Lekh Lekha Genesis, Chapters 12-17
By Irv Jacobs, MD
LA JOLLA, California — We are introduced to Abram, and follow his travels from Haran into Canaan, then into Egypt and back to Canaan. He becomes wealthy, but lacks a son from Sarai to carry on his religious legacy. For this he pleads repeatedly with God, who promises.
The passage I have chosen to explore is offensive to modern sensibilities: Genesis, Ch. 12, vv. 11-13 “As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know what a beautiful woman you are. If the Egyptians see you, and think, She is his wife, they will kill me and let you live. Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.'” Sarah was carried off by Pharoah’s officials, and placed in his harem. According to the story, she was not violated, because of God’s intervention.
On the surface, the motive in this case is Abram’s personal desire to survive, but in fact such themes are known in both Canaanite and Greek epics. From Ugarit came the story of of King Keret who lost his beautiful spouse to such an intruder, following which he mounted a military campaign to recover her. From the Greeks, beautiful Helen of Troy was kidnapped (twice), and her rescue entailed the ten-year Trojan War. [1]
What intrigued me about the above stories was that the interest was in her beauty as a woman (despite being 65 years old!). Why is it so that physical attractiveness is the big criterion of value?
Accordingly I explored this issue via the records of other ancient nations in the area.
Egypt: This nation was known for its vanity Re: appearances. It was one of the first nations to create perfumes, oils, and other beauty treatments. There was a strong connection between beauty and youth, and some think that Egypt implanted the belief that beauty is synonymous with youth. A youthful slim silhouette is typically depicted in Egyptian art.
To some extent this was also true for men, though Pharaohs were sometimes depicted posthumously as elderly men to emphasize their wisdom. One feature: They viewed beards and moustaches as ‘unclean’ so men were usually clean-shaven. Some men even wore wigs, having shaved off their natural hair. They believed that beautiful skin in men was red or brownish, as depicted in their artworks. Heavyset men were less attractive than slim ones.
Women’s body hair was similarly frowned upon, and their wigs were more elaborate than men’s. The desired complexion in women was ‘golden’ in contrast to that of men. It is no surprise that female beauty was referred to much more often than male’s in Egyptian art and literature. Female allure, often described as ‘divine aroma’ is significant in their writings. Nefertiti, a famous queen, with a record of accomplishments, is remembered more for her beauty. Her name is translated to “the beautiful woman has arrived.” [2]
Mesopotamia: Herodotus, the Greek ‘father of history,’ recorded the following about this area:
“Once a year in each village the young women eligible to marry were collected all together in one place, while the men stood around them in a circle. Then a herald called up the young women one by one and offered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was sold for a high price, he offered for sale the one who ranked next in beauty. All of them were then sold to be wives. The richest of the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the loveliest young women, while the commoners, who were not concerned about beauty, received the uglier women along with monetary compensation. All who liked might come, even from distant villages, and bid for the women…” A business deal ensued between the father of a girl and the groom, where the groom paid the father the bride-price. This process was true for the Sumerians, Babylonians, and likely the Assyrians. [3]
Greeks: In its story, the first created woman was described as ‘the beautiful-evil thing.‘ She was evil because she was beautiful, and beautiful because she was evil.
Worse, beauty was frequently a competitive sport. Beauty contests were a regular fixture in the training grounds of the Olympics, where women were judged as they walked to and fro. A famous contest was held in honor of Aphrodite–i.e. Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks. The story goes that when deliberating on where to found a temple to to the goddess in Sicily, it was decided an exemplar of human beauty should make the choice. Two amply-portioned farmers’ daughters battled it out. The ‘best endowed’ was given the honor of choosing the site for Aphrodite’s shrine. Fat-bottomed girls clearly had a hotline to the goddess of love. Wide hips and white arms, sometimes blanched by the application of white-lead make-up, were good for the Greeks. Redheads and golden blondes were favored. Also there was a predilection for the single continuous eyebrow, like that sported by Frida Kahlo in the 20th century. Despite all the above negativity for beauty, the sheer number of mirrors in Greek graves suggest a conflict of values, i.e. apparently beauty counted for something.
Of some interest, the femme-fatale-ness of the blonde bombshell Helen of Troy, who lived about 1500 BCE, was not considered to stem from the way she looked, but how she made men feel and what she made men do. She drove them to distraction. She drew men both to her bed and to their deaths. “Her beauty was a weapon of mass destruction.” Some of her cosmetic features included tattoos of red suns on her chin and cheeks. Her hair had been shaved when in her teens, and when it grew back, was arranged to look like snakes. Later, in classical Greece, around 1000 years later, women cut their hair short.
It should be mentioned that men were the vain sex in ancient Greece. A full-lipped, cheek-chiseled man knew two things: that his beauty was a blessing and that his perfect exterior hid an inner perfection. To them, a beautiful body was direct evidence of a beautiful mind. [4]
All this leaves one unsatisfied with the ancients’ (even today’s) predilection to look for a trophy spouse.
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[1] Sarna, The JPSTorah Commentary Genesis, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989, pp. 94-5
[2] https://www.ancientfacts.net/the-concept-of-beauty-in-ancient-egypt/
[3] Joshua J. Mark: Love, Sex, and Marriage in Ancient Mesopotamia, https://www.ancient.eu/article/688/love-sex-and-marriage-in-ancient-mesopotamia/
[4] Would you be beautiful in the ancient world? BBC News,
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30746985 (10 January 2015)
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.