APPENDIX C΄ ON DEPILATION: BODY COSMETICS IN CLASSICAL ...

ON DEPILATION: BODY COSMETICS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY 569
considered Ï¢ÎfiÙ˘ in body (naturally of the athletic, marble-like
nature) as sign of particular valour, then, given the close association
between Ï¢ÎfiÙ˘ and ÏÂÈfiÙ˘ (for partly Ï¢ÎfiÙ˘ is the result of the
absense of any hairiness and of the glistening quality of skin in a
healthy body), we can better understand how it came to be that it was
precisely the austere Spartans who abundantly practised depilation
and had clearly shown an exquisite taste for a beautiful skin in the
male body (another associated contributory factor was, of course, their
strong Dorian homosexual proclivity). Cf. Apollonius, Epistola LXIII
to the Spartan Ephors and the Lacedaemonians generally in answer to
the public honour rendered by them to him. They sent the official
testimony of that honour by some envoys respecting which Apollonius
writes: ôÓ‰Ú·˜ ñÌáÓ âı·ۿÌËÓ ñapple‹ÓËÓ Ìc ö¯ÔÓÙ·˜, ÙÔf˜ ÌËÚÔf˜
ηd Ùa ÛΤÏË Ï›Ԣ˜ Ù ηd Ï¢ÎÔ‡˜, etc. (cf. Philostratus, Vita
Apollonii, IV, 27). It is true that Apollonius and Philostratus (as so
many other authors, mainly modern) associate this smoothness and
brilliance with effeminate weakness and luxurious softness. But, as I
have said, this is not necessarily the case. The error is of the same type
as that committed in the prevailing Modern-European confusion and
virtual identification of homosexuality and effeminacy. To correct such
a faulty notion, one may begin by simply consulting Juvenal, II, 9 sqq.
(in the Satura de philosophis obscenis as has it the chief ms. P):
----------- Castigas turpia, quum sis
inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinaedos.
Hispida membra quidem et durae per brachia saetae
promittunt atrocem animum; sed podice levi
caeduntur tumidae, medico ridente, mariscae.
Something similar (without, of course, the satirist’s exaggeration)
probably was not uncommon with the Lacedaemonians. We know
what a keen interest they took in beautiful, manly, well-built bodies.
Cf. e.g. Aelian, Varia Historia, XIV, 7; the source is Agatharchidas, v.
Athenaeus, XII, 550c sqq. Athenaeus does not mention anything
about the tint of the skin of the young Spartans. The Ephors caused
them to appear nude before them to check how well they were built
(Ùe Û¯ÉÌ·) and whether they betrayed any tendency to corpulence
(ÙeÓ ùÁÎÔÓ ÙÔÜ ÛÒÌ·ÙÔ˜). When Aelianus, therefore, says Mˉ¤Ó·