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Digitized by the Internet Archive

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http://www.archive.org/details/ancientgreekfemaOOsmituoft

1927

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:iENT

GREEK FEMALE COSTUME

ILLUSTRATED

BY

ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE PLATES
AND NUMEROUS SMALLER ILLUSTRATIONS.

WITH EXPLANATORY LETTERPRESS, AND DESCRIPTIVE PASSAGES

FROM THE WORKS OF HOMER, HESIOD. HERODOTUS,

.ESCHYLUS, EURIPIDES, ARISTOPHANES, THEOCRITUS, XENOPHOX.

LUCIAN, AND OTHER GREEK AUTHORS,

.V"'

SELECTED BY

J: MOYR SMITH.

EoitKou :
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVLNGTON,

CROWN RUILDINGS, 1 88, FLEET STREET. /-.

[A// rii^hts reserved. ] ^ / A \

LONDON:
TRINTED 13T GILBEKT AND EITINGTOX, 1I5IITED,

ST. John's square.

//

'W/^

0

PBEFACE.

A GOOD many people of fair culture, if asked tlieir opinion
of Greek costume, would say tliat correct Greek costume
seemed to consist chiefly of a pair of sandals for tlie feet,
and a ribbon for the hair. In some of the most popular
and best known works of Greek art there is even less dress
than this. The Venus de Medici has not even a pair of
sandals. The statues called the Theseus, the Discobulus,
the Laocoon are as bare of clothing, and though the Apollo
Belvidere is furnished with a cloak, he does not use it to
enshroud his limbs. The popular belief that ancient Greek
costume was scarcely appreciable in quantity has thus some
apparent foundation in fact. When the question is pressed
still further, however, we begin to remember that the
Caryatides of the Erechtheion, and the goddess Athene,
have each a distinctive dress covering the whole body, and
that several of the female deities, such as Here, Cybele,
and Artemis, are scarcely, if ever, represented unclothed.

Tliis limited wardrobe is, however, nearly all that was
credited to the Greeks by many people who were far
from being ignorant of Greek art and Greek literature.

When, however, we come to study Greek literature
A 2

PREFACE.

and Greek art with a view to costume, we are amazed
at the richness and diversity for which Greek dresses
were distinguished. In literature. Homer is full of
allusions to magnificent dresses; and the paintings on
vases supply us with hundreds of realistic representations
of costumes which were undoubtedly taken from models in
daily life.

To account for this seeming discrepancy we must call
to mind that the most popular Greek statues nearly
all belong to one period of Hellenic art, and that these
statues were the product of a time when sculptural art
had reached its zenith. As the human form unclothed
o-ave the sculptor a fairer opportunity of showing his
transcendent abilities — the mastery of form and the
rendering of flesh being more difiicult than the sculpture
of drapery — he naturally chose subjects on which the
dress was scanty and the limbs well displayed.

Representations of nude figures do occur in archaic
sculpture and pottery, but they are chiefly bacchanalian
subjects ; and, as a rule, the figures in early examples are
all dressed. Aphrodite (Venus) is clothed, and Heracles
is everywhere seen wearing the spoils of the Nemean lion.
But no sculptural models of these were made, they were
seldom photographed, and rarely seen ; when seen they
were passed over with a smile at their quaint inartistic
stiffness, and scarcely admitted by the purists to be Greek
art at all. Hence, in spite of the teeming examples of

PREFACE.

varied costumes exhibited on the Greek vases, and in
early statues and bas-reliefs, ordinary culture persisted in
recognizing as Greek only the works of the age of Phidias,
or works which followed the usages of the Phidian period
of sculpture.

Though I have been interested in Greek costume for
many years, it was only comparatively recently that I
discovered that such a book as Hope's " Costumes of the
Ancients " existed. It was a revelation of the diversity,
beauty, fitness, and grace of the early Greek dress, and
also showed that culture, research, and enterprise at the
beginning of this century were well directed.

It is from this book, published in 1812, and from
Miiller's '*■ Denkmaler,'-' that the plates and some of the
cuts in the letterpi-ess have been taken. To render the
work more complete, various other illustrations have been
added ; these have been drawn direct from the paintings
on ancient vases in the British Museum and the Louvre.

In the arrangement of the plates I have not been
guided entirely by chronological sequence, but have rather
endeavoured to group figures with similar kinds of dresses
together; so that the artist or decorative draughtsman
who wishes to make use of the book may find various
dresses of the same kind with the least possible trouble.

In the letterpress I have generally retained the usual
Latinized form of spelling Greek proper names, though I
am aware there is at present a taste for the original

O PREFACE.

Greek form. But in a work that appeals not to scholars
but to lovers of art^ it would probably only lead to
confusion were the reader to find the familiar Circe,
Cyclades, Sicily, and Thrace under the forms of Kirke,
Kuklades, Sikania or Sikelia, and Thrakia. Moreover,
those who have attempted to reform our spelling in this
respect have usually carried out their improvements in a
very imperfect way. In some instances that I have seen ,
one half of a name has the Greek form, and the other half
is in the familiar Latinized form. Nor do I think that
those people who spell Pheidias for Phidias and Phoibos
for Phoebus will do Greek any great service by this display
of scholarship while the ridiculous English style of pro-
nouncing Greek is retained; the popular pronunciation
of Phoebus is much nearer the Greek original than the
popular English pronunciation of Phoibos would be.
When, however, the Latin name is so altered as to be
entirely different from the Greek, I sometimes use the
Greek name in preference to the Latin one, as Aphrodite
for Venus, Athene for Minerva, and Odysseus for Ulysses.

Fig. 1. Dorian or Early Greek Costume.

I,'

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Fig. 2. Nausicaa and her Maids. — Od, vi.

Ancient Grreeca. in its prime was much larger than the
modern kingdom. Besides Attica and the peninsuhx of
the Morea, or Peloponnesus, with its districts of Achaia^
Elis, Arcadia, Argolis, Laconia, and Messenia, it included
a great portion of country lying to the north of the
Gulf of Corinth, which was inhabited by the Acarnians,
^tolians, Locrians, Phocians, Boeotians, Thessalians, and
other tribes. At one time it extended to and included
Macedonia and the countries lying to the north of the
-^o^ean Sea. To this extensive conntrv were to be added

O ^ ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

tlie islands of Crete, Rhodes, Euboea, and the numerous
others lying to the east and west of the Peloponnesus, as
well as those of Lesbos, Samos, and Chios, that adjoined
Asia Minor. These together formed what might be
called Greece proper; but Greece also possessed the
colonies of Ionia, ^olis, Lycia, Cyprus, and other terri-
tories of Asia Minor on the east, and Sicily and Southern
Italy on the west. The last was called Magna Graecia,
because the colony outstripped the mother country in
size, in the same way that America or Larger Britain
outstrips the England of to-day.

But Greek influence was by no means confined to
Greece and its colonies ; and the strength of that influence
in foreign countries may be gauged by the fact that a
people like the Jews, so tenacious of their own customs,
names, and traditions, adopted Greek for their written
language, discarded their old Hebrew names, and called
themselves by such Hellenic appellations as Jason,
Antigonus, and Antipater.

In the time of Homer there was no general appellation
for the Grecian race, the term "RX\T]ve<; (Hellenes) being
one of later origin. The poet, therefore, when he wishes
to designate the Greeks collectively, employs the name of
the principal tribe, or the one he most favoured, as in
the opening lines of the Iliad, —

" Mrjpiu aeiSe Bed, JlrjXrj'iddfa 'A;(iX^o?
OvXofj.€VT]v J] ixvp" 'Ax^aiols aXye' edrjiceu,"

where Achaiois or Acheeans is used for the Greek race.
But in ordinary cases the inhabitants of each tract of
country are discriminated by distinctive appellations, as

VARIETY OP FASHIONS. 9

Argives, Laconians or Spartans, Arcadians, Samiaus,
Lesbians, ^ginetae, and so on. This custom was usual
in the time of Herodotus and Xenophon, and still later,
and was rendered necessary by the fact that each of these
petty states, though belonging to the Amphictyonic
council, was governed by its own laws, had its distinctive
customs, and approved costumes. In this extensive
country, so varied by fertile plains, forest- covered hills,
bleak mountainous districts, and rock-bound islands,
an infinite variety of costumes existed at one and the
same time, and probably one district borrowed from
another in such a way that what was the prevailing
manner in one country or island at one time, was super-
seded by another fashion borrowed from another district.
This is mentioned so that when a seeming contradiction
occurs, the reader may understand that the one remark
applies to one part of Greece, and the other to a different
part, or to the same part at a later time. These changes
will perhaps be better understood if we quote an incident
from Herodotus, relating to a dispute between the Ar-
gians and the Lacedaemonians about a tract of country
called Thyrea. It was stipulated that the main body of
each army should withdraw to its own country, and that
300 men on each side should engage. "They fought
with such equal success, that of the 600, three men only
were left alive — of the Argians, Alcenor and Chronius, and
of the Lacedfemonians, Othryades ; these survived when
night came on. The two Argians, thinking themselves
victorious, ran to Argos with the news ; but Othryades,
the Lacedgemonian, having stripped the corpses of the
Argians, and carried their arms to his own camp, con-

10 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTDME.

tiiiued at his post. On the next day both armies, being
informed of the event, met again in the same place ; and
for a time both laid claim to the victory — the one side
alleging that the greater number of their men survived ;
the other side urging that those survivors had fled, and
that their countryman had kept the field and spoiled
their dead. At length, from words they betook them-
selves to blows ; and when many had fallen on both
sides, the Lacedaemonians obtained the victory. From
that time the Argians, cutting off their hair, which they
had before been compelled to wear long, enacted a law,
which was confirmed by a curse, that no Argian should
sufier his hair to grow, nor any woman wear ornaments
of gold, till they should recover Thyrea. On the other
hand, the Lacedgemonians made a contrary law, enjoining
all their people to wear long hair, which they had never
done before.'^ Nor were these differences by any means
confined to the men; for while in one part of Greece
women were strictly confined to their own apartments,
did not meet the guests at an entertainment given in
the house, and were not permitted to go beyond the
outer door, in another district more than modern English
freedom was allowed them.

In one place women who had no husbands, whether
virgins or widows, were strictly looked after — espe-
cially the virgins, as being less experienced — and they
were rarely permitted to appear in public or converse
with men ; and when allowed that liberty, wore over their
faces a veil, which was termed KaXvirrpov or KoXimrpa, and
which was not left off in public till the third day after
marriao-e.

SPARTAN FEMALE COSTUME.

11

But in Laconia the Lacedaemonian
or Spartan women observed fashions
quite different from all their neigh-
bours; their virgins went abroad
bare-faced, the married women were
covered with veils ; the former de-
signing (as Charilaus replied to one
that inquired the reason of that
custom) to get themselves husbands,
whereas the latter aimed at nothino^
more than keeping those they al-
readv had.

Fig. 3.

Ljcurgus, the Spartan
lawgiver, seems to have en-
couraged a fashion in the
younger women of wearing
exceediug scanty costume,
and even accustomed the
virgins to dance and sing
unclothed in the presence
of the young men in the
national festivals. There
they indulged in raillery of
the youths who had mis-
behaved themselves, and
praised those who had dis-
tinguished themselves by
their bravery or address in
the games, thus exciting in

Fig. i. Spartan Virgin.

12 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

the young men an emulation and love of glory. By
wearing the scanty garment, or none at all, the Spartan
girls had freedom in the exercises of running, wrestling,
and throwing quoits and darts, and their bodies became
strong and vigorous. " As for the virgins appearing
naked," says Plutarcb, "there was nothing disgraceful
in it, because everything was conducted with modesty
and without one indecent word or action, nay, it caused
a simplicity of manners and an emulation for the best
habit of body ; their ideas, too, were naturally enlai'ged,
while they were not excluded from their share of bravery
and honour. Hei\ce tbey were furnished with sentiments
and language such as Gorge, the wife of Leonidas, is
said to have made use of when a woman of another
country said to her, 'You of Lacedtemon are the
only women in tbe world who rule the men.' She
answered, ' We are the only women that bring forth
men.' "

In another place, however, Plutarch says Numa's strict-
ness as to virgins tended to form them to that modesty
which is the ornament of their sex ; but the great liberty
which Lycurgus gave them, brought upon them the cen-
sure of the poets, particularly Ibycus ; for they call them
PJice7iomerides and Andromaneis. Euripides describes
them in this manner : —

" These quit their homes, ambitious to display,
Amidst the youths, their vigour in the race
Or feats of wrestling, while their airy robe
Flies back, and leaves their limbs uncover 'd.

The skirts of the habit which the virgins wore were not
sewed to the bottom, but opened at the sides as they

SPARTAN FEMALE COSTUME, 13

walked^ a,n (i^jsco vered_ the ^ thigh (see plate 19, figs. 7
and 8). Sophocles very plainly writes : —

" Still in the light dress struts the vain Hcrmione,
"Whose opening folds display the naked thigh."

In the Spartan marriages the bridegroom carried off
the bride by violence ; and she was never chosen in a
tender age, but when she had arrived at full maturity.
Then the woman who had the direction of the wedding
cut the bride^s hair close to the skin, dressed her in man's
clothes, laid her on a mattress, and left her in the dark.
Marriage was strongly insisted upon by the Spartan law-
giver, and even as late as the days of Lysander bachelors
and widowers who shunned re-entering the marriage
state, were obliged to march in an ignominious procession
singing songs against themselves. They were besides
excluded from the exercises where the young virgins
contended naked ; and once a year they were personally
chastised by the women, who were rendered by their
gymnastic exercises uncommonly muscular and well
developed. In one of the plays of Aristophanes, a Spar-
tan lady is thus complimented by her friend Lysistrate, —
"My beloved Lampito, how handsome you are; your
complexion is so fine, and your person so full and healthy ;
why, you could strangle a bull." " Yes," replies Lampito,
"I fancy I could, foTLX^exemse mj^elf in jumping till my
heels touch my back." Doubtless such personal vigour
was not rare at Lacedaemon; and the anticipation and
reception of an annual chastisement from such bouncing-
dames would do a good deal to disturb the peaceful
repose of single blessedness, and lead the perplexed

u

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

bachelor to avoid the ills he knew, and fly to others that
he knew not of.

The precautions of Lycurgus against weakness, effemi-
nacy, and luxury extending to dress,
the young women wore only a woollen
robe, loose at one side, and fastened
by clasps over the shoulder. Em-
broidery, gold, and precious stones
were thought too despicable for the
adornment of noble and respectable
women, but were only used by cour-
tesans, in the best period of the
Spartan fame. Later, however, when
Sparta gained immense quantities of
gold and silver after the Peloponnesian
war, and the laws of Lycurgus were
neglected, the Spartans showed them-
selves as weakly fond of luxury as their
neighbours. The women, too, lost
much of their noble simplicity, and
with it the serene womanly modesty
for which they had been distinguished.
They made such evil use of the free-
dom which the laws of Lycurgus had
given them, that they got a bad name on account of
their wantonness and excessive desire for pleasure. They
are stigmatized by Euripides with the epithet of avSpo-
/jbavel<i, that is, possessed with furious love of, and, as it
were, running mad after men.

Scanty costume was regarded as a sign of hardiness.
The Lydians were originally a hardy and warlike people,

Dorian Custume.

CHANGE FROM DORIAN TO IONIAN COSTUME, 15

"who wore scanty costume. When thej revolted, Croesus
advised Cyrus to pardon them, " and enjoin them to keep
no weapons of war in their possession ; and enjoin them
to wear tunics under their cloaks, and buskins on their
feet ; and require them to teach their sons to play on the
cithara, to strike the guitar, and to sell by retail ; and
then you will see them becoming women instead of men,
so that they will never give you any apprehensions about
their revolting.''' Afterwards the Lydians became effe-
minate, wore long dresses, and w^ere called the tunic-
trailing Lydians.

Herodotus says (v. 87, 88) that the whole ancient
Grecian dress was a woollen dress similar to that which
was called Dorian or Spartan. The reason of the change
was that in a fight between the -^ginetae and Argives on
the one side, and the Athenians on the other, the Attic
or Athenian army was all destroyed except one man.
" On his return to Athens he gave an account of the
disaster, and the wives of the men who had gone on the
expedition against ^gina, when they heai-d it, being
enraged that he alone of the whole number should be
saved, crowded round this man, and piercing him with
the clasps of their garments, each asked him where her
own husband was ? Thus he died. This action of the
women seemed to the Athenians more dreadful than the
disaster itself; however, as they had no other way of
punishing the women, they compelled them to change
their Doric costume for the Ionian. For before that time
the wives of the Athenians wore the Dorian dress, which
nearly resembles the Corinthian ; they changed it, there-
fore, for a linen tunic, that they might not use clasps.

16

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Yet if we follow the truths this garment is not originally
Ionian but Carian, for the whole ancient Greciaa dress
of the women was the same as that which we now call
Dorian. In consequence of this event, it became cus-
tomary with both the Argives and the ^gineta3 to do
this : to make their clasps one-half larger than the
measure before established, and that the women should
chiefly dedicate clasps in the temple of these deities ; and

Fig. 6. Lycian Dresses from the Xanthus Sculplures.
(Probably the same as the Carian Dress.)

to bring no other Attic article within the temple, not
even a pitcher ; but a law was made that they should
drink there in future from vessels of their own country.
Accordingly, from that time the wives of the Argives and
-^ginetge, on account of their quarrel with the Athenians,
continued even to my time to wear clasps larger than
formerly."

Owing to the warmth of the climate^ and the good

SIMPLICITY OF ANCIENT GEEEK COSTUME. 17

taste of tlie Greeks^ superfluous or tiglit articles of dress
were not used. Though more fully clad in raost parts of
Greece than in Sparta, the costume of the young girls
and women was such as allowed the body to develope its
natural beauty, and permitted a graceful freedom of
motion.

Simplicity of attire was in Greece, as elsewhere, the
markj2£ihe a^e of refinement. In the earlier times the
dregses of both men and women seem to have depended
for their effect on their rich embroidery ; whereas in the
age of Phidias, and later times, the dress of the women
especially, depends for its beauty on the softness of the
material, the graceful hanging or flow of its lines, and
the way in which it drapes, but does not conceal, the form
.beneath it.

In most early work a stiffness of line may be observed,
which may be in part due to the want of skill in the
sculptor or draughtsman, but which is probably more due
to the hardness and stiffness of the material of which the
dresses were made. In some early works, however, the
women wear a jacket or jersey which clings close to the
figure, and this jacket is seamed by the sculptor into
minute lines, which resemble in effect the lines in knitted
worsted work (see plate 104).

As the Greek ladies thirty centuries ago were accom-
plished in the more difficult arts of spinning, weaving,
embroidery, and all kinds of needlework, it is not likely
that the art of knitting, which is the art which female
children learn most easily, would be unknown to them.

The two chief kinds of garments in use were the
ivSv/jbara (endymata), which were put on next the naked

B

18 ANCIENT GEEEK FEMALE COSTUME.

body like a sMrt^ and the em^XrjiMara (epiblemata) oi-
irepL^Xijfiara (periblemata), wliich miglit either be used
over the shirt as a cloak, or by itself alone as the sole
covering of the body. These two parts of dress might be
infinitely varied in arrangement, but their essential form
remained pretty much the same in the middle and later
periods.

The chief form of the endyma, which originally only
signified raim:ent or dress, was the ^trcoy (chiton), a form
of which was used both by men and women — the women's
chiton being long and reaching to the feet, the men's
short and scarcely reaching to the knees. Chitonion and
chitoniskos were the names for little chitons ; no under-
shirt seems to have been used. The expressions fiovo-
'y^LTcov (monochiton) and ayiroov (achiton) only indicate
that in the first case the chiton alone was worn, and in
the other that the Ifxdrtov (himation) or cloak was worn
without the chiton. The chiton was subjected to many
little refinements in process of time, though its leading-
features remained nearly the same. It was a long piece
of cloth arranged ronnd the body so that the arm could
be put through a hole in the closed side, the two ends of
the open side being fastened over the opposite shoulder
by means of a button or clasp ; on this latter side the
chiton was in some cases stitched, in some completely
open (plate 19) ; sometimes it was open from the thigh
downwards, and the two sides could be linked together
by means of studs or buttons. In other examples the
chiton had short sleeves, and resembled pretty much the
chemises worn by women at the present day. Sometimes
the sleeves were continued down to the elbow, but instead

THE CHITON.

19

of being stitclied at the seam, the two sides were linked
together by studs, which allowed the naked flesh to peep
through at intervals (see plates 1, 3, 4) ; other examples
have the sleeve down to the wrist (see fig. 18). Round
the waist or at the hips, or at both places, the chiton was
held to the body by a ribbon or girdle ; when it was
desired to tuck up the dress, it was shortened by being
pulled through the girdle. The goddess Diana (Artemis)
is frequently shown with her chiton tucked up, so that
she might follow the chase with greater freedom. Plates
58 and 59 represent her with the chiton in its normal
state; plates 55, 56, 57 show the
-shortened chiton.

The Spartan women wore the Dorian
chiton, which was short-skirted and
simply made. It had a slit at both
sides for the arms, and was fastened
by clasps or buttons over both shouldei'S
{see fig. 7) ; it was also made like the
e^toyLtt? (exomis), used by workmen,
fishermen^ and sailors, whose occupa-
tions required that the right arm should
not be encumbered — in this it was
fastened over the left shoulder (fig. 5).

The earlier form of the long chiton
{'X^iTcov ttoSt/jot;?), which gives the effect
of a bib hanging over the breast,
may be best understood by taking two pieces of cloth,
each about one-half longer than the height of the body
to the shoulders ; let three-fourths of the superfluous half
fall over in front, place the one piece at the back, and the

B 2

20

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

rig-8.

other at the front of the figure, and
pin or clasp them through the folded
edges together at the shoulder. The
pin should be passed through the cloth
some distance from the outside edge,
so as to let the angle pieces go into
folds. The superfluous parts will hang
outside, over
the bosom in
the one case,
and down the
back in the
other. The sides
are now quite
open ; they may be left thus, they
may be joined together at inter-
vals by studs or buttons, or one
or both sides may be stitched
together as far as the armpits.
All these modes have their repre-
sentatives in Greek art [see plate
9, fig. 8) . The bottom edge will
trail on the ground ; but when the
under part of the chiton is pulled
up through the girdle {^mvlov
aTp6(f)iov), enough to leave the toes
visible, the fulness thus gained is
allowed to pass over and conceal
the zone. The artistic and simple
effect of the draping in the Cary-
atides of the Erechtheion is pro- ^'°" ^' ErMhtheion.''°™

SOCKATES AND THE LADY. 21

daced by a single garment arranged as described. The
koXtto? (kolpos) was tbe name applied to the picturesque
folds wliich were formed by the hanging corners of the
loose edge of the chiton. These could be varied con-
siderably by merely shifting the position of the pin or
button that held them at the shoulder, or by putting on a
series of buttons. Perhaps the names SiTrXoi?, ScirXa^,
or BcirXoi'Biov (diplois, diplax, or diploidion), which
signify a garment doubled, may have been given at one
time to the folded or hanging part of the chiton, but it
was afterwards applied to the himation or cloak when
worn double folded {see plates 39 and 63).

In the age of Pericles no sleeves seem to be attached
to the chiton ; and in the " Banquet of Xenophon/^ Car-
mides twits Socrates with taking delight in placing his
shoulder accidentally against the naked shoulder of a
beautiful young lady, who was presumably dressed in
the fashionable costume of Athens in the time of Pericles.
He says : — " Nevertheless, I remember very well, and I
believe you do so too, Socrates, that being one day in
company with Critobulus's beautiful sister, who resembles
him so much, as we were searching for a passage in some
author, you held your head very close to that beautiful
virgin ; and I thought you seemed to take pleasure in
touching her naked shoulder with yours.^^ " Good God ! "
replied Socrates. " 1 will tell you truly how I was punished
for it for five days after ; I thought I felt in my shoulder
a certain tickling pain, as if I had been bit by gnats or
pricked with nettles ; and I must confess, too, that during
all that time I felt a certain hitherto unknown pain at my
heart.''

22

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

The chief alterations of varying fashion applied to the
arrangement of the diploidion, -which reached either to
the part under the bosom, or was prolonged as far as the
hipsj its front and back parts might either be clasped
together across the shoulders^ or the two rims or edges
might be pulled across the upper arm as far as the elbow,
and fastened in several places by means of buttons or
agraffes, so that the naked arm became visible in the
intervals, by means of which the sleeveless chiton received
the appearance of one with sleeves. Where the diploidion
was detached from the chiton, it formed a kind of hand-

some cape ; which, however, in its shape strictly re-
sembled the diploidion proper. This cape was most

VARIETIES OP THE DIPLOIDION.

23

likely called by tlie Greeks aiJiire^oviov. Its shape was
considerably modified by fashion, taking sometimes the
form of a close-fitting jacket (fig. 10), at others (when
the sides remained open) that of a kind of shawl, the ends
I of which sometimes equalled in
\ length the chiton itself (plates
; 1, 5, 6, figs. 11,22). In the latter
lease the ampechonion was natu-
jrally three times as long as it
iwas wide. In antique pictures
'women sometimes wear a shorter
fchiton over the y^iTOiv iroSyjprji;.
\A great many varieties of dress
lare distinguishable in the vase
jpaintings. These, as a rule, re-
present realistic scenes and actual
dresses as worn by the Greek
ladies; whereas the sculptures of
the Phidian and later periods very
often represent an ideal type in
no way authorized by the earlier
Greek literature.

The eVSy/AaTa( endymata), or garments worn next the
skin, or completing ^n indoor costume, were supplemented
,by the Trepi.^Xtj/xara (periblemata), to which order cloaks
and outside wraps belong. Some of these resembled the
Oman togas, but they were worn in Greece in a freer
,nd more varied manner than was customary in Rome.
T|ie Ifidnov (himation) was arranged so that the one
corner was thrown over the left shoulder in front, so as
to be attached to the body by means of the left arm.

Fig. 11.

24 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

On the back, the dress was pulled towards the right side^,
so as to cover it completely up to the right shoulder, or
at least to the armpit, in which latter case the right
shoulder remained uncovered. Finally, the himation was
again thrown over the left shoulder, so that the ends
fell over the back {see plates 23 to 49). A second
way of arranging the himation which left the right
arm free was found to be picturesque, and was there-
fore much used in pictures and statues. The Parthenon
sculptures, representing the maidens carrying hydrai,
may be considered the common type. In order to pre-
serve the folds, and prevent the dress from slipping from
the shoulders, the Greeks used to sew small weights into
the corners.

General Description of Greek Female Costume.

The general description given by Mr. Hope, author of
" The Costumes of the Ancients," is as follows : —

" With regard to the attire of the body, the innermost
article, that garment which does not indeed appear always
Ito have been worn, but which, whenever worn, was always
Inext the skin, seems to have been of a light creasy stuff,
similar to the gauzes of which to this day the eastern
nations make their shirts. The peculiar texture of this
stuff not admitting of broad folds or drapery, this under
garment was in early times cut into shapes fitting the
body and arms very closely, and confined or joined round
the neck, and down the sleeves, by substantial hems or
stays of some stouter tissue. But even this part of the
attire seems in later times to have been worn very wide and
loose round the body, and often at the shoulders ; where,

EARLY GREEK FEMALE COSTUME. 25

as in the figures of Minerva and of the bearded BacchnSj
the sleeves are gathered up in such a way as totally to
lose their shape.

" The outer garment assumes in the figures of the old
style an infinite variety of shapes, but seems always to
have been studiously plaited, so as to form a number of
flat and parallel folds across its surface, a zigzag line
along its edge, and a sharp point at each of its angles.

" Though the costume of the Greeks seems to have
been more particularly of the sort just described at the
periods when the sieges of Troy and of Thebes were
supposed to have taken place, and is in fact represented
as such in the more ancient monuments relative to those
events, the later works of art, nevertheless, even where
they profess to represent personages belonging to those
early ages, usually array them in the more un confined
habiliments of more recent times. In the male figures
even of such primeval heroes as a Hercules, an A.chilles,
and a Theseus, we generally find the long formal ringlets
of the heroic ages omitted for the short crops of the
historic periods.

" I shall now enter into a somewhat greater detail
with regard to the different pieces of which was composed
the Grecian attire.

" The principal vestment both of men and of women,
that which was worn next the skin, and which conse-
quently, whenever more than one different garment was
worn over the other, was undermost, bore in Greek the
name of ')(iTOiv, in Latin that of tunica. It was of a
light tissue; in earliest times made of wool, in later
periods of flax, and last of all, of flax mixed with silk, or

26

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

even pure silk. Its body was in general composed of
two square pieces sewed together on the
sides. Sometimes it remained sleeveless,
only offered openings for the bare arms
to pass through, and was confined over
the shoulders by means of clasps or but-
tons; at other times it had very long
and wide sleeves; and these were not
unfrequently, as in the figures of Minerva
and the bearded Bacchus, gathered up
under the armpits, so as still to leave
the arms in a great measure bare. Most
usually, however, the body of the tunic
branched out into
a pair of tight

sleeves, reaching to near the elbow,

which in the most ancient dresses

were close, with a broad stiff band

running down the seams, and in

more modern habiliments open in

their whole length, and only con-
fined by means of small buttons

carried down the arms, and placed

so near the edge of the stuff as in

their interval to show the skin.

In very richly embroidered tunics

the sleeves sometimes descended to

the wrists, in others they hardly

reached halfway down the upper

arm.

" The tunic was worn by females p-j jg

THE USE OF THE GIRDLE.

27

either quite loose or confined by a girdle ; and this girdle

was either drawn tight round the

waist, or loosely slung round the

loins. Often when the tunic was

very long, and would otherwise

have entangled the feet, it was

drawn over the girdle in such a

way as to conceal the latter en-
tirely underneath its folds. It is

not uncommon to see two girdles

of different widths worn together,

the one very high up, and the other

very low down, so as to form be-
yv^ ■ tween the

LP^ fib^ two in the

tunic a puck-
ered inter-
val; but this

fashion was only applied to short
tunics by Diana, by the wood
nymphs, and by other females fond
of the chase, the foot-race, and such
other martial exercises as were in-
compatible with long petticoats.

" Over this tunic or under-gar-
ment, which was made to reach the
whole length of the body down to
the feet, Grecian females generally,
though not always, wore a second
and more external garment, only
Fig. 15. intended to afford an additional

Fiff. U.

28

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

covering or protection to the upper half of the person.
This species of bib seems to have been composed of a
square piece of stuff, in form like our shawls or scarfs,
folded double, so as to be apparently reduced to half
its original width ; and was worn with the doubled part
upwards, and the edge or border downwards next the
zone or girdle. It was suspended round the chest and
back in such a way that its centre came under the left
arm, and its two ends hung down loose under the right
arm ; and according as the piece was square or oblong,
these ends either only reached to the hips or descended
to the ankles. The whole was secured by means of two
clasps or buttons, which fastened
together the fore and hind part
over each shoulder.

" In later times this bib,^ from
a square piece of stuff doubled,
seems to have become a mere
single narrow slip, only hanging
down a very short way over the
breasts, and allowing the girdle,
even when fixed as high as pos-
sible, to appear underneath.

"The peplum constituted the
outermost covering of the hodj.
Among the Greeks it was worn
in common by both sexes, but
was chiefly reserved for occasions
of ceremony or of public appear-
*^^" ^*'' ance, and as well in its texture

as in its shape, seemed to answer to our shawl. When

THE PEPLOS OE PEPLOMA. 20

very long and ample, so as to admit of being wound
twice round the body — first under the arms, and the
second time over the shoulders — it assumed the name
of diplax. In rainy or cold weather it was drawn over
the head. At other times this peculiar mode of wearing
it was expressive of humility or of grief, and was adopted
by men and women when in mourning, or when perform-
ing sacred rites ; on both which accounts it was thus worn
by Agamemnon when going to sacrifice his daughter.

"This peplum was never fastened on by means of
clasps or buttons, but only prevented from slipping off
through the intricacy of its own involutions. Endless
were the combinations which these exhibited; and in
nothing do we see more ingenuity exerted, or more fancy
displayed, than in the various modes of making the
peplum form grand and contrasted draperies. Indeed,
the different degrees of simplicity or of grace observable
in the throw of the peplum were regarded as indicating
the different degrees of rusticity or of refinement inherent
in the disposition of the wearer.

For the sake of dignity, all the goddesses of the highest
class, Yenus excepted, wore the peplum; but for the
sake of convenience, Diana generally had hers fui-led up
and drawn tight over the shoulders and round the waist,
so as to form a girdle, with the ends hanging down before
or behind. Among the Greeks the peplum never had, as
among the barbarians, its whole circumference adorned
by a separate fringe, but only its corners loaded with
little metal weights or drops, in order to make them hang
down more straight and even.

" A veil of lighter tissue than the peplum was often

30 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

worn by females. It served both as an appendage of
rank and as a sign of modesty. On the first account it is
seen covering the diadem of Juno^ tlie mitra of Ceres,
and the turreted crown of Cybele, and of the emblema-
tical figures of cities and of provinces ; and on the latter
account it is made, in ancient representations of nuptials,
to conceal the face of the bride. Penelope, when urged
to state whether she preferred staying with her father
or following her husband, is represented expressing her
preference of the latter by merely drawing her veil over
her blushing features.

" G-reatly diversified were, among the Grecian females,
the coverings of both extremities. Ladies reckoned
among the ornaments of the head the mitra or bushel-
shaped crown, peculiarly afi"ected by Ceres; the tiara or
crescent-formed diadem, worn by Juno and by Venus ;
and ribands, rows of beads, wreaths of flowers, nettings,
fillets, skewers, and gewgaws innumerable. The feet
were sometimes left entirely bare. Sometimes they were
only protected underneath by a simple sole, tied by means
of thongs or strings, disposed in a variety of elegant
ways across the instep and round the ankle ; and some-
times they were also shielded above by means of shoes
or half-boots, laced before, and lined with the fur of
animals of the feline tribe, whose muzzle and claws were
disposed in front. Earrings in various shapes, necklaces
in numerous rows, bracelets in the form of hoops or
snakes for the upper and lower arms, and various other
trinkets were in great request, and were kept in a species
of casket or box called pyxis, from the name of the wood
of which it was originally made ; and these caskets, as

FAVOCEITE COLOURS OF ROBES. 31

well as the small oval hand-mirrors of .metal (the indis-
pensable insignia of the courtesan), the umbrella, the fan
formed of leaves or of feathers, the calathus or basket of
reeds to hold the work, and all the other utensils and
appendages intended to receive, to protect, or to set off
whatever appertained to female dress and embellishment,
ai-e often represented on the Grrecian fictile vases."

Usual Colours and Materials op Eobes.
White and gold seem in early times to have formed a
favourite arrangement of colour for feminine dress, as
may be seen from the description of Nausicaa in the fifth
book of the Odyssey : —

" The nj'mpli's fair head a veil transparent graced ;
Her swelling loins a radiant zone embraced
With flowers of gold; an under robe, unbound,
In snowy waves flow'd glittering on the ground."

The fashion was continued in the peplos of Athene,
which was renewed every four years by the maidens of
Athens, who worked the garment under the superintend-
ence of two of the select noble virgins who had taken
part in the Arrephoria or Ersephoria, a festival in honour
of Athene and Ersa, a daughter of Cecrops. The noble
virgins who took the leading part in this festival were
also dressed in white apparel, set off with ornaments and
embroidery of gold. The white dresses belonging to the
ladies of the household of King Alcinoiis are referred to
as follows : —

" Then emulous the royal robes they lave,
And plunge the vestures in the cleansing wave
(The vestures cleansed, o'erspread the shelly sand ;
Their snowy lustre whitens all the strand)." — Od. vi.

32 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

When about to supplicate the gods for the return of
Odysseus, Penelope prepares thus : —

" She bathed : and, robed in white, with all her train."

At the Thesmophoria, a festival in honour of Ceres
{Arjfi^Trjp, Demeter, in the Greek), the women who
ofl&ciated were clad in white apparel, to intimate their
spotless innocence. In various parts of Homer the
dazzling whiteness of the dress of ladies is referred to.
Other colours were also in use.

Hesiod speaks of " Enyo of safiron vestment ;" and at
the Brauronia, a festival of Diana, the most remarkable
persons in the solemnity were young virgins wearing
yellow gowns, who were consecrated to Diana.

In Lysistrata, Calonice asks : " What prudent or bril-
liant action could women accomplish ? We, who sit
decked out, wearing saffron-coloured robes, and beautified,
and wearing loose Cimmerian vests and sandals ?'' Ly-
sistrata replies : " For in truth these are even the very
things which I expect will save us; the little saffron-
coloured robes, and the unguents, and the sandals, and
the alkanet root, and the transparent vests." Calonice
says : " Then by the two goddesses, I'll get me a saffron
robe dyed." Wheelwright's version of the first part of
the passage is : —

" Who sit dress'd out with flowers and blazing robes
Of saffron hue and richly broider'd o'er,
With loose Cimmerian vests and circling sandals."

Saffron seems to have been the fashionable colour for
ladies in Athens in the time of Aristophanes. Saffron-
coloured robes are constantly referred to in his comedies.

SAPPEON-COLOUEED EOBES. 33

Besides many hints in Lysistrata about the overwhelming
effect of the colour in fascinating the men, such as —
" Wearing a saffron- coloured robe, and decked out, so
that my husband may be as much as possible enamoured,"
we have a scene in the Thesmophoriazusse in which
Mnesilochus, the father-in-law of Euripides, disguises
himself as a woman, in order to plead for the tragic poet
at the Thesmophoria, thus : —

" Agath. What ? First take and put on a saffron-coloured robe.

Mnes. {sniffing at it). By Venus, it smells sweetly. . . . Now
bring me a girdle.

Etir. There. . . . We want a head-dress and head-band.

Agath. Nay, rather, see here's a woman's cap to put round him,
which I wear by night.

Eur. By Jove, but it's even very suitable.

Mnes. AVill it fit me ? {Puts it on.)

Agath. By Jove, but it's capital.

Eur. Bring an upper garment! {iynixXov).

Agath. Take it from the little couch.

Eur. We want shoes.

Agath. Here, take mine. . . ."

** This funny toilet scene," says Droysen, '^ is especially
worthy of notice, on the account that it teaches that we
are not to imagine the dress of the Athenian women to
have been by any means so simple as it is represented in
ancient sculptures."

The Agamemnon of ^schylus, in the chorus referring
to Iphigenia, says : —

" And pouring to the ground her garments of saffron dye."

Aristophanes makes Lysistrata say : —

" As soon as I was seven years of age I carried the peplus ; and
then when I was ten I was a meal-grinder to Diana ; and then I was

C

34 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Arctos at the Brauronia, wearing the saffron-coloured robe ; and at
lensfth, when I was a beautiful girl, I carried the basket, wearing a
chain of figs." — Lysistrata.

In the Ecclesiazusas of Aristophanes the old woman
says : " Foi' I am standing idle^ painted over with white
lead, and clad in a saffron-coloured rohe, and humming a
tune to myself.^^

In another place Blepyrus, in reply to a neighbour
who asks why he is dressed in yellow, says : " I have
come out with my wife^s little saffron-coloured rohe." The
wives had taken away the men^s garments, had stolen into
the public assembly, and had thus obtained a majority
of votes.

In another part of the same play the young man calls
an old woman an " Empusa clothed in a bloody blister,"
alluding to the flame-coloured KpoKcorov which she had on.

Plautus gives a formidable list of artizans who con-
tributed to the complete adornment of a Greek lady of
fashion ; but as he was a Latin writer, he grafted many
Roman customs on the Greek characters of his plays.
He was, moreover, the product of a later time, when
artifice had a larger share in the production of beauty
than in the times of Homer, Hesiod, ^schylus, and
others quoted in this book. Plautus died 184 years
before the Christian era. His list, taken from Aulularia, is
as follows : — " There stands the scourer, the embroiderer,
the goldsmith, the woollen manufacturer, retail dealers in
figured skirts, dealers in women^s underclothing, dyers in
flame colour, dyers in violet, dyers in wax colour, or else
sleeve-makers or perfumers; wholesale linendrapers, shoe-
makers, squatting cobblers, slipper-makers ; sandal-

EXTEAVAGANCE, B.C. 200. 35

makers stand there; stainers in mallow colour stand
there ; hair-dressers make their demands^ botchers their
demands ; bodice-makers stand there ; makers of kirtles
take their stand. Now you would think them got rid of.
These make way, others make their demands ; 300 duns
are standing in your hall ; weavers, lace-makers, casket-
makers, are introduced; the money^s paid them. You
would think you had got rid of them by this, when dyers
in saffron colours come sneaking along; or else there's
always some horrid plague or other which is demanding
something. '^

The Romans adopted the fashions of Greece; they
translated and adapted Greek plays, and used extensively
Greek quotations in ordinary speech.

Though modified considerably to suit a Roman audience,
we may assume that the translations from, or the adapta-
tions of Greek plays executed by Plautus represent with
tolerable fidelity the Greek manners of his time. After
the simplicity of the best period of Greek costume, a
habit of extravagance in female dress seems to have set
in. Plautus makes Epidicus say : —

" What's there wonderful in that ? As though many women didn't
go through the streets decked out with farms upon them. . . . Why,
what new names every year these women are finding for their clothing
— the thin tunic, the thick tunic, frilled linen-cloth, chemises, bor-
dered shifts, the marigold or saifron-coloured dress, the under-petti-
coat or else the light vermilion di-ess, the hood, the royal or foreign
robe, the wave pattern, or the feather pattern, the wax or the apple
tint."

Generally speaking, in the heroic and Homeric periods
the colours and adornments were richer and more varied
than in later and more refined times. In early times the

c 2

36 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

quality and rarity of the clotli, the expense of the dye
used, and the richness of the embroidery, were the things
that distinguished the dresses of noble ladies from those
of meaner rank; but when refinement had made some
progress,* and richness of apparel no longer meant that
the wearer was distinguished, powerful, or a leader of
fashion, the cut of the garments, the mode of wearing
the chiton and himation, and subtle distinctions dictated

* The change is very marked between the taste in dress in the
time of Homer and that of Euripides. In the first, the great men
and women wear, as a rule, garments enriched with gold embroidery,
as in the description of the dress of Odysseus in Od. xix. In Euripides
we find this stigmatized as barbarian finery.

In the Iphigenia we read : —

"And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the
goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedsemon, flowered in the
vesture of his garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery,
loving Helen, who loved him, he stole and bore her away."

.^Eschylus, on the other hand, being a more faithful antiquarian,
preserves the Homeric richness in the style of dress of his characters ,•
as in the Choephori, when, after the slaughter of JEgisthus, Orestes
speaks of the stain of the blood damaging the various hues of the
embroidery, and in another part of the same play says : " Behold this
web, the work of thy hand and the strokes of the shuttle, and on it
the delineation of wild beasts."

In Agamemnon he makes his hero say to Clytemnestra : " Pamper
me not after the fashions of women, nor as though I were a barbaric
monarch, gape-out to me an outcry of earth-prostrate homage, nor
make my path obnoxious to the evil eye by strewing it with vestments.
With these, indeed, it is fitting to honour the gods ; but for one who
is mortal to tvalk on embroidered purple is for me by no means free
from dread ; I bid thee reverence me as a man, not as a god. Without
carpetings and gay fineries my fame speaTcs clearly forth ; and to
be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift." (The inventor of
Peace with Honour was probably not aware of this passage when he
trod on the red cloth on his return from Berlin.)

EAGE FOR EXTRAVAGANT COLOURS. 37

by what we now call good taste, were tlie points at which
the Greek ladies chiefly aimed. The rich gold em-
broideries, crowned with representations of gods, men,
and animals, gave place first to '' simpler embroidery of
flowers " [see dress of Aphrodite, page 56), and by degrees
even this decoration was confined to the borders of the
garments, and was not spread all over the surface of the
dress, as had previously been the custom. Modest women
confined themselves to plain garments, of which the
usual colour was wbite. (Courtesans were obliged, by
one of Solon's laws, to wear flowered garments, in order
to distinguish them from the respectable women.) But
though we may take this as a general rule, it was by
no means invariable. A passion for saffron or flame-
coloured garments would break out occasionally, just as
a taste for mauve, cardinal red, or a3sthetic tones takes
place in the present century ; but as the wearers of these
colours, though prominent and attracting attention, are
a small minority compared with the bulk of their country-
women who adhere to the sober colours usually adopted
by English ladies, so we may take it that the safiron-
coloured robe- wearing Athenians whom Aristophanes
holds up to ridicule were not more numerous compara-
tively than the gesthetic maidens whom Gilbert and
"Punch'' have forced into notoriety. The fanciful
colours would have their day among the frivols of Athens,
and then vanish ; while the pure tints * with which

* " Then also, in truth to Olympus, from earth with-its-broad-ways
shall Shame and Retribution, having abandoned men, depart, token they
have clad their fair skin in white raiment, to the tribe of the
immortals. . . ." — Sesiod.

38 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

refinement and chastity had been associated by all the
poets would throughout all time continue to be the
apparel of the virgins and the noble matrons who trode
proudly in golden sandals at the Panathenseaj and the
other festivals in which the nobly born took part.

The Romans, as well as the Greeks and Jews, seem to
have used chalk and pipe-clay to renew the whiteness of
their garments. This habit is noticed in the Aulularia.
The epithet of '^ whited sepulchres " applied to the Phari-
sees would be the more stinging when these men were
wearing garments, the uncleanness of which was con-
cealed by a coating o£ chalk.

Purple is often referred to in Homer, and though
nsually distinctive of kingly or military rank, and used
by men, instances occur in Homer's works of its being
worn by ladies, as in the following line : —

" Her purple garment veil'd the falling tear." — Od. iv.

For carpets and bed-clothes it seems to have been
extensively used in the heroic period : —

" A purple carpet spread the pavement wide."

"With purple robes inwrought, and stiff with gold." — Od. vi.

". . . They spread
The downy fleece to form the slumbrous bed,
And o'er soft palls of purple grain, unfold
Rich tapestry, stiff with inwoven gold." — Od. iv.

Its use for ladies' garments is thus referred to by
Euripides : — '^ There is a rock near the ocean distilling
water, which sends forth from its precipices a flowing
fountain, wherein they dip their urns; where was a friend

PURPLE, CLOTH OP GOLD, SILK, ETC. 39

of mine wetting the purple vests in dew of the stream,
and she laid them down on the back of the warm, sunny
cliff : from hence first came to me the report concerning
my mistress, that she, worn with the bed of sickness,
keeps her person within the house, and that fine vests
veil her auburn head/^ — Hippolytus.

Variegated colours were also used for robes, as may be
seen from the extracts already quoted ; gold also formed
usually an important part of the decoration : —

" The largest mantle her rich wardrobes hold.
Most prized for art, and labour'd o'er with gold " — {II. vi.),

is to be offered up to the goddess by the Trojans.

Woven gold work is also referred to in the following
passage : — '^'' After this, they said, that this king descended
alive into the place which the Greeks call Hades, and
there played at dice with Ceres, and sometimes won, and
other times lost, and that he came up again and brought
with him as a present from her a napkin of gold."
— Herodotus, ii. 122.

Wool was used principally by the Dorians, and linen
by the lonians, but a chiton of linen and a himation of
wool were not uncommon.

Homer refers to —

" The maids in soft cymars of linen dress'd." — II. xviii.

For women's dresses, besides wool and linen, byssos,
probably a kind of cotton, was used. The material of
the celebrated dresses woven in the isle of Amorgos,
which were similar to our fine muslin and cambrics, con-
sisted of a very fine kind of flax. Silk was known in

40

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Asia at a very early period, but it was
not introduced into Greece till a later
date. Sometimes the woven silk was
brought, at others silk in its raw state,
which was spun into fine transparent
silk gauze, more than equal in trans-
parency to the amorgina, or cambric
of Amorgos. These diaphanous dresses,
when clinging closely to the skin, al-
lowed the colour of flesh and veins to
be seen through them.

In one important matter Greek ladies
differed from modern ladies of all

Fig. 17.

nations. Black was never used by
the Greeks as ordinary dress, but solely as the mark of
grief and mourning. It was the colour of death and the
raiment of the Furies. To go in a black dress to an
entertainment would be regarded among the Greeks as
ominous of misfortune and sorrow. The Romans followed
the Greeks in this as in many others of their customs ;
and Cicero asks, " What person was ever found to sup in
black." The tragedies of .^schylus and Euripides are
draped in black.

" Will any means of grace appear ? or must I cut my locks, and
clothe me even now in black array of garments ? "

asks the Semichorus in Alcestis.

" Neither do thou clothe them in black garments,"
says Iphigenia, meaning that her sisters should not
mourn for her.

" I will exchange my white garments for black,"

GREEK MOUENING HABITS. 41

says Helen when she is told (falsely) that Menelaus has
perished. (Helen, Eurip.) And in the same play Theocly-
menus asks her : —

" Why hast thou put black garments on thy form in exchange for
white?"

In the chorus of Furies in -^schylus' play of that name,
we read : —

" Of white garments am I ever destitute and devoid. For I take
upon myself the overthrow of houses when Ares (Mars), being kindred,
has slain a friend. ... At our approach clad in our black garments,
and at the hated dances of our feet."

In the Choephori, Orestes cries out at the oncoming
Furies : —

"Ah, ah, ye handmaids, here they are in the guise of Gorgons in
sable vestments, and entwined with densely woven snakes."

Mourners usually dressed in black, and muffled up

their heads when they went abroad, as : —

" Her face, wrapped in a veil, declared her woes "

(see plates 26 and 27). Orestes, persuading Electra to
leave off mourning, bids her unveil : —

" Pull off your veil, dear sister, and forbear
This grief. . . ."

Nor was this the fashion for women only, for Adrastus
came to Theseus after his loss at Thebes, KaTi]pT]<;
')(Xavi8ioi,<; ; wherefore Theseus speaks thus to him : —
" Speak out, unfold your head, refrain from tears."

Admetus, on the death of Alcestes, says : —

" But now the groan instead of hymeneals, and black array instead
white robes, usher me into my deserted couch." — Alcestes.

42 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Veils.

The veil was of lighter material than the peplum, and
was worn by females of rank and as a sign of modesty.
'' Penelope, when urged to state whether she preferred to
stay with her father or to follow her husband, is repre-
sented as expressing her preference of the latter by
drawing her veil over her blushing features." After-
wards, when she comes into the hall, where the suitors
are, we read that —

/"

"A veil of richest texture wrought she wears;"

and again, —

'■ A veil translucent, o'er her brow display'd."

Odi/ssey, xviii.

Leucothea gives her veil, or scarf, to Odysseus.
In the Hymn to Aphrodite it is said : —

" For for a veil she shined in an attire
That cast a radiance past the ray of fire."

Of Nausicaa we learn that —

" The nymph's fair head a veil transparent graced.''

It is evident that the veil was thin enough to be seen
through. This also appears from these words of Iphi-
genia : —

" But o'er mine eyes the veil's fine texture spread ;
This brother in my hands, who now is lost,
I saw but clasp'd not."

Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, 373.

THE USE OF VEILS. 43

When the burlesque Euripides in the Thesmopho-
riazusse approaches the mock Helen, he asks : —

" Why, pray^ do you sit in these sepulchral seats
Cover'd with a veil, O female stranger ? "

" Dost thou conceal thy pendant locks with a white veil ? "
asks Paul the Silentiary in the Anthology.

" You are, O painter's brush, envious, and grudgest those who are
looking on by your having concealed the golden ringlets under a head-
dress."— Anth.

" The lovely Heliodora offers up a veil for the face, a work partaking
o£ the spider's web." — Anth.

The young Achilles, when concealed among the
daughters of Lycomedes, ^^was wont to walk with the
step of maidenhood, and to cover his hair with a veil.''^ —
Bion, xiv. Id. He was sent to Lycomedes and con-
cealed, because his mother Thetis knew that if he went
to the Trojan war he would never return.

Theocritus, in xxviii. Id., speaks of " the gauze-like
garments such as women wear.'^

At the adornment of Pandora we read that the goddess
glancing-eyed Athene girded and arrayed '^ her in silver-
white raiment, and from her head she held with her
hands a curiously embroidered veil, a marvel to look
upon.'^— Hesiod, "The Theogony,'' 572—576.

Further references to veils are to be found all through
the Iliad and the Odyssey. Of Helen we read : —

" O'er her fair face a snowy veil she threw,
And softly sighing, from the loom withdrew.'' — 77. iii.

" And veil'd her blushes in a silken shade." — 11. iii.

44 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Aphrodite, when she appears in the battle-field, is —
" Screen'd from the foe behind her shining veil.

Through her bright veil the daring weapon drove —
Th' ambrosial veil which all the Graces wore.''

Of Here (Juno) we learn : —

" Then o'er her head she cast a veil more white
Than new-fallen snow, and dazzling as the light." — II. xiv.

The veil of Athene is richly embroidered : —

" Pallas disrobes : her radiant veil untied,
With flowers adorn'd, with art diversified." — II. v.

And again in book viii. : —

" Pallas meanwhile her various veil unbound,
With flowers adorn'd, with art immortal crown'd."

When Andromache hears of Hector's death she swoons,
and her veil and. diadem fly far away.

The veil presented by Helen to Telemachus is thus
described in the fifteenth book of the Odyssey : —

" The king selected from the glittering rows
A bowl ; the prince a silver beaker chose;
The beauteous queen revolved with careful eyes
Her various textures of unnumber'd dyes,
And chose the largest ; with no vulgar art
Her own fair hands embroider'd every part ;
Beneath the rest it lay divinely bright.
Like radiant Hesper o'er the gems of night.

The beauteous queen advancing next, display 'd
The shining veil, and thus endearing said :
' Accept, dear youth, this monument of love.
Long since in better days by Helen wove ;
Safe in thy mother's care the vesture lay.
To deck thy bride, and grace thy nuptial day.' "

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

45

Gold Embroidery.

In the very early times great ricliness was the rule for
the dress of the wealthy, and as civilization increased the
dresses became less orna-
mented. Figures and ani-
mals were in early times
woven in gold into the
cloth, and cloth of gold
tissue was not uncommon.
Schliemann discovered at
Mycenae a large number
of ornamented plates of
thin gold, which he thinks
were at one time glued to
the surface of the cloth. The
young virgins who walked
in the festival of the 'A/5-
pe(j)opia (Arrephoria) wore
white apparel, set off with
ornaments of gold. The
peplos of the goddess
Athene, which was renewed
every four years, and de-
dicated at the Panathenaic

festival, was of a white ^^^•^^- Riehly Embroidered Dress..

colour, without sleeves, and embroidered with gold ;
upon it were described the achievements of Athene
(Minerva), especially against the giants. Zeus (Jupiter)
also, and the heroes and all such as were famous for

46

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

valiant and noble exploits had
tlieir effigies in it; whence men
of true courage and "bravery are
said to be a^iot ireifkov, worthy
to be portrayed in Athene^s sa-
cred garment. The description
in Homer's Odyssey of the dress
of Odysseus (Ulysses) is probably
no poetic fiction, but the actual
description of a not unusual dress
of a chief in the heroic ages ; and
doubtless the dress of the chief-
tain's wife would be equally
rich : —

Fig. 19.

" A robe of military purple flow'd
O'er all his frame ; illustrious on his breast
The double-clasping gold the king confest.
In the rich woof a hound, mosaic drawn,
Bore on full stretch, and seized a dappled fawn :
Deep in the neck his fangs indent their hold ;
They pant and struggle in the moving gold.
Fine as a filmy web beneath it shone
A vest, that dazzled like a cloudless sun.
The female train who round him throng'd to gaze,
In silent wonder sigh'd unwilling praise."

This ornamentation of embroidery was the work of
ladies of the highest rank, as we read that in answer
to Odysseus' description of the robe, Penelope says : —
" The vest much envied on your native coast.
And regal robe with figured gold emboss'd,
In happier hours my artful hand employ'd.
When my loved lord this blissful bower enjoy 'd."

Odyssey, xix. 265, 295 (Pope's Translation).

WEAVING AND EMBEOIDBEING.

47

In the Iliad, book iii., Helen is described as weaving
or embroidering a veil : —

" Her in the palace at her loom she found ;
The golden web her own sad story crown'd.
The Trojan wars she weaved (herself the prize),
And the dire triumph of her fatal eyes."

Pope in his note says this is a very agreeable fiction,
to represent Helen weaving in a large veil the story of
the Trojan war. It is probably founded
on fact, and would not be more out of
the usual than the weaving or embroider-
ing of the Conquest of England in the
Bayeux tapestry, which is said to have
been executed by the wife of William
the Conqueror. The Greek ladies of
early times were famous for their skill
at the loom and with the needle. The
works of Pallas, Athene, Helen, and
Penelope have already been referred to. Of the wife of
Alcmoiis we read that her hours were bestowed —

" In curious works; the whirling spindle glow'd
With crimson threads, whilst busy damsels cull
The snowy fleece, or twist the purpled wool." — Od. vi.

And again in the same book : —

" Her royal hand a wondrous work designs ;
Around a circle of bright damsels shines.
Part twist the threads, and part the wool dispose.
Whilst with the purple orb the spindle glows."

Fig. 20.

Again : —

"... Spread,
The spacious loom, and mix'd the various thread,
Where as to life the wondrous figures rise." — Od. ii.

48 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

Electraj wlien cast off by her mother after the murder
of her father, says : —

" Not for splendid doings, 0 friends, nor for golden necklaces, am
wretched I elate in mind, nor forming dances together with Argive
nymphs shall I beat my foot whirled round. With tears I dance, and
tears are the daily cure for wretched me. Look at my matted locks, and
these rags of my garments, whether they become the royal daughter of
Agamemnon and Troy, which remembers being once taken by my sire.

" Chorus. Great is the goddess ; but come, and from me receive
richly woven robes to wear, and golden additions of ornaments for
thy beauty.

" Electra. I myself labouring mine own garments with the shuttle,
or I have my body naked, and be destitute. . . . But my mother sits
on a throne amid Phrygian spoils, and by her seat the Asiatic captives,
whom my father took, are standing with their Idsean robes bound with
golden clasps."

In the Iliad, reference is made to the embroidery of the
Sidonian women of Phoenicia, whose wares were dispersed
by the Phoenician trading-vessels, and by the women
taking service in foreign countries. Herodotus quotes
thus (ii. 116): — "Where were the variegated robes,
works of the Sidonian women, which god-like Paris
brought from Sidon, sailing over the wide sea, along the
course by which he conveyed high-born Helen;'' or to
quote Pope's translation : —

" The Phrygian queen to her rich wardrobe went.
Where treasured odours breath'd a costly scent.
There lay the vestures of no vulgar art,
Sidonian maids embroider'd every part —
Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore.
With Helen touching on the Tyrian shore.
Here, as the queen revolved with careful eyes
The various textures and the various dyes,
She chose a veil that shone superior far,
And glovv'd effulgent as the morning star."

ANCIENT GOLD EMBROIDERY. 49

In a few lines preceding these, reference is made to—

" The largest mantle your full wardrobes hold,
Most prized for art and labour'd o'er with gold,
Before the goddess' honour'd knees be spread."

The Phrygians were afterwards famous for their skill
in embroidery. In the time of Plautus, about 200 B.C.,
the Roman embroiderers were called Phrygiones {see
Mensechmi, or the Twin Brothers, ver. 425).

At the same period Babylonian stuffs, mostly of a purple
colour, richly embroidered with gold, were used as cover-
ings for couches and other purposes {see Stichus, ver. 378).
The Babylonians seem to have obtained fame early ; in
Joshua vii. 24 we read, "I saw among the spoils a
goodly Babylonish garment.^^ But according to Pliny
the Elder, the people of Alexandria excelled both the
Phrygians and the Babylonians in depicting in their
tapestry of many threads, the figures of birds, beasts,
and human beings. Alexandrian tapestry is referred to
by Pldutus in his Pseudolus, ver. 147, where Ballio says
to the slaves, '^ I'll make your sides to be right thoroughly
marked with thongs, so much so that not even Campanian
coverlets are covered as well, nor yet Alexandrian tapestry
of purple embroideries with beasts all over.^'

Some slaves also seem to have been accomplished in
these arts, for at the funeral rites of Patroclus the first
prize for the racers is : —

" A woman for the first, in beauty's bloom,
Skill'd in the needle and the labouring loom ;
And a large vase, where two bright handles rise,
Of twenty measures its capacious size." — .11. xxiii.

Although women seem to have been well employed,

D

50 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

the lives of female children were not always respected.
We know that among the Lacedaemonians weak children
were thrown into a deep cavern in the earth, near the
mountain Taygetus ; and many persons exposed their
children because they were unable to maintain them.
Daughters especially were so treated^ because they were
more troublesome and expensive to educate and settle
in life than sons. Posidippus cites a saying : —

" A man, though poor, will not expose his son ;
But if he's rich, will scarce preserve his daughter.''

Goldsmiths' Ornaments.

The discoveries by Dr. Schliemann of the golden diadems,
studded scabbards, jewelled sceptres, masks, and rich
embroideries, which were heaped up in the tomb of
Agamemnon at Mycenae, bear witness to the great skill of
the Greek or Phoenician or Trojan jewellers who executed
the work, and also prove that the superabundant reference
to golden work in the Homeric poems is no poetical
exaggeration, but real description of what was actually
in use in the heroic and later periods. Thirty centuries
ago the goldsmith's art seems to have been practised
with a skill quite equal to that of the ordinary work of
the present day. In many respects it decidedly displays
more judgment and taste than is visible in the usual
run of the manufactured gold work of the nineteenth
century, and is quite equal to it in artistic manipulation.

It is not to be assumed, however, that because the
golden treasures discovered by Schliemann were found
at Mycense, they were necessarily of Greek workman-
ship. The inference is rather that some of these things

D '1

52 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

at least were part of the Trojan spoils, gathered at the
sacking of IHon. Reference is made to these treasures
in the Electra of Euripides, thus : " My mother sits on
a throne amid Phrygian spoils ;'' and again, where Clytem-
nestra says, " For the houses of the gods are adorned with
Phrygian spoils ; but I possess in my house those chosen
from the Trojan land." This view is supported by the
fact that the pottery found at Mycenae is in a much ruder
style of art than is shown in the metal work ; the pottery
was probably indigenous, the jewellery, being most likely
the workmanship of Phoenician or Phrygian artists, was
brought from Ilios by the victorious Greeks. It may
be further noticed that the gold work found at Ilios was
trifling in quantity, whereas the pottery was exceedingly
abundant : the inference naturally is that the Greeks
took all the gold they could lay their hands upon, but
did not trouble themselves about the Trojan crockery.
As Agamemnon was the chief of the army, his share of
the golden spoil would be large and splendid. For a full
description, with illustrations of these early examples of
the goldsmith^s art, the reader is referred to " Mycenae,^'
and " Ilios,'' by Dr. Schliemann. The golden diadem
and bracelet on page 51 will, however, give some idea of
the style used in these works ; for these illustrations we
are indebted to the kindness and courtesy of Mr. John
Murray, the publisher of Schliemann's beautifully illus-
trated volumes.

Descriptions of golden zones, baldrics, and carved and
graven armour abound in Homer, but in the following
extracts we have confined ourselves to references to female
ornaments : —

ANCIENT GREEK JEWELLERY. 53

" An artist to my father's palace came,
With gold and amber chains, elaborate frame ;
Each female eye the glittering links employ ;
They turn, review, and cheapen every toy." — Od. xv.

" On her immortal head a crown they placed,
Elaborate, and with all the beauties graced
That gold could give it ; of a weight so great.
That, to impose and take it off, it had set
Three handles on it, made for endless hold.
Of shining brass, and all adorned with gold.
Her soft neck all with carcanets was graced,
That stoop'd and both her silver breasts embraced.

Second Hymn to Aphrodite.

" Cliains, bracelets, pendants, all their toys I wrought,"

says Hephaistos (Vulcan) to Thetis {H. xviii.).

Far-beaming pendants, each gem illumined by a triple
star, tremble in the ear of Here {see page 59).

The suitors present to Penelope earrings bright with
triple stars, a bracelet rich with gold and amber, and a
necklace wrought with art {see page 58).

Andromache wears a diadem. When she hears of her
husband's death —

" Her hair's fair ornaments, the braids that bound
The net that held them, and the wreath that crown'd
The veil and diadem, flew far away." — II. xxii.

Hesiod refers to " Hebe of the golden crown,*' "Phoebe
with golden coronet;'' and in his description of the
dressing of Pandora tells us that " Pallas Athene placed
around her about her head lovely garlands, fresh-budding
with meadow flowers, and around her head she set a
golden coronet, which renowned Hephaistos (Vulcan),
lame with both feet, had made him: elf, having wrought

54 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

it carefully by hand, out of compliment to his father
Zeus. On it had been wrought many curious monsters,
a marvel to view, as many as in great abundance the
continent and the sea maintain. Many of these he
introduced of wondrous beauty, like to living animals
gifted with souads.^'

Hermione in Andromache says : " I have come hither,
not indeed bearing an ornament of golden luxury around
my head, nor this vesture or embroidered garments
around my person/^ In other plays of Euripides we
read : —

" The golden-decked vestment of the robe of the warlike girl."

{HippoUta) Her. Fur.

" But the daughter of Jove possesses golden mirrors, the delight of
virgins. — Eurip. Troades.

" Celebrate Cora with her golden crown." — Ion.

" The children had necklaces made in the form of serpents."

Note to Ion, Eurip., Bohn.

A fine-wrought robe and a golden-turned chaplet is
sent by Medea to her rival. The chorus says : — " The
bride shall receive the destructive present of the golden
chaplet ; she wretched shall receive them, and around her
golden tresses shall she place the attire of death, having
received the presents in her hands. The beauty and the
divine glitter of the robe will persuade her to place
around her head the golden- wrought chaplet. ... But
when she saw the ornaments she refused not, but pro-
raised her husband everything ; and before thy sons and
their father were gone far from the house, she took and
put on the variegated robes, and having placed the golden

CHAPLETS AND OTnER GOLD ORNAMENTS. 00

cTiaplet around her tresses, she arranges her hair in the
radiant mirror, smiling at the lifeless image of her person.
And after having risen from her seat, she goes across the
chamber, elegantly tripping with snow-white feet, re-
joicing greatly in the presents, looking much and often-
times with her eye on her outstretched neck. . . . The
golden chaplet indeed placed on her head was sending
forth a stream of all- devouring fire, wonderful to behold,
but the fine-wrought robes, the presents of thy sons,
were devouring the white flesh of the hapless woman.
But she having started from her seat, flies, all on fire,
tossing her hair and head on this side and that side,
desirous of shaking off" the chaplet ; but the golden
wreath firmly kept its hold; but the fire, when she shook
her hair, blazed out with double fury, and she sinks on
the ground overcome by her sufiferings."

In the Acharnians, the wife says to her daughter, as
they are going to the festival : —

" Proceed, and in the crowd take especial care, that no one secretly
nibbles off your golden ornaments."

The Hecuba of Euripides supplies the following : —

" Standest thou idle, thou man of most mean spirit ? Hast in thy
hand no robe, no ornament for the maiden ?

"This I cannot; but as I can, I will, for what can I do! And
collecting ornaments from among the captured women, who dwell
beside me in these tents.'*

" What a quantity of gold she wears, like a virgin ! "

Birds, Aristoph.

" Where are the myrrh-boxes of the Paphian Veniis, and her upper
garment all gold ? " — Anthology.

56

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

In Callimachus's " Bath of Pallas " we read : —

" Ye maidens, . . . wherefore now also bring ye only the strong
oil in which Castor, in which also Heracles anoints himself. Bring
out, too, her comb all-of-gold, that she may comb her hair when she
has anointed her sleek curls."

The sides of the early dresses were not stitched together,
but were united from the armpits to the waist by golden
clasps {see pages 16, 18, 58, 59).

In Rudens there is a description of female trinkets.
In the first place there is a little sword of gold, with the
name of the wearer's father inscribed ; then a gold two-
edged axe, inscribed with the mother's name ; " next
there's a little knife of silver, and two little hands linked
together, and then a little bow ; then there is a golden
drop (bulla), which my father presented to me on my
birthday."

The Deess of Apheodit^ (Yenus).

The attire of Aphrodite is thus minutely
described in the hymn to the goddess,
which has been ascribed to Homer : —

" Anchises seeing her, all his senses were
With wonder stricken; and high-taken heeds
Both of her form, brave stature, and rich weeds.
For for a veil she shined in an attire
That cast a radiance past the ray of fire.
Beneath which, wore she girt to her a gown
Wrought all with growing rose-buds, reaching

down
T 'her slender smalls, which buskins did divine ;
Such as taught Thetis' silver feet to shine.
Her soft white neck rich carcanets embraced.
Fig. 23. Bright, and with gold in all variety graced.

THE DRESS OF APHRODITE.

57

Fig. 21.

That to her breasts let down, lay there and shone
As at her joyful full the rising moon.

First he took from her
The fiery weed, that was her utmost wear.
Unbuttoned next her rosy robe, and loosed
The girdle that her slender waist enclosed,
Unlaced her buskins ; all her jewellery
Took from her neck and breasts, and all laid by
Upon a golden-studded chair of state."

Hymn to Aphrodith {Venus).

The " utmost " or outmost robe or veil was probably
the himation, similar to those indicated in figs. 4 and 5,
and plates 7 and 21 to 38. The two sides of the gown,

bo ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

with " growing rose-buds wrought,'^ were joined together
from the armpits to the waist by buttons or clasps, the
lower portion from the waist to the feet being open at
the two sides, and similar, no doubt, to that presented to
Penelope by one of the suitors {see figs. 4 and 5, plates
15, 19, 78) :—

" A robe Antinoiis gives of shining dyes;
The varying hues in gay confusion rise
Rich from the artist's hand ! twelve clasps of gold
Close to the lessening waist the vest infold ;
Down from the swelling loins the vest unbound
Floats in bright waves redundant o'er the ground.
A bracelet rich with gold, and amber gay,
That shot effulgence like the solar ray,
Eurymachus presents ; and earrings bright,
With triple stars, that cast a trembling light.
Pisander bears a necklace wrought with art;
And every peer, expressive of his heart,
A gift bestows." — Od. xviii.

Fig. 25.

The Dress of Here.

In the following description of the
dressing of Here (Juno), Homer pro-
bably only describes faithfully the toilet
of a lady of rank in the early ages of
Greece : —

" Swift to her bright apartment she repairs,
Sacred to dress, and beauty's pleasing cares :
With skill divine had Vulcan form'dthe bower
Safe from access of each intruding power.
Touch'd with her secret key, the doors unfold,
Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold.

THE DRESS OF HERE. 59

Here first slie bathes ; and round her body pours

Soft oils of frao^rance, and ambrosial showers :

The winds, perfumed, the balmy gale convey

Through heaven, through earth, and all th' aerial way :

Spirit divine ! whose exhalation greets

The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets,

Thus while she breath'd of heaven, with decent pride

Her artful hands the radiant tresses tied ;

Part o'er her head in shining ringlets roU'd,

Part o'er her shoulders waved like melted gold ;

Around her next a heavenly mantle flow'd,

That rich with Pallas' labour'd colours glow'd :

Large clasps of gold the foldings gather'd round,

A golden zone her swelling bosom bound.

Far-beaming pendants tremble in her ear,

Each gem illumined with a triple star.

Then o'er her head she cast a veil more white

Than new-fallen snow, and dazzling as the light.

Last her fair feet celestial sandals grace.

Forth from the dome th' imperial goddess moves.

And calls the mother of the smiles and loves.

. . . With awe divine the Queen of Love

Obey'd the sister and the wife of Jove,

And from her fragrant breast the zone unbraced.

With various skill and high embroidery graced." — //. xiv.

From this passage we may leai-n that though attendants
and slaves were abundant, the Glreek ladies of early times
sometimes arranged their hair themselves.

Hesiod refers to Juno " as the majestic Here, the
Argive goddess treading proudly in golden sandals."

The Dress op Athene (Minerva).

Pallas Athene (Minerva) wears two distinct dresses at
different times. In Olympus it is the ordinary costume

60

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

of a Greek lady of high rank ; but when she goes to direct
the armies of the Greeks^ she assumes military attire, iu

Fig. 26.

which is included the aegis or shield-supporter of her
father Zeus. A passage in the Iliad, book v., indicates
both sorts of dress thus : —

" Pallas disrobes ; her radiant veil untied.
With flowers adorn'd, with art diversified
(The labour'd veil her heavenly fingers wove),
Flows on the pavement of the court of Jove.
Now heaven's dread arms her mighty limbs invest,
Jove's cuirass blazes on her ample breast ;
Deck'd in sad triumph for the mournful field.
O'er her broad shoulders hangs his horrid shield;

THE DKESS OF ATHENE.

61

-II.

Dire, black, tremendous ! round the margin roll'd,
A fringe of serpents hissing guards the gold :
Here all the terrors of grim war appear,
Here rages Force, here tremble Plight and Fear.
Here storm'd Contention, and here Fury frown'd ;
And the dire orb portentous Gorgon crown'd.
The massy golden helm she next assumes.
That dreadful nods with four o'ershading plumes."

In another place we read : —

" Pallas meanwhile her various veil unbound.
With flowers adorn'd, with art immortal crown'd.
The radiant robe her sacred fingers wove
Floats in rich waves, and spreads the court of Jove."-
" The dreadful a3gis, Jove's immortal shield,
Blazed on her arm and lighten'd all the field ;
Round the vast orb a hundred serpents roll'd,
Form'd the bright fringe, and seem'd to burn in gold."

Pope, II. ii.

Instead of serpents it would^ per-
haps, be more proper to read, for

Trj<i eKUTov Ovcravot,, k.t.X., '' From

this a hundred tassels,, all golden,

hang waving in the air, all well

twisted, and each of the value of a

hundred oxen " {eKar6fA,^oLo<;) . — See

Hesiod, Shield of Heracles, 220-230.
"The Eegis, properly speaking,

was the hide of the goat Amal-

thea, the animal that had suckled

Jupiter. It was in strictness pecu-
liar to Jove, hut was worn on

different occasions by both Apollo

and Athene. The skins of various

quadrupeds having been used by

Fig. 27.

()2

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

the most ancient inhabitants of Greece for clothing and
defence^ we need not wonder that the goat^s skin was
employed in the same manner ; and the particular appli-
cation of it which we have now to consider will be
understood from the fact that the shields of the ancient
Greeks were in part supported by a belt or strap passing-
over the right shoulder,
and when not elevated
with the shield, descend-
ing transversely to the
left hip. In order that a
goat^s skin might serve
this purpose, two of its
legs would probably be
tied over the right shoul-
der of the wearer, the
other extremity being
fastened to the inside of
the shield. In combat,
the left arm would be
passed under the hide,
and would raise it, toge-
ther with the shield, as
is shown in a marble statue of Minerva (Athene), pre-
served in the museum at Naples, which, from its style
of art, may be reckoned among the most ancient in exist-
ence (fig. 28. See also plate QQ).

" Other statues of Minerva, also of great antiquity, and
derived, no doubt, from some still more ancient type,
represent her in a state of repose, with the goat's skin
falling obliquely from its loose fastening over the right

Fig. 23.

THE ^GIS OF ATHENE. Go

shoulder^ so as to pass round the body under the left
arm/' — Anthon's Notes to Homer (see plate 70).

By a figure of speech, Homer uses the term gegis to
denote not only the goat's skin, which it properly signified,
but, together with it, the shield to which it belonged.
By thus understanding the word, it is easy to comprehend
why Athene is said to throw her father's aegis around her
shoulders (II. v. 738; xviii. 204) ; and why, on one occa-
sion, Apollo is said to hold it in his hand, and to shake it
so as to tennfy and confound the Greeks (II. xv. 229, 307) ;
and on another occasion to cover with it the dead body
of Hector, in order to protect it from insult. By the
later poets and artists the original conception of the
aegis appears to have been forgotten or disregarded.
They represent it as a breastplate covered with metal in
the form of scales, not used to support the shield, but
extending equally on both sides from shoulder to shoulder,
as maybe seen in the figure on plates 60, 61, and 67 to 73.

Herodotus says (iv. 189) : — ''^From the Libyan women
the Grecians derived the attire and gegis of Minerva's
statues ; for except that the dress of the Libyan women
is leather, and the fringes that hang from the gegis are
not serpents, but made of thongs, in all other respects
they are equipped in the same way ; and, moreover, the
very name proves that the garb of the Palladia comes
from Libya ; for the Libyan women throw over their
dress goats' skins without the hair, fringed and dyed
with red. From these goats' skins the Grecians have
borrowed the name of segis."

When, as in the Odyssey xiii., Athene disguises herself
as a youthful swain, we ai'e told : —

64 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

" A graceful robe her slender body dress'd ;
Around her shoulders flew the waving vest ;
Her decent hand a shining javelin bore ;
And painted sandals on her feet she wore."

At Athens new-born infants were usually wrapped in a
cloth, on which was represented the Gorgon's head,
because that was inscribed on the shield of Athene
(Minerva), the protectress of the city; and thus, as it
were, infants were committed to her care. Thus we read
in the Ion of Euripides that when Creusa is questioned
as to the appearance of the swaddling-clothes of the
infant she had exposed, she replies : —

" A Gorgon in the centre web of the garment;
And it is fringed with serpents like the ajgis —
Two dragons glittering with golden jaws.

Ion. For what use are these golden ornaments, tell me.
As a necklace for a young boy to bear .P "

In the same play the segis of Athene is described as
follows : —

" A breastplate arm'd with wreathings of a viper.
Yes, that Athene wears her skin upon her bi-east.

Peed. That which they call the segis, the accoutrement
Of Athene."

According to Pausanias, in the gold and ivory statue
of Athene, in the Parthenon, the goddess was represented
standing, clothed in a chiton that reached to her feet.
On her aegis (breastplate or shield-cover) was Medusa's
head and Victory in ivory. She held a spear in her hand ;
and at her feet lay a buckler and a dragon, supposed to
be Erichthonius. The Sphinx was represented on the
middle of her helmet, with a griffin on each side. The
statue was thirty-nine feet high, and forty talents of gold

ANCIENT GREEK BACCHANT COSTUME.

65

were employed on it. We learn from Plutarch that the
battle with the Amazons was represented by Phidias on
Athene's shield ; amongst the figures he introduced his
own likenesSj as a bald-headed old man taking up a great
stone with both hands, and a highly finished effigy of
Pericles fighting with an Amazon. The last was con-
trived with so much art, that the hand lifting the spear
partly covered the face, and seemed to be intended to
conceal the likeness, which was yet very striking. For
thus introducing modern likenesses into, and as his
enemies said falsifying, the historical exploits of Theseus,
Phidias was thrown into prison, where he died a natural
death, though some say he was taken off by poison.

Fig. 29.

The Dress of Bacchantes.
A description of Greek female costume would scarcely

E

66

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

be complete without some reference to tlie dress that was
worn in the Bacchic festivals. The following extracts
indicate its chief peculiarities : —

"(Edlpus. Go then where stands the form of Bacchus unapproached
on the mountains of the Msenades.

Antigone. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban
fawn, danced the sacred step of Semele on the mountains."

Eurif. Phcenician Virgins.

" 0 Thebes, thou nurse of Semele, crown thyself with ivy, flourish,
flourish with the verdant yew bearing sweet fruit, and be ye crowned
in honour of Bacchus with branches of oak or pine, and adorn your
garments of spotted deer-skin with fleeces of white-haired sheep, and
sport in holy games ... in which Bacchus rejoices, pleased on the
mountains, when after the running dance, he falls upon the plain,
having a sacred garment of deer-skin ... to twine the thyrsi, and to

put on the skins of deer, and
to crown the head with ivy
branches."

Chorus in Eurip. Bacchce.

" But thy mother, standing in
the midst of the Bacchse, raised
a shout to wake their bodies from
sleep, when she heard the lowing
of the horned oxen ; but they (the
Bacchantes) cast ofi" refreshing
sleep from their eyes, started up-
right, a marvel to behold for their
elegance, young, old, and virgins
yet unyoked. And first they let
loose their hair over their shoul-
ders, and arranged their deer-skins,
as many as had had the fastening
of their knots unloosed, and they
girded the dappled hides with ser-
pents licking their jaws — and
Fig. 30. some having in their arms a kid.

ANCIENT GREEK BACCHANT COSTUME,

67

or the wild whelps of wolves, gave them white milk .... and
they put on ivy chaplets and garlands of oak and blossoming yew ;
and one having taken a thyrsus, struck it against a rock, whence a
dewy stream of water springs out ; another placed her wand on the
ground, and then the god sent up a spring of wine."

In the conversation between Bacclius and Pentheus we

Pig. 31.

learn, perhaps, more particularly what were the dis-
tinguishing points of the Bacchic female dress : —

" Bac. Put on then linen garments on your body.
Pen. What then, shall 1 be reckoned among women, being a
man? . . .

Bac. I will spread your hair at length on your head.

E 2

68

ANCIENT GREEK FEMA.LE COSTUME.

Pen. What is the next point of my equipment ?

Sac. A garment down to your feet ; and you shall have a turban on
3'our head.

Pen. Shall you put anything else on me besides this ?

Bac. A thyrsus in your hand, and the dappled hide of a deer. . . .
But this lock of hair is out of place, not as I dressed it beneath the
turban.

Pen. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.

Bac. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments
do not extend regularly round your legs.

Pen. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least ; but
on this side the robe sits well along the leg. . . . But shall I be more
like a Bacchante holding the thyrsus in my right hand or in this ?

Bac. You should hold it in your right hand, and raise it at the
same time with your right foot."

The thyrsus was a spear, the head of which was struck
through a pine cone.

After the Bacchante had duly
honoured Bacchus in the orgies, she
gave her dress as an ofifering to the
god in the temple : —

" Porphyris of Cnidus has for thyself, Diony-
sus (Bacchus), placed on high before thy chapel
these ornaments of her beauty and madness,
namely, the chaplets on her head, and the spear
with a double pine-cone, and the ankle-band,
with which she acted the Bacchant freely,
when after uniting to her bosom the fawn-skin
decked with ivy, she frequented the orgies
of Dionysus." — Agathias.

Fig. 32

Favourite Colours of Hair.
The usual colour of hair among the

FAVOUEITE COLOURS OP HAIE. 69

Greeks being dark, light-coloured hair was considered
more beautiful.

The colours of hair which seem to have been most in
favour with the early Greeks were golden, auburn, and
red. Helen is golden, or red, or auburn haired ; Hylas
and Paris have the same coloured hair; Adonis has a
reddish beard on his lips. Achilles has golden or ruddy
hair. When disguised among the daughters of Lyco-
medes, he was called Pyrrha by his female companion^ on
account of his golden or red hair. Pyrrhus is the
masculine form of the same name, and signifies fiery red,
ruddy, or rosy. It is a delicate, but misleading euphemism
on the part of our translators to use golden for irvppo^ or
irvppoOpi^ — golden-haired {')(pva60pi^), or yellow-haired
[■^pvaeoKo/jirj^) is distinct from red [irvppo'i), or from reddish
(irvppcoh'q'i).

Theocritus, in Idyll ii., speaks of two of his heroes who
have beards yellower than the marigold. Bacchus is thus
described in the Bacchae of Euripides : —

"And they say that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a
charmer, from the Lydian land, fragrant in hair and golden curls,
florid, having in his eyes the graces of Venus, who days and nights
is with them, alluring the young maidens with Bacchic mysteries ;
but if I catch him under this roof, I will stop him from making a
noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by cutting off his neck
from his body."

Theocritus, in Idyll xv., says : —

"Though the beard of Adonis is red {nvppos) all round his mouth,
his kisses are soft.''

In Idyll xviii. we read of the auburn-haired Menelaus ;

70 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

of the golden-haired Apollo in the Suppliants of Euripides,
and elsewhere.

In the literal translation of Theocritus, Id. viii., we read
that both Menaclas and Daphnis were red-haired [irvppo-
Tpi'^co) ; and in this description Polwhele finds the original
of Collinses expression, "the fiery- tressed Dane.^^ In
the metrical version, hov/ever, we find "both yellow
tressed and in their lifers fresh spring." In Idylls vi.
and xiii. the same transformations take place.

In ancient pottery and sculpture red is often used as
the colour for the hair and beard. See Cesnola on the
bearded Venus, and numerous instances in the vases in
the British Museum.

The hair was shorn in sorrow, and severed tresses were
hung up as offerings on monuments, and also devoted to
the gods in the temples. It was crowned with garlands
in joy, and torn out by handfuls in despair. But as the
treatment of the heads, hair, and headgear of the ancient
Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and other nations will
probably form the subject of a separate volume, the
matter will not be further dwelt upon here.

Artifices of the Toilet.

References to the painting of the face with white lead
by elderly ladies who wished to appear young occur several
times in Aristophanes, as in the paragraph on page 34,
and the following : — Young man to old woman : '^ Are
you an ape covered over with white lead, or are you an
old woman sent up from the dead ? '' And in another
part : ^' What then ? Your alkanet, rather, and your

ARTIFICES OF THE TOILET. 71

white lead." Alkanet was tlie Atlienian substitute for
rouge.

In " Plutus " a young man holds a torch close to the
face of an old woman and says : " Oh, see, Poseidon and
ye elderly gods, how many wrinkles she has in her face.
. . . Upon my word youM be the better for it if one were
to wash you clean." Chremylus says : " Certainly not ;
for now she is playing the cheat ; but if this white lead
shall be washed oflF, you^ll see the wrinkles in her face
quite plain."

Lysistrate says : " For if we were to sit at home,
painted and lightly clad in our vests of fine linen."

In Truculentus, the countryman says : " Because thee
hast even presumed to approach our door anointed up
with thy unguents, and because thee hast those cheeks,
so nicely painted pink." Astaphium replies, '^I'troth,
it was by reason of your clamour that I coloured in my
alarm ;" to this Stratilex says, " Thee colour ? as though,
hussy, thee hadst really left to thy skin the power of
receiving any colour. Redden up thy cheeks, thee hast
given all thy skin its colour with chalk."

He refers to the woman's false hair in the following
terms : —

" If thee doesn't make haste to get away from this with prodigious
speed, I'll forthwith be separating, even from thy brains, those falsi-
fied, daintily arranged corkscrew curls of thine, with all their grease
as well."

Other examples may be found in the Greek Anthology.
The following will serve as specimens : — ■

" You have bought hair, paint, honey, wax. teeth ; at the same cost
you could have bought a face." — PaUadas.

72 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

" You dye your head ; but you will not dye your old age, nor will
you stretch out the wrinkles of your cheeks. Do not then plaister
the whole of your face with paint, so that you have a mask, and not a
face. For it is of no use. Wby are you mad ? A paint and wash
will never make a Hecuba a Helen." — Lucian.

" Themistonoe, thrice as old as a crow, after dyeing her white hair,
has become on a sudden not youth-like, but Rhea-like." — Lucian.

According to Theocritus^ the following touching acci-
dent occurred in a respectable family in Alexandria two
or three hundred years before the Christian era. The
good-wife says : " Papa indeed lately (and we call
everything lately, you know), going to buy nitre and
ceruse from a stall, brought home salt instead, the great
big oaf .^^ The nitre and paints of various colours were
to be used for the dresses and cheeks of the women.
" Nee cerussa tibi nee nitri spuma rubentis desit.''^

In Mostellaria there is an elaborate description of a
woman's toilet. Philematium calls for the mirror, the
casket with her trinkets, the ceruse — that is cerussa, or
white lead, for whitening the complexion — then she asks
for the rouge ; but the flattering waiting-woman replies :
'^ I shan't give it. You are really a clever one. Do you
wish to patch up a most excellent picture with a new
daubing? It's not right that any paint should touch
your body — neither ceruse, nor quince ointment, nor any
other wash. ... A woman smells best when she smells
of nothing at all. For those old women who are in the
habit of anointing themselves with unguents, vamped-up
creatures, old hags, and toothless, who hide the blemishes
of the person with paint ; when the sweat has blended
itself with the unguents^ forthwith they stink just as

THE USE OP COSMETICS. 73

when a cook has poured together a variety of broths ;
what they smell of you don^t know, except this only, that
you understand that badly they do smell.'' In reply to
the question of gold trinkets, this philosophic waiting-
woman says, that it does not befit her mistress to concern
herself about them, "Age is to be enveloped in purple ;
gold ornaments are unsuitable for a woman. A beau-
tiful woman will be more beautiful naked than drest in
purple. Besides it's in vain she's well drest if she's ill-
conducted ; ill conduct soils fine ornaments worse than
dirt. But if she's beauteous, she's sufficiently adorned."

Even the admirable young wife of Ischomachus is not
without a weakness for paints, for we read in Xenophon's
" Good Husbandry " the following conversation : —

" ' Go on, I pray you, good Ischomachus/ said Socrates ;
' for it is far more delightful to hear the virtues of a good
woman described, than if the famous painter Zeuxis was
to show me the portrait of the fairest woman in the
world.' ^Then,' continued Ischomachus, *I remember,
on a particular day, she had painted her face with a
certain cosmetic, attempting to make her skin look fairer
than it was ; and with another mixture had endeavoured
to increase the natural bloom of her cheeks; and also
had put on higher shoes than ordinary, to make her look
taller than she naturally was. When I perceived this,'
said Ischomachus, ' I saluted her in the following
manner : — " Tell me, good wife, which would make me the
most acceptable in your eyes, to deal sincerely by you, in
delivering into your possession those things which are
really my own, without making more of my estate than it
is ; or for me to deceive you, by producing a thousand

74 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

falsities which have nothing in them ; giving you chains
of brass instead of gold^ false jewels, false money, and
false purple, instead of that which is true and genuine."
To which she presently replied, " May the gods forbid
that you should be such a man ! for, should you harbour
such deceit in your heart, I should never love you." '' I
tell you then, dear wife," replied Ischomachus, " we are
come together, to love one another, and to delight in
each other^s perfections ; do you think I should be the
more agreeable to you in my person, or should you love
me the better, if I was to put a false lustre upon myself,
that I might appear better complexioned, more fair in
body, or more manly than what nature has made me ; or
that I should paint and anoint my face when you receive
me to your arms, and give you this deceit instead of my
natural person?" " Surely, dear Ischomachus," replied
his wife, " your own person in its natural perfection is
preferable to all the paints and ointments you can use to
set it off; nor can all the art you might use be com-
parable to your natural appearance." "Believe then,
good wife," said Ischomachus, "that I have the same
abhorrence of false lustre that you have; can there be
anything more complete in nature than yourself? or
would there be anything less engaging to me than that
you should use any means to hide or destroy those per-
fections in you which I so much admire ? The God of
nature has appointed beauties in all creatures, as well in
the field as among the human race ; the magnificence of
the male to be admired by the female, and the tender
and curious texture of the female to be admired by the
male. It is natural for the creatures in the field to

ISCHOMACHUS CONVINCES HIS WIFE. 75

distinguish one another by the purity of their beauties ;
there is no deceit^ there is no corruption; so the men
always admire that body which is most pure or the least
deformed by art. Such wiles and deceits may^ perhaps,
deceive strangers^ because they will not have opportunities
of discovering and laughing at them ; but if such things
should be pi^actised between those who are daily con-
versant with one another, how soon will the imposition
be discovered ? How soon will they be ridiculed ? For
these deceits appear at the rising out of bed, and from
that time till the persons have had opportunity of renew-
ing them ; as well as when they sweat, when they shed
tears, when they wash, and when they bathe themselves/^ '
''What answer, good Ischomachus,^ said Socrates,
' did your wife give you to this lecture ? ' ' The best
that could be,' replied Ischomachus, ' for she has never
since attempted any of these false glosses, but has con-
stantly appeared in her natural beauties, and repeated
her solicitations to me to instruct her, if there was any
natural means of assisting them. I then directed her that
she should not sit too much, but exercise herself about
the house as a mistress, to examine how her several works
went forward ; sometimes to go among the spinners or
weavers, to see that they did their duty, and to instruct
those who were ignorant, and encourage the most de-
serving among them ; sometimes to look into the bake-
house, to see the neatness and order of the woman that
looks after it; and sometimes visit her housekeeper, to
account with her for the yarn or other commodities that
are brought into her charge ; and now and then to take
a turn about her house, to see that everything is disposed

76 ANCIENT GEEEK FEMALE COSTUME.

in its proper place. This method, I suppose,' said
Ischomachus, ' would be a means of giving her a health-
ful exercise, and at the same time of leading her to that
business which would be for her advantage, in benefiting
our fortune. I also told her the exercise of cooking,
baking, and looking after the furniture of her house, to
brush it and keep it clean, when she wanted something
to do, would be commendable, and help to employ her ;
for I recommended exercise to her as a great benefit;
for exercise,' said Ischomachus, ' will create you an ap-
petite to your meat, and by that means you will be more
healthful, and add, if possible, to the bloom of your
beauty; and also the clean appearance of the mistress
among the servants, and her readiness to set her hand to
work, will encourage them to follow her example ; for a
good example does more than all the compulsion that
can be used. Those who study nothing but their dress
may indeed be esteemed by those who understand nothing
else ; but the outside appearance is deceitful. And now,
good Socrates, I have a wife who lives up to the rules
given her/ "

Another refinement of the Athenian ladies who wished
to pass for beauties was the removing of hairs from the
armpits and other parts of the body. This was some-
times done by plucking, at others by singeing. For an
example of the first, see Lysistrata, 150: " Having the
hairs plucked ofi" our bosoms/' Of the second, see allusion
in the opening lines of the Ecclesiazusee, where Praxagora,
addressing the lamp, says : " And you cast light on our
persons when you singe off the hair which flourishes upon
them.''

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME. 77

Miscellaneous.

According to one of Solon's laws, the bride was to bring
with her only three suits of clothes and some household
stuff of small value, so that marriages should not be
mercenary.

By other laws of Solon, women are forbidden to travel
with more than three gowns, or more meat and drink
than they can purchase for an obolus ; " neither shall they
carry with them more than a hand-basket, or go any-
where at night but in a chariot with a lamp or torch
before it. Courtesans shall wear flowered garments to
distinguish them from virtuous women. No adulteress
shall be permitted to adorn herself ; she that doth, shall
have her garments cut or torn off her back by any one
that meets her ; she shall likewise be beaten, though not
so as to be killed or disabled.^'

Harlots in primitive times covered their faces with
veils or masks.

Suppliants at the temples or altars often clothed them-
selves with rags, or put on the habit of mourners, to
move pity and compassion.

The juror who was required to swear in the temple of
Ceres and Proserpine, or Ceres Thesmophorus, after the
performance of certain ceremonies, was clothed in the
purple vestment of the goddess, and holding a lighted
torch in his hand, as being in the presence of the Deity,
took oath by all the gods in the world. This the Syra-
cusans accounted the most solemn and sacred oath that
could be.

78 ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

The priestesses of Apollo at Delphi were at first young
virgins ; in later times they were chosen from women over
fifty years of age, yet they wore the habit of virgins, to
signify their purity and virgin modesty. They were not
allowed to clothe themselves in rich and costly apparel,
to use fantastic dress, to wear purple garments, or to
anoint themselves with perfumes. Before sitting on the
tripod the priestess or Pythia used to wash her whole
body, and particularly her hair, in the Castalian fountain.

Articles of female attire were offered up in the temples.
Their kind and quality are indicated in the following
extract from the Anthology : —

" These sandals that keep the feet warm, the delightful labour of
skilful shoemakers, has Bitenna offered up ; and Philonis this binder
of the hair, that loves to be plaited, a cap dyed in the colour of the
bright sea ; and Anticlea, the fan ; and the lovely Heliodora, the veil
for the face, a work partaking of the spider's web ; but she, who has
a name called after her father Aristotle, the serpent with pretty folds,
an ornament of gold for her slim ankles ; all of one mind and age
have given these presents to the heavenly Cythera-born Aphrodite."

Antipater of Sidon.

The parasol and umbrella were well known in Athens.
In the procession of the Panathenasa, the select virgins,
who were the basket-bearers, or Kavq^opoi, were attended
by girls of inferior rank, who carried their umbrellas and
little seats. Aristophanes refers in several places to
the parasol, Thesmop. 825, &c. In ^'The Birds ^^ we
read : —

" {Enter Prometheus, muffled up, and covered with an timhrella.)
. . . But in order that I may run away back again, bring my umbrella,
so that even if Jove should see me from above, I may appear to be
attending on a Canephorus."

HANDKERCHlEFSj SANDALS^ SHOES, AND CLOGS. 79

The Greeks and Eomans sometimes used the hanging
corner of the himation or toga to wipe the sweat from
their brows (see Mercator, ver. 136) ; but it is not im-
probable that the classical equivalent to the modern
pocket-handkerchief was also in use. In Juvenal,
a man addresses his wife in something like the follow-
ing words: "You are offensive. You use your hand-
kerchief too much; a new wife is coming with a dry
nose.''''

The sandal was often one of the most costly articles of
the female dress, being much adorned with gold and
embroidery. Originally it was worn by both sexes, and
consisted of a wooden sole, fastened with thongs to
the foot. In later times its use was confined to females ;
apiece of leather covered the toes, while thongs elegantly
decorated were attached to it. Shoes were also used ; and
clogs, part wood and part leather, or entirely of wood,
like the sabots of the Continent, were worn by slaves.

In the Banquet of Xenophon reference
is made to the agility and intelligence of
the dancing-girls [see plates 19, 20, 109
to 112) :—

" Immediately Ariadne entered the room, richly
dressed in the habit of a bride, and placed herself
in the elbow chair." .

Fig. 33.

" Then a hoop being brought in with swords fixed all around it,
their points upwards, and placed in the middle of the hall, the dancing-
girl immediately leaped head foremost into it through the midst of
the points, and then out again with a wonderful agility."

" I see the dancing-girl entering at the other end of the hall, and
she has brought her cymbals along with her."

80

ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE COSTUME.

At the same time the other girl took her flute ; the one
played and the other danced to admiration ; the dancing-
girl throwing up and catching again her cymbals, so as
to answer exactly the cadency of the music^ and that with
a surprising dexterity.

The costume of female acrobats is indicated in fig. 33,
in which the lower limbs of the figure are shown en-
veloped in thin drawers. Other vase paintings show that
female acrobatic costume sometimes consisted solely of
a decorated band swathed round the abdomen and upper
part of the thighs, thus resembling in appearance the
middle band adopted by modern acrobats.

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

Plate

1. Figure wearing diplax or mantle doubled over the chiton poderes,

or chiton reaching to the feet.

2. Figure with long-sided chiton.

3. Figure with diploidion or bib over peplos and chiton poderes.

4. Figure with ampechonion or outer garment, and sleeveless chiton

buttoned to give the appearance of sleeves.

5. Priestess of Demeter (Ceres) with long-sided diploidion or am-

pechonion.

6. Side view of figure with detached diploidion,

7. Demeter (Ceres) with clasp-fastened chiton and veil (kredemnon).

8. 9, 10. Girls with clasp-fastened chitons ; the upper part is doubled

over, and the girdle goes over the two thicknesses of the cloth.

11. Priestess of Demeter wearing simplest form of chiton girt at the

waist ; the upper part hangs over in front as a diploidion.

12. Female with chiton arranged with long sides, upper part folded

over in front.

13. Priestess with chiton and veil (kredemnon).

14. 15. Figures wearing chitons with upper part folded over as a bib,

and fastened at the shoulders by clasps.

16. Bacchante with sacred fillet and thyrsus ; chiton folded over and

girt over the two thicknesses of cloth.

17. Figure with chiton, upper part hanging over to give the effect of

a second garment.

18. Girl with chiton made of one large piece of cloth ; it is embroidered

on the upper or diploidion part to represent a bib.

19. Bacchante with the crotals, dancing, showing the opening at the

sides of the garment.

82 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate

20. Female dancer witli himation only, called, when thus worn,

achiton, i.e. without chiton.

21. Bacchante with thyrsus, wears chiton overgirt diploidion, and

(scarf fiavTiXr], man tile).

22. Bacchante with crotals, wears single chiton without doubled part,

and scarf (man tile).

23. Bacchante with torches, wearing himation, or cloak.

24. Bacchante with rod of sesamum, wearing chiton and himation.

25. Female flute-player, wearing chiton and himation.

26. Mourner, wears chiton, and has part of himation wrapped round

the head as a veil.

27. Electra, with shorn hair, wears dark embroidered chiton and

himation.

28. Canephorus, i.e. maiden who bore a basket containing offerings

for Athene in the solemn procession of Panathensea at
Athens. Wears 'prohahly white and gold embroidered chiton
and himation.

29. Lady with mirror, wears wide-sleeved chiton and himation.

30. Leaning figure, wears chiton and himation.

31. Figure with chiton and himation.

32. 33. Figures, each with double chiton, and putting on himation.
34). Leaning figure wearing chiton and himation.

35. Leaning figure wearing himation as achiton, or without chiton.

36. Erato wearing chiton arranged to cover the arm, also a himation.

37. Figure with chiton and himation.

38. Lady with himation, arranged double, diplax or diplois.

39. Here (Juno) wearing himation as a diplax, that is two-ply, the

lower only partly covered by the upper ply.

40. Figure wearing himation so as to show the two thicknesses of the

cloth (diplois).

41. Figure with cbiton and himation.

42. Figure with chiton, himation, and veil (kredemnon).

43. Demeter (Ceres) with the himation worn as a diplax.

44. Demeter (Ceres) with double-girded chiton and himation.

45. Demeter (Ceres) with himation or peplos partly twisted round the

body as a girdle, and partially covering the head as a veil.

46. Ilygeia with himation or cloak partly twisted round the body as a

sirdle.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 83

Plate

47. Figure with mantle partly girt round the waist.

48. Cybele wears himation worn round the body and over the head as

a veil.

49. Clio wears himation enveloping the whole figure.

50. Euterpe with chiton girt at the breast.

51. Muse with wide chiton.

52. Erato, in achitou, that is, with himation serving both as cbiton

and cloak.

53. Low-girded Danaid.

54. Figure wearing double-girded chiton.

55. 56. Artemis (Diana) wearing chiton double-girded, and kilted above

the knee.

57. Artemis wearing chiton girt up with scarf or peplos.

58. Artemis with skirts let down to the ground ; she also wears a veil

(parapatasma, skepasma, peripetasma, prokalumma) over her
shoulders. In Homer the head veil is called kredemnon.

59. Artemis (Diana) wearing the detached diplo'idion over the

chiton.

60. Pallas Athene (Minerva) wearing the aegis with the Gorgon's

head on her breast ; she wears the himation as a diplax. This
statue answers the description of the Athene of Phidias,
in the Parthenon (see also plate 71).

61. Athene with peplos or himation partly girt round the waist.

62. Athene wearing chiton, upper girt diploidion, and himation or

parapatasma hanging from the shoulders.

63. Athene (Minerva) in the diplax.

64. Juno Lanuvina, or Athene, wearing the goat's skin, Atye'j;, hence

Ai-yk, J^]gis.

65. Statue of Athene ; wears as under-garment the chiton, next the

peplos, with the wars of the giants embroidered thereon ; the
upper part of the garment is turned over at the neck, so as to
hang over the under portion, and so form a diploidion, or this
diploidion may be made of a separate piece of cloth. Over all
she wears the aegis, or skin of the goat Amalthea, which was
fastened over the shoulders and breast, and hung over the left
arm as a shield-cover {see plate QQ). Afterwards it was used
solely as a breastplate {see plates 60, 61, 68). The breast part
of the aegis has the Gorgon's head.

f2

84 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate

66. Athene. The peplos and diploidion, and the Gorgoned aegis ex-

tended as a covering to the arm that holds the shield.

67. The Jilginetan Athene wears diploidion, peplos, and the segis.

68. Athene wearing aegis with Gorgon's head as a breastplate.

69. a. Torso of Athene, with Gorgoned aegis fastened round the waist

by a girdle of lion's skin with head attached, b. Athene of
Velletri wearing the diplax. c. Athene with the aegis as a
breastplate, with serpent girdle over diploidion — early period.

70. Three representations of Athene in war attire, b shows the »gis,

or goat's skin, fastened over the right shoulder, and going
diagonally across the body under the left armpit. In c,
Athene wears the himation over the aegis.

71. Three representations of Athene in war dress.

72. Two representations of Athene, from early pottery.

73. Eight representations of Athene — various periods.

74. Here (Juno) wearing transparent chiton and two-ply himation or

diplax.

75. Three representations of Here (Juno), showing the chiton, hima-

tion, and veil (kredemnon).

76. Three representations of Demeter (Ceres).

77. Two representations of Demeter, sitting.

78. Figure of Antiochia, from the statue by Eutychides of Sicyon.

79. Artemis (Diana) wearing long chiton and veil.

80. Three representations of Artemis.

81. Dress of the third period of Greek art history. The chief figures

represented are Amphitrite, Hestia, Hermes, Artemis, Heracles,
from early painted pottery.

82. The upper line represents Demeter, Hecate, Triptolemus, and

others. The lower shows Artemis, Leto, Aphrodite, and
others, in the early Ionian style of dress.

83. Female dress of the time of Phidias, from the Panathenajan pro-

cession on the frieze of the Parthenon.

84. The upper group represents Apollo, Artemis, Heracles, and Athene

— early middle style of dress. The lower shows Persephone
(inscribed Hepo^ara), Triptolemus, and Demeter, also in early
middle style of dress.

85. Upper group shows Aphrodite, Hera, and Demeter, from the

early sculpture of the Altar of the Twelve Gods. The lower

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 85

Plate

group is of the same early period, and shows various modes of
wearing the himation.

86. Upper group shows Aphrodite, Artemis, Hephaistos, and Athene.

The lower group shows an uncommon arrangement of the
diploidion.

87. The two larger figures are Leto and Artemis. The smaller

figures belong to a different time and district, and represent
the richly embroidered dresses of the Heroic period.

88. Figures wearing the dress of the Bacchic festivals (Dionysia).

89. Figures in various styles of chitons.

90. Priestess, attendant, and Here — old style.

91. Artemis, allegorical figure, and Hebe.

92. Various modes of wearing the himation.

93. Chitons and himations.

94. Large himations.

95. Mourning females.

96. Early Lycian or Ionian style of dress.

97. Greek female dressed in monochiton, or in the chiton without

himation.

98. Female with lyre and plectrum.

99. Lady with umbrella.

100, 101, 102. Greek ladies sitting.

103. Greek lady and attendants.

104. Greek ladies — early style of dress.

105. Aphrodite, Muse, Artemis.

106. Artemis, Demeter, Aphrodite.

107. Here attired in various ways.

108. Figures of the Muses and of Artemis.

109. 110, 111, 112. Dancing females, showing various arrangement?

of the chiton, diploidion, and himation.

CUTS IN THE LETTERPEESS.

Pig. Pass

Head of Bacchante Title-page

1. Dorian or Early Greek male and female costume ... 6

2. Nausicaa and her maids, from early Greek pottery 7

86 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fig. Page

3. Vii'gin wearing short chiton . . . .' . .11

4. Spartan virgin wearing chitoniskos . . . . .11

5. Dorian female costume . . . . . . . 14

6. Lycian dresses from the Xanthus sculptures. This kind of

dress formed the model for Ionian and late Greek dresses . 16

7. The early long-chiton with upper part doubled over to form a

bib, fastened at the shoulders by gold clasps . . .19

8. Early chiton, open entirely at the side {see page 13) . . 20

9. Caryatide showing the chiton poderes, or chiton reaching to

the feet, with the middle part puffed over the girdle, and
the upper part hanging as a bib 20

10. Figures wearing chitons and detached diploidions or ampe-

chonions 22

11. Figure of Artemis wearing the ;)(tTa)i' 7roS]7p77?, or chiton reach-

ing to the feet, and over it the ampechonion . . .23

12. Simple chiton fastened at the shoulders . . . .26

13. The ampechonion arranged as a diploid (two-ply) bib . . 26

14. Early figure with chiton poderes and large ampechonion . 27

15. The ampechonion arranged as a single bib, imitating the upper

hanging part of the early chiton 27

16. Figure with chiton and outer garment or himation. Hope

calls this outer garment the peplum. The words peplos
and peploma signify a robe or garment. The peplos of
Athene on which the wars of the giants were embroidered,
was not an outer garment, but one worn over the chiton
but under the diplo'idion or himation {see plate 65) . . 28

17. Figure from old vase painting representing the taking of

Troy. This cut shows the Eastern light diaphanous dresses
largely adopted in Greece in later times . . . .40

18. Richly embroidered dress, Phrygian style, in use among the

Greeks of South Italy 45

19. Figure of Artemis with embroidered petticoat, from a vase

painting in the British Museum . . . . .46

20. Lady working at embroidery frame . . . . .47

21. Bracelet from Ilios . 51

22. Golden diadem from Mycenae . . . . . .51

23. Figure of Aphrodite wearing chiton and embroidered himation 56

24. Figure of Aphrodite wearing chiton and ampechonion . . 57

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

87

Fig.

25.
26.
27.
28.
29,
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.

Here, from early sculpture on the Altar of the Twelve Gods . 58
Athene, from vase painting in the British Museum . . 60
Ditto ditto ditto . . 61

Athene with segis covering left arm {see also plate 66) . . 62
30. Bacchantes, from vase paintings in the British Museum 65, 66
Bacchante, from Hope's " Costumes '' . . . . .67

Bacchante, from the British Museum

Female juggler ....

Bacchante .....

Head of Greek lady

Head of Athene, from the Temple at JEgma

Athene pleading before Zeus

68
79
80
81

87

Athfefe, from the pediment of the Temple at ^gina.

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AtWne pleading before Zeus.

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