Abigail Reytblat | 2026 I.S. Symposium
Name: Abigail Reytblat
Title: Made-Up Woman: Examining Literary Sources and Material Cosmetic Culture in First-Century Pompeii
Major: Classical Studies
Minor: Chemistry
Advisor: Josephine Shaya
Starting with an analysis of male-authored Classical texts, this project examined ancient Roman concepts of beautification and cosmetics culture. Through analyzing texts by Ovid, Pliny, and Galen, this thesis identified certain fundamental components of cosmetic culture: that cosmetic use was often derided, was expected to be done in secrecy, and was associated with ideas of both 鈥渘aturalness鈥 and 鈥渕edicine.鈥 Further, this thesis identified a major obstacle in using the written record to understand ancient female beautification practices: this record is missing all the women. To fact-check the dominant narrative created by centuries of preserving male authors鈥 voices at the expense of understanding women鈥檚 actual practices, various streams of research were put in dialogue. These include archaeology, chemistry, and a close reading of Latin texts. This research included a trip to the archives of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in Italy. The material evidence at Pompeii, found both in the home and commercially, indicated a much more developed cosmetic culture than what male authors described. By recognizing that women had well-developed cosmetic practices, even in the face of disparaging treatment in contemporary literature, it became clear that the male-authored literature was not representative of the nuanced Roman perspective of female beautification. Thus, this thesis aimed to identify the holes in the preserved written narrative surrounding female beautification, recognized these holes could not be fully illuminated, and integrated a variety of scholarly fields to get a glimpse of the real women residing in their depths.
Posted in Symposium 2026 on May 1, 2026.
