'Facing facts: Ovid's Medicamina through the looking glass'

This article explores the artistic and erotic implications of cosmetics in Ovid's Medicamina. It shows how the image of the mirror breaks down simple notions of self and other, revealing what at first appears to be a female activity as a process akin to that of artistic production, and paradigmatic of Ovidian cultus. It further analyses Ovid's play on the Medusa and Narcissus myths in the poem, and discusses how women's Medusa-like qualities threaten to turn the tables on male spectatorship.