why Egyptians used eyeliner?

Question

what's the meaning?

Answer 1

Kohl eyeliner was used for magical/protective purpose as well as medical purposes as it was thought to prevent or cure eye infection. There may also have been a practical element to the heavy kohl eyeliner worn by both men and women of nearly all social classes - sun protection.
It was sufficiently important and such a regular feature of daily life that even statues of the gods had it painted on their "eyes" as part of the daily dressing of the god.
If you recall seeing athletes, especially American football players, with the smudges of black beneath their eyes - it's essentially the same reasoning: it's supposed to cut down on sun glare.

As a previous answerer noted, the Egyptians used a variety of eye cosmetics. Green malachite based eye-paint seems to have been in use only during the Predynastic up to the end of the Old Kingdom, and was known as udju.
After the Old Kingdom the darker, nearly black galena based variety of kohl was popular and was known as medemet.

From the very early phases of the Predynastic period in Egypt and Nubia we have evidence of the use of such eyepaints in the form of palettes. Palettes are a fairly flat, hard stone on which the minerals for the eyepaint were ground using a smaller pebble. It's sort of like a mortar and pestle, except that palette is flat, rather than a cup. Palettes were made of a variety of materials and with various decorations, from plain geometric shapes to elaborately carved and decorated examples. A number of them have been found in Egyptian and Nubian tombs, occasionally with remnants of the green malachite preserved. The palette form was eventually even adopted as a "monolithic" form - huge palettes, nearly a meter long were elaborately carved and decorated and were probably not used for cosmetics, but still retained stylistic traits of the old functional palettes. The most famous example is the Narmer palette.

Later on, kohl was stored and transported in small jars called, appropriately, "kohl jars" - these are a very common element of Egyptian material culture and are frequently found in tombs of Egyptians of all social classes. Stone and faience were popular materials for kohl pots and the jars were either plain or had relief decoration on the exterior. Gold foil decoration also occurs. Kohl was also stored in tube-like containers made of bone, ivory, or stone. The tubes became more popular at the end of the New Kingdom.
Up until the late Middle Kingdom it seems that kohl was made into a paste with water and applied with the fingers. After that the "kohl stick" became common - a small stick, often with a slightly flattened end made of metal (copper, rarely gold) or bone, ivory, or wood.

Answer 2

Egyptian Eyeliner

Answer 3

They probably used it for the same reason women today (and some men today) use it. It was a cosmetic and gave them a dramatic eyeline. It could also be compared to a tatoo. There is a meaning, and it has to do with the symbol of one wavy line over a straight one and I'm sorry, but I can't remember what that meaning was. The Egyptian language used hierogliphics -that is, it was adapted from pictorial symbols. The sound 'b' for example, would be represented by the drawing of a bumble bee, and in time this became stylized to a couple of lines that literate people knew represented a bee. Interestingly enough, they used to double up on the symbols, so a 'b' sound would be represented by the bumblebee symbol, and beside it would be another 'b' symbol, perhaps a boat, to make sure you knew that there was supposed to be a 'b' sound there. This redundancy made it very difficult for early Egyptologists to crack the code and it wasn't until the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which had the same inscription in three languages, that they were able to figure out how the Egyptian language worked.
The Egyptian eye decoration is a lot like the Aquarius symbol in the zodiac, and its meaning may have something to do with that.
But the bottom line was, they thought it looked neat so they painted it on.
Hope this is helpful.

Answer 4

Egyptian Eye Liner

Answer 5

"Men, women and children of all ages and classes wore makeup. Mirrors of highly polished silver or copper were used to aid with the application of makeup. Eye paint was made from green malachite, and galena -- a gray lead ore. They were ground into a powder and mixed with oil to make eye color called Kohl. The Kohl was kept in jars and applied to the eyes with a small stick. The upper and lower eyelids were painted with the black cosmetic that extended in a line out to the sides of the face. It was believed the makeup had magical and even healing powers. Some even believed that wearing it would restore poor eyesight. It was also used to fight eye infections and reduce the glare of the sun."
http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.2.html

"They used Udju, which was made from green malachite, as eye shadow and Mesdemet, made from galena, as eye liner. Interestingly, those products must have served more purposes than just beauty because they also appear in medical papyri. For example, galena is believed to protect the eyes from the intensive sun (Illes, 2000; Watterson, 1991: 115). Furthermore, because eye liner served as a type of amulet which protects the wearer from the Evil Eye, make-up provided a form of psychic protection (Illes, 2000)."
http://www.ecclectica.ca/issues/2006/1/index.asp?Article=22

More:
http://www.egyptmonth.com/mag09012000/mag4.htm

Answer 6

Eyeliner was shown to be excellent at reduction of sun glare into the eyes, so they could keep their eyes open wider outisde in the desert.

Answer 7

In a lot of cses, it was sun protection. Not unlike the way football players put burnt cork under their eyes.

Answer 8

They did it to make themselves look like cats, which were sacred to the Egyptians

Answer 9

Kohl.

Answer 10

either status? or for like sun protection

Answer 11

For the same reason I suspect you do, to enhance their appearance.