Ovid’s imago mundi muliebris and the Makeup of the World in Ars amatoria 3.101–290

Abstract

Through a network of allusions to cosmological principles, mythological events, and Roman monuments, Ovid structures his guide to female bodily care and makeup in Book 3 of the Ars amatoria as an imago mundi, or a microcosmic description of the world similar to those found on divinely bestowed shields in epic. In doing so, Ovid invites us to think through the ramifications of developing a cosmetic cosmology for the mundus muliebris, or “women’s world,” as the female toilette is denoted in Roman literature. This irreverent experiment in gendered cosmopoiesis has important philosophical consequences. Such a cosm(et)ology transgresses the division between reality and representation that typically characterizes ekphrastic depictions of the cosmos. Indeed, Ovid’s imago mundi muliebris is not so much a copy of the world as a guidebook for how to “put on” the world in a community of other women doing the same thing. In this way, Ovid playfully co-opts Stoicizing notions of oikeiōsis: the practitioner of his ars is capable of coming to be at home in the cosmos from the comfort of her own boudoir.