Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world

Abstract

Background: An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved. Aims: To examine some ingredients of Zoe's recipe from a historical medical point of view and contextualize the text in the tradition of ancient medical matter, physiology of aging, and gender pharmacological skills. Methods: After contextualizing the recipe from the historical medical point of view, some of its ingredients have been analyzed in relation not only to their use in the most authoritative pharmacological and medical sources of antiquity but also to their symbolic meaning. Results: The analysis of Zoe's dermatological recipe allowed to highlight: The links between cosmetics and medicine in Greek and Roman Antiquity. The reason why ancient sources dealing with medical matter attributed to certain substances and plants the power to save the human body from old age and decay. The consistency between the ingredients of Zoe's recipe and the humoral physiology by genders and by age of Hippocrates. The existence of a female tradition in pharmacological competence. Conclusion: Cosmetic dermatology of antiquity is the perfect point in which survival of the myth and rational pharmacology overlap.