In Defense of Beards

A reader finds some poetic back-up:

The cyclops Polyphemous to his beloved, Galatea:

Abundant hair hangs over my fierce face
and shoulders, shading me, just like a grove;
but don't think me unsightly just because
I am completely covered in dense bristles:
unsightly is the tree that has no leaves,
the horse without a mane; birds have their plumage
and sheep are most attractive in their wool,
so facial hair and a full body beard
are really most becoming in a man.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XIII (trans. Charles Martin)