Note 2 — ITER BOREALE. (continued 2)
Reading edition
In one of the carved monuments Venus stands in an apartment of a building, seeming to be combing her hair; perhaps from a bath. However, at Rome was a statue of Venus holding a comb, not an improper utensil for the goddess of beauty, not a little of which consists in the hair. Thus says Claudian,
Thessalico roseos nectebat pectine crines.
So Juno, when dressing herself to recover the love of her husband, is represented by the father of the poets combing her hair: Il. ξ.
depexos nitide nodo substricta capillos
. But the reason of the statue before mentioned was thus: there was a cutaneous distemper among the Roman women, injurious to their hair; for they were forced to cut it all off: therefore they dedicated a statue to
Venus Pectinigera
, upon which their hair came again as fine as ever. This story is told in Suidas.