Ocular cosmetics in ancient times.

A lthough cosmetics, from Greek kósmesis (adorn), now refers to external products used to beautify the skin, hair, eye, or other parts of the body, cosmesis was not the first objective of primitive eye painting. The first aim of body painting in primitive cultures may have been to protect people from evil spirits, which could enter their body through vulnerable openings, such as the eyes. The second aim was for medical purposes, to treat visible or nonvisible pathologies in the eye (such as conjunctivitis, hordeolum, corneal ulcer, white cataracts, loss of vision) or elsewhere in the body. Lastly, cosmetics were used to enhance the association of the eyes with youth, beauty, and social power. In some cases, two or three objectives were combined. Rupestrian paintings and stone engravings provide evidence that eyelids were painted to give them an appearance of youth or power in prehistoric paleolytic and neolytic times. Historic times began with the gradual development of script. About 8 millennia ago, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia introduced agriculture and cattle farming, followed about 2 millennia later by pictographic and syllabic writings. Sumerians and Babylonians left little information about ocular pastes and cosmetics. The Assyrian cuneiform tablet of the physician Nabu-le’u cites antimony, copper, zinc oxide, iron oxide, arsenic, and sea salt for the treatment of the eyes, but there are no graphic written quotations with regard to cosmetics. (The old terms do not correspond to present terminology. For instance, antimonium was introduced by alchemists about four centuries ago, referring to the Latin stibium, hence, the symbol Sb for antimony.) A few centuries later, hieroglyphic and phonetic script were developed in ancient Egypt, and from then on, abundant information about eye medicines and cosmetics were recorded. The pharmacopoeia of Pharaonic Egypt was rich in liquid and pasty ocular applications obtained from botanical sources (eg, henna, myrrh, incense, cedar or sycamore sawdust, gum arabic, burnt almonds, olive oil); from animals (eg, fat, honey, mammalian, lizard or bat blood, women’s or animal milk, liver pastes, turtle brain); or from minerals (eg, hematites [iron oxide], galena [lead ore, plumbic sulfate], cerussite [plumbic carbonate and lead hydrate], stibnite [antimony sulphide], lapis lazuli [silicate of aluminium mixed with sulfate of calcium and soda, and frequently with iron pyrites], chrysocolla [copper ore or copper hydrosilicate, with silica], malachite [copper carbonate], copper sulfate, copper oxide, mercury oxide, zinc oxide, and potassium nitrate. The most frequently used substance was the “black paste” for the eyes, called mesdemet and mainly composed of plumbic sulfate or antimony sulfide. Other cosmetics for the eye and other parts of the body were green collyrium or ouadjou that contained copper carbonate or hydrosilicate. Also used were ground green malachite, gray galena, white cerussite, reddish copper, blue-green chrysocolla, and ochre ash. Usually they were mixed with oil or fat. When combined, depending on the proportions, the mixture had various color tones and consistencies. The black paste or mesdemet was used to give shadow color to the upper and lower lids, and to extend the outline of the inner and outer lid rims and the eyebrows (Figure 1). After the fourth dynasty, it was common to extend the eyebrows and the outer corner of the lids to the temple. The black paste was probably different for rich and poor people, as the antimony-based pastes were more expensive than the leadbased ones. Most of these products came from the Nile valley, Sinai peninsula and Mediterranean-Jordan strip, but some were imported from Arabia and other parts of south Asia, including mesdemet of antimony sulfide, which did not exist in Egypt. In ancient Egypt, the principal markets for cosmetics and other merchandise were Babylon and Athens. The liquid and pasty collyria were used for religious, medical, or cosmetic purposes.