23.30
so that in time they will wake up, whether they want to or not.
[Views for these are the means of preparing the arts.]
The "Kallistia" appeared for the first time in Arcadia, in the village of "Vasilis" near Megalopolis, with Kypselos as the organizer and the first prize winner being the wife of Herodike.
Athenaeus: Deipnosophists Book 13. 609-610
Performance by Theodoros G. Mavropoulos
"that a female beauty contest was once organized Nicias speaking about him in Arcadian He tells him that Cypselos organized it.421 building a city on the plain of Alpheus in it he settled some of the Parrhasians and dedicated a mosque and altar to Eleusinian Demeter, on whose festival he organized the beauty contest. in the first competition the wife of Herodicus won. This competition is still held today, and the women who take part are called gold-bearers. Theophrastus says that there is a beauty contest among the men of Elis, that the judging is done with seriousness, and that the winners receive weapons as prizes. Dionysius422 from Leuctra he says that these are dedicated to Athena and that the winner is crowned with a ribbon by his friends and arrives in procession to the sanctuary. But Myrsilos423 in Historical paradoxes mentions that they are given a wreath of myrtle. The same Theophrastus says that in some places women also hold competitions for sobriety and housekeeping, as among the barbarians Elsewhere, beauty contests are held because honor must be given to it, as is done among the Tenedians and the Lesbians. This honor, however, is a matter of fortune or natural qualifications, while honor should be given to prudence. For beauty is beautiful in this way. otherwise it risks leading to debauchery."
Athenaeus Soph., Deipnosophistae
Book 13, Kaibel paragraph 90, line 3
Ancient Text
I have also seen a competition about beautiful women.
available;
about which the historians of Nikias in the Arcadia-
13.90.3
theirs (FHG IV 463) they will give him Cypselon,
They built a city in the plain around the Alpheus; in which
13.90.5
They lived in Parras, and there was a mosque and an altar there.
stand up to Demeter of Eleusis, who in the festival and the day of
Fight a good fight; and conquer first.
the woman Herodike. And it is being done even to this day.
This race, and the women competing, are golden-
13.90.10
taxes are called. Theophrastus (fr. 111) also
Good news is made by Elias, and the judgment
to be accomplished after studying, to receive those who have overcome-
The weapons of the races; after opposing the gods, Dionysius
Leuctricus of Athens, and the one who defeated the tapestry-
13.90.15
staying with friends and marching to the sanctuary
to be done. the crown of myrrh is given to them-
Myrsilos tells the story of the rinis in Historical Paradoxes
(FHG IV 460). The same Theophrastus said:
(fr. 112) and women's judgments about sobriety are made
13.90.20
and economy, as among the barbarians; but to be different
beauty, as it should be honored, both in and out
To Tenedos and Lesbos; but this one is by chance or nature
It is an honor, it should be done with prudence. Beauty
For thus it is good, but if not, danger awaits them.
13.90.25
lassian.'
It is truly amazing that the world beauty contest, established for the first time in the modern world, in 1929, and held every year, pan-European and then in the USA, is a revival of the "Beauty Contests of Ancient Greece. And what a happy coincidence! In this first contest of 1929, the Greek Aliki Diplarakou was proclaimed Miss Europe by absolute preference.
I will end with a quote from Oscar Wilde.
"Whatever, in fact, is modern in our life we owe to the Greeks
"Everything that is actually modern in our lives we owe to the Greeks"
Sources:
Text by Dimitris Symeonidis on the Beautification of Ancient Greek Women and the Kallisteia
Greek Language Thesaurus (TLG)
goodreads.com/quotes/9691314-whatever-in-fact-is-modern-in-our-life-we-owe
Athenaeus: Deipnosophists
Panagiotis Kyriakopoulos-Sofianna Kyriakopoulos: The Ancient Greek Woman Myths and Truths
Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Evangelos Spandagos: The Unknown Ancient Greece
photo BiancaVanDijk, https://pixabay.com
