But neither will you count the acorns on the branching native oak, nor how many bees there are in Hybla, nor how many wild beasts on the Alps: nor am I able to comprehend in numbers so many modes; each successive day brings a new fashion. Even neglected locks are becoming to many; often would you suppose that they are lying neglected since yesterday; the very moment before they have been combed afresh. Let art imitate chance. 'Twas thus that, in the captured city, when Hercules beheld Iole; "Her," said he, "do I love." In such guise, deserted fair one of Gnossus, did Bacchus bear thee away in his chariot, while the Satyrs shouted Evôe! O how indulgent is nature to your beauty, whose blemishes can be atoned for in fashions so numerous! We men, to our misfortune, become bald; and our hair, carried away by time, falls off, like Boreas shaking down the leaves.
The female stains her grey hair with the herbs from Germany; [1026] and by art a colour is sought superior to the genuine one. The female walks along, thickly covered with purchased hair; and for money [1027] she makes that of others—here comes those of fair complexion: black became the laughter of Brises.
Nor is she ashamed to buy it openly: we see it being sold before the eyes of Hercules [1028] and the Virgin throng.
What am I to say on clothing? Gold flounces, [1029] I have no need of you; nor you, the wool which dost blush twice dipt in Tyrian purple. Since so many colours can be procured at a lower price, what folly it is to be carrying a fortune on one's person. [1030] Lo! there is the colour of the sky, at the time when the sky is without clouds, and the warm South wind is not summoning the showers of rain. Lo! there is the colour like to thee, that art said [1031] once to have borne away Phryxus and Helle from the treachery of Ino. That which resembles the waves, [1032] has its name, too, from the waves; I could imagine that the Nymphs are clad in vestments of this colour. Another resembles saffron; in saffron-coloured garments is the dewy Goddess dressed,when she yokes her steeds that bear the light of day. Another resembles the Paphian myrtles; another the purple amethysts, or the white roses, or the Thracian crane. Neither are there wanting, Amaryllis, [1033] thy chesnuts, nor yet almonds; and wax [1034] has given its own name to woollen textures.
As many as the flowers which the renewed earth produces, when in warm spring the vine puts forth its buds, and sluggish winter retreats; so many, or still more, shades of dye does the wool imbibe. Choose them by rule; for every colour will not be suitable to every complexion.
When she was carried off, then, too, was she clothed in a dark garment. White befits the swarthy; in white, daughter of Cepheus, thou wast charming; by thee, thus clothed, was Seriphos [1035] trodden.
How nearly was I recommending you that there should be no shocking goat [1036] in the armpits, and that your legs should not be rough with harsh hair. But I am not instructing fair ones from the crags of Caucasus, and who are drinking, Mysian Caïcus, of thy waves. Besides; need I to recommend that idleness should not blacken your teeth, and that your mouth ought to be washed each morning with water used for the purpose. You know, too, how to find whiteness in an application of wax; [1037] she who is blushing with no real blood, is blushing by the aid of art. With skill do you fill up the bared edges of the eye-brows, [1038] and the little patch [1039] covers your cheeks in all their genuineness. 'Tis no harm, too, to mark the eyes [1040] slightly with ashes; or with saffron, produced, beauteous Cydnus, near to thee. I have a little treatise, [1041] but through the care bestowed, a great work, in which I have mentioned the various recipes for your beauty. From that as well, do you seek aid for your diminished charms: my skill is not idle in behalf of your interests.
But let not your lover discover the boxes exposed upon the table; art, by its concealment only, gives aid to beauty. Whom would not the paint disgust, besmeared all over your face, when, through its own weight, it flows and falls upon your heated bosom? Why is the smell of the oesypum [1042] so powerful, sent from Athens though it be, an extract drawn from the filthy fleece of the sheep? Nor would I recommend you in his presence to apply the mixture of the marrow of the deer, [1043] nor before him to clean your teeth. These things will give you good looks, but they will be unbecoming to be seen; there are many things, too, which, disgusting while being done, add charms when done. The statues which now bear the name of the laborious Myron, [1044] were once a sluggish weight and a solid mass. That the ring may be made, the gold is first beaten; the clothes, that you are wearing, were once dirty wool. While it was being wrought, it was hard stone; now, as a beautiful statue, [1045] naked Venus is wringing the moisture from her dripping locks.
You, too, while you are dressing, let us suppose to be asleep; after the finishing hand, you will be seen much more àpropos. Why is the cause of the fairness of your complexion known to me? Shut the door of your chamber, why expose the work half done? It is proper for the men to be in ignorance of many a thing. The greatest part of things would cause disgust, if you were not to conceal what is within. Examine the gilded statues which hang in the decorated theatre; how thin the tinsel that covers the wood. But it is not permitted the public to approach them unless completed; neither ought your charms to be heightened unless the men are at a distance. But I would not forbid you to allow your hair to be combed in their presence, so that it may be flowing along your back. Only take care especially on such occasions not to be cross; and do not many times undo your hair, pulled down, when fastened up. Let your coiffeuse be with a whole skin. I detest her who tears the face of her attendant with her nails, and who, seizing the hair-pin, pierces her arms. [1046] As she touches the head of her mistress, she curses it; and at the same time, streaming with blood, she is crying over the odious locks.
The fair one that has but little hair, let her set a watch on her threshold; or let her always make her toilet in the temple [1047] of the Good Goddess. I was unexpectedly announced as having paid a visit to a certain lady; in her confusion, she put on her locks the wrong side before. May a cause of shame so disgraceful fall to the lot of my foes, and may that dishonour happen to the Parthian dames. A mutilated animal is repulsive, the fields without grass are repulsive; and so is a shrub without foliage, and a head without hair. You have not come to be instructed by me, Semele, or Leda, thou, too, Sidonian fair, [1048] who wast borne across the sea upon the fictitious bull; or Helen, whom, Menelaus, not without reason, thou didst demand to be restored to thee, and whom, not without reason, thou Trojan ravisher, didst retain. A multitude comes to be instructed, both pretty and ugly damsels; and the unsightly are ever more in number than the good-looking. The beauteous care less for the resources and the precepts of art; they have their own endowments, charms that are powerful without art. When the sea is calm, the sailor rests free from care; when it becomes boisterous, he appeals to his own resources.