Beauty is partially in the eye of the beholder, but in different climates and economic conditions perfect beauty may take different forms. Beauty is often a shorthand word to indicate "will make very healthy babies". Symmetricality is of course important, indicating
good genes. That can hardly be shown on coins showing one
side of the
face , neither can skin
quality, a key indicator of
health and beauty. Although there are perhaps extremes such as Leopold the Hogmouth that would not be considered beautiful in any culture! Some of the factors discussed on this
thread such as the dear lady's nose shape may be neither here
nor there (so long as symmetry exists) or it may even be that we are searching for characteristics of beauty that are suitable for cold northern climates (little button noses that won't suck in too much cold air) and not suitable for hot humid and dusty climates (effective filtering by frontal features typical of the middle east, or indeed of the classic
Roman conk). If these features are combined with beautiful skin and symmetricality then they add up to a very healthy look, and hence beauty. Of course a little
roll of healthy spare tire adds to the beauty too, nourishing in famine or in childbearing. So, not only are our (generally cold-climate based) views of beauty a matter of the eye of the beholder, but some of our view of beauty may in fact be indicators of
poor health and thus ugliness to the ancient egyptians.
