Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this is never more true
than seen over time and between different cultures. Over time, our
concept of beauty seems to fluctuate, particularly concerning
people, sometimes favoring rather heavy individuals and at other
times very skinny ones. In different cultures, parts of the body may
be purposefully exaggerated in the name of beauty, the effects of
which might even seem grotesque to those of another culture. For
example, various tribes throughout the world use different methods
to lengthen necks, exaggerate mouths, ears and even the shape of the
head.
Nevertheless, there does appear to be certain classical concepts
of beauty that are not inconsistent with many of our modern views,
and it would seem that the ancient Egyptian concepts of beauty are
not very different, at least in regards to the human form. At the
same time, Egyptians seem to have been just as influenced by beauty,
if not more so, than we are in our modern world. Indeed, it seems at
time that beauty may have even been a part concept related to
ma'at,
the order that Egyptian's saw in
their world. For example, foreign
lands were considered by the ancient Egyptians to be a part of
chaos, the opposite of ma'at, and foreigners are very often depicted
in a form very different than the ancient Egyptians themselves, and
in a very different artistic style. Frequently, they may even be
represented in a more realistic, and much less idealistic style. A
classical example is that of the Queen of Punt recorded during the
reign of Hatshepsut,
but prisoners were very often represented in very less than ideal
forms.
Our evidence on how the ancient Egyptians viewed beauty comes from many different sources, including pictorial, sculptures in the round and various textual. Much of it affirms a specific model of beauty, particularly in individuals and perhaps even more specifically in females.
Foreigners from Ramesses III Temple at Medinet
Habu, depicted almost in the style of Egyptian women
Sometimes, ancient Egyptians did not have specific words that
relate to modern conceptual ideas. For example, there seems to have
been no real term that referred to art in general. At other times,
they developed a number of conceptual terms for certain ideas. An
example of this is
the concept of beauty. In studying the ancient
Egyptian's idea of beauty, it is useful to examine the many words
they used for this concept.
There were two adjectives that were used to describe beautiful
things, or beautiful people, consisting of "n" and "nfr". The term
nfr, which is usually written as nefer in modern Egyptological
works, was one of the most common, used in names and even sometimes
used up until the present day. There are also substantives and even
verbs related to this term. The verbs derived from nfr include snfr,
which means beautifully or embellished. nfrw or nfr, and later bw
nfr, may also be used as an abstract concept of beauty. And while
the term nfr or nfrt may be used to describe a man or a woman, the
term appears to have more significance than simply meaning a
beautiful person. In fact, these terms often refer to a specific
category of individual, and they can reveal something of what the
Egyptians regarded as beautiful. For example, a young women referred
to as nfrwt is sometimes described as "never having been opened in
childbirth" as in the Westcar Papyrus. We find at
Ramesses III's palace at
Medinet
Habu on the
West
Bank of Luxor
(ancient
Thebes)
a list of captured foreigners including a reference to nfrwt as a
category of female between child and mature woman. Nfrw, the
masculine version of the same word, is found in several instances
when it clearly refers to young men or young people. In one
instance, it can even be translated as "recruits". Certain cows are
even referenced as nfrwt.
We might also examine a number of phrases or terms that include
the adjective nfr. Imntt nfrt, for example, meaning "the Beautiful
West", is found often in tombs and funerary texts to describe the
city of the dead. Hdt refers to the
White
Crown of Upper Egypt, but sometimes we see the phrase hdt nfrt
and sometimes even nfrt. The king is very often described as the ntr
nfr, an epithet which is generally translated as "the Good God," but
the "Beautiful God" is also an accurate meaning. However, in a
coregency, the term ntr nfr is used to designate the more youthful
ruler. In this situation, the older ruler, usually the father, is
referred to as ntr'3, meaning
the "Great God." In this regard, even
though the younger ruler may not be so young, the younger of the two
is referred to as nfr.
Indeed. the connection that seems to exist between youth and the descriptive term nfr may be an important clue to understanding the ancient Egyptian concept of beauty. In Egyptian art, the ideal form is a youthful and slim figure with narrow hips, which anthropometric studies of pharaonic mummies have revealed is a fair representation of reality, at least in the case of Egyptian women. Furthermore, their hip to shoulder proportions are not greatly different from those found in male Egyptian mummies. While both sexes may be depicted in this way, representations of males are more likely to vary from the ideal.
In fact, age, when women are depicted, is most often represented subtly, in the form of a slightly drooping derriere, subtly sagging breasts or pouching cheeks, occasionally with horizontal lines across the torso, indicating an increased weight. Usually, the artistic elements are detectable only by close examination and comparison of with other representations. One of the most famous and explicit representations of youth and age in a woman's body is that of the funerals of Nebamun and Ipuky, who both married the same woman. The two funerals are depicted as taking place simultaneously. The representations of the widow show her with bared breasts both firm, and then drooping with a change in profile to suggest a sagging chin in the older version of the woman.
However, representations of the king are often particularly
subtle. One must look for almost imperceptible clues that may
suggest advancing age of a ruler. For example, in studying numerous
depictions of
Amenhotep III and his family, it was discovered that the king's
torso was depicted as being somewhat thicker than that of other men.
Yet, during various periods of Egyptian history, wealthy tomb owners sometimes wished to emphasize their sagacity, and therefore actually had themselves represented as older men. Tomb scenes could show aged courtiers, who were depicted with toothless faces and heavy sagging bellies. In fact, during the Amarna Period, bowing elderly court functionaries appear in many of the scenes behind the figure of the king and queen. Note however that wrinkles are rarely shown on either sex, and gray hair is very rare. In fact, the Ebers Papyrus contains remedies not only for wrinkles, but also for baldness and graying hair, indicating that the ancient Egyptians, like their modern counterparts, at least attempted to retain the appearance of youth during their lifetimes.
Clearly, the attributes of youth were considered beautiful in
ancient Egypt, but we may also examine more precise elements that
were considered beautiful in an individual. In love poetry, as
well
as hymns to
Hathor,
the goddess of beauty, some sense of what was considered physically
beautiful in people may be found. For example, in many poems, Hathor
is defined as "golden," which might be a reference to her
complexion. Indeed, the skin of gods was often represented in gold.
In the Papyrus of Chester Beatty I, the writer is explicit, mentioning his beloved scent, her hair, her eyes and her buttocks. From the same papyrus, another romantic poem describes the object of his affection as being ""bright" of skin, her arm "more brilliant than gold," long-necked and "white-breasted," hair of "genuine lapis lazuli," (blue?) and fingers like lotus blooms. It also mentions her beautiful thighs and heavy buttocks. He also admired her swift walk, sweet voice and, an age old compliment from men, her ability to know when to stop talking.
Scent and color both seem important elements in many erotic texts, where the lover might desire to see the color of his beloved's limbs. In a Third Intermediate Period (25th Dynasty) hymn, recorded on the Louvre stela C100, there is a description of the priestess Mutirdis, who has locks of hair black as night and dark as "wine-grapes," "brilliant" arms, firm breasts and a complexion "like jasper."
Females are referred to much more in terms of beauty than are
men. However, in the "Blinding
of Truth by falsehood," a woman desires Truth, a man more
handsome than anyone else in the country. She bears his child, who
looks like a young god.
Hatshepsut also
tells us, at Deir el-Bahri,
that when the god
Amun
appears in the bedroom of her mother, Queen Ahmes, her mother is
awakened by his divine fragrance, which permeates the whole palace
as they make love. Hatshepsut herself is described as appearing
before her subjects with skin like electrum (a silver-gold alloy)
and smelling like all the perfumes of Punt. Clearly, an alluring
scent is connected in the ancient Egyptian mind with divine beauty.
At other times, beauty is described indirectly by analogy or
simile. For example, in Papyrus Harris 500, a poem written fairly
late in Egypt's pharaonic history (about 500 BC) with a female
narrator describes herself as being like a field planted with
sweet-smelling herbs. She also
compares her love's voice to
pomegranate wine. This is reminiscent of an amazing talking pomegranate tree mentioned in Papyrus Turin 1966, which compares a
beloved's teeth to pomegranate seeds and her breasts to the whole
fruit. We are not so sure why the teeth would be compared to
pomegranate seeds, however.
Similarly, a male of Cairo Vase 25218 says that he feels immersed in perfume when he embraces his beloved, as if he were in the land of incense. He also claims to be drunk "without beer" when he kisses her.
Color is also important in nonliterary depictions of the ideal form. Men are almost universally shown with red or reddish-brown skin. Women are frequently shown with paler skins, although the color used by artists varies over time. In Old Kingdom representations, we see women with pinkish white skin. During the Middle and early New Kingdom, their skin is often yellowish. Later in the New Kingdom, the shades returned to pink or were pale orange. Goddesses, on the other hand, had yellow or "golden" skin throughout the New Kingdom.
Only during the
Amarna Period do we sometimes find male and female with the
same, darker reddish skin color. Some Egyptologists have attempted
to explain this color variation as the work of the sun. Hence, upper
class women remained indoors while men were out in the sun, so that
a lighter-skinned woman appeared more aristocratic. Indeed, men
depicted with newly shaved
heads are often represented with a paler
scalp than the rest of their skin, and elderly men are sometimes
also shown with paler skin. However, there was also doubtless
symbolic meaning. Certainly this is true for the skin of goddesses.
Beauty in humans as well as in other animals or objects may also have included symmetry as a necessary component. In both art and architecture the ancient Egyptians favored the rectilinear geometric outline over the curved. Therefore the ideal male body may be summarized as being bounded by two triangles. One is that of the torso, consisting of broad shoulders exaggerated in two-dimensional images by frontal positioning and a narrow waist, shown in three quarter view. The other is the striding legs. The bodies of women were tailored to fit within a long rectangle. Their shoulders were of course narrower than the male's and the feet were together or with one slightly advanced. Only during the Amarna Period does this ideal symmetry vary, but that period's art is so profoundly different than the remainder of Egyptian history as to be a subject unto itself. It is also likely that, though royal depictions and even those of common people varied considerably during this period reflecting a new form of official royal beauty, the idea of real beauty probably did not change among the general population. In fact, the royal bust of Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten (founder of the Amarna Period) was, and is considered to be a classical example of female beauty (or at least of facial features).
The Bust of Nefertiti, now in Berlin
The elite who commissioned tombs are depicted in much the same way as those of royalty, for the most part. Drastic departures from the slim, youthful and healthy norm are seen primarily in those of lower status. For example, pattern baldness is depicted in representations of herdsmen and other lower class males. Even for the lower classes, age and obesity are rarely shown in women.
Sculptures in the round also seem to portray what the Egyptians
believed to be beautiful.
Kings
are frequently depicted as very powerful humans, with well formed
and well toned muscles. Women, on the other hand, or represented in
the round as slender, graceful forms. On the other hand those,
particularly non-royal statuary, may at times be more realistic. We
find many touching statues of more common people who do not exactly
fit the ideal form, and so therefore it may seem that statuary was
less of an indication of perfect beauty than that of paintings and
reliefs.
It is not only people who may be described as beautiful. In Papyrus Turin 1966, a sycamore fig is described as being beautiful. It has leaves greener than turquoise, branches like faience, wood the color of feldspar and fruits as red as jasper. The beautiful jewel-like colors of the tree are an integral part of its beauty. There are many other instances of descriptions related to beautiful inanimate objects, including that of the Nile, the Western mountains and even Egypt itself. It is also clear that Egyptians saw beauty in many other objects that are even to this day beautiful to us. This obviously includes many items of jewelry, ornate boxes and items made of pottery and various stone, and these items that we see today in museums speak to us of the ancient Egyptian's love of beauty.
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Last Updated: 08/02/2006