HEAD-BAND: FUNERAL SCENE FROM A DIPYLON VASE. Case L,
Second Room 121
146. MOURNERS AT A BIER. TERRACOTTA RELIEF 122
147. POET ON HIS BIER (?). TERRACOTTA PLATE 122
148. DIPYLON VASE 123
149. ATHENIAN TOMB LEKYTHOI 124
150. MARBLE LEKYTHOS 125
151. ETRUSCAN FOCOLARE 126
152. MONUMENT OF SOSTRATE 127
153. ETRUSCAN URN FOR ASHES 128
154. ETRUSCAN URN 129
155. ETRUSCAN URN 129
156. ROMAN GRAVE MONUMENT 130
TAIL-PIECE: AKROTERION, SCULPTURE GALLERY, No. 5A 131
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION
This handbook is intended to serve as a guide to those objects in the
Classical Collection which illustrate the daily life of the Greeks and
Romans. Some of these have been brought together as a special exhibition
in Cases 1 to 5 in the Fifth Room, while others which it has not been
possible to move are referred to in their respective positions. Many of
these antiquities are among the most valued possessions of the Museum,
while others are entirely lacking in artistic qualities and would
scarcely attract the visitor’s attention, yet placed in their proper
relations they are found to be full of unsuspected interest.
Investigations of the sites of ancient cities, settlements, and burial
places, especially during the last fifty years, have brought to light
objects of the most varied kinds which allow us to know, as was never
before possible, the appearance and manner of life, the tools, utensils,
weapons, and toys of the Greeks and Romans. Any one who will take up
an old translation of an author such as the elder Pliny, Xenophon, or
Martial, and compare it with a modern version will see at once the
difference in this particular. The earlier translator was often at a loss
when confronted with allusions to every-day life and consequently either
did not express clearly the meaning of his original or even entirely
misrepresented it. But quite apart from a correct interpretation of the
works of ancient writers, the study of private antiquities enables us to
form a mental picture of these people and their surroundings, the actors
in the theatre, the citizens gathered in the assembly or at a religious
festival, the houses from which they came, and the work they left behind;
and as a result, to see the world with their eyes, to comprehend their
aims and actions, and to compare them more intelligently with our own.
The greater part of these objects were not very valuable at the time they
were made; they were the ordinary possessions of ordinary persons. Yet
one sees on all sides evidence of the skill, careful workmanship, and
artistic feeling ungrudgingly spent in making simple, common articles
for every-day use. In our own time the situation is very different; to
the average person beauty and utility have little or no relation to each
other, and he consequently provides for his home useful and necessary
utensils which have no beauty, and so far as he is able adds “ornaments”
which have no utility and very frequently, it must be said, no real
beauty. Again, the period in which we are living has not produced any
definite style, either in architecture or in the arts and crafts, though
there has been much careful copying and adapting of earlier ideas; but
the products of Greek and Roman artists and craftsmen have “style,”
not as a result of striving for an effect, but because each workman
received the traditional schooling in his craft and, having practised
it with satisfaction in work well done, tried to add something to the
store of knowledge before handing it on to the next generation. Such
considerations alone would make the study of the every-day utensils of
classical times a valuable one in the present day.
No attempt has been made in this handbook to treat the subject
exhaustively; it is intended merely to provide such explanation and
commentary as will be helpful toward an understanding of the antiquities.
In consequence the length of the sections has been determined by the
amount of material available and does not necessarily correspond to the
relative importance of the various subjects.
[Illustration]
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
[Illustration]
I
RELIGION
CASE 1
The religion of the Greek and Roman peoples was composed of many
elements, and presents throughout their history a great variety of cults
and observances. Religious tenets were not defined, and no priestly
hierarchy attempted to coerce the people in their beliefs or actions. A
Greek or a Roman was not under the necessity of worshipping the gods,
though he might incur the anger of his fellow-citizens by outraging
their feelings. To the ordinary man or woman, however, the service of
the gods was a daily duty and each important event of human life had its
appropriate observance. The head of every family was its priest, and the
children his assistants in carrying out the worship of the divine beings
who guarded the house and fields and all the living creatures therein.
Similarly the great gods of the city were served by the priests and
priestesses appointed to represent the city, conceived of as one great
family. Each city had its recurring festivals, its rest days sacredly
kept, and its days of commemoration of the dead.
Public worship in Greece and Italy consisted of prayers and hymns, and
of sacrifices offered both within the temples and shrines and in other
places, such as groves and springs, which were held to be sacred. The
temples were built and adorned with all possible care, and were the pride
of the community. An amphora (on the bottom of Case S in the Fourth Room)
decorated with a religious scene shows a common type of altar. It is
shaped rather like a pedestal with an architectural moulding and “horns”
on either side. A miniature terracotta shrine from Cyprus (on the right
side of the top shelf in Case 1), made for household use, gives us an
idea of the shape of the larger ones which held a statue at crossroads
and street corners. Incense, a frequent accompaniment of worship, was
burned in a covered vessel, often provided with a high stand, such as the
incense burner painted on a small oinochoë in Case G in the Fifth Room;
or a little altar was used for the purpose. An example from Cyprus, which
still shows traces of fire, stands on the top shelf of Case 1. A marble
lamp from a temple is in Case G in the Third Room. It was made to be set
in a support, probably a bronze tripod, and was filled with oil in which
a wick floated.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. PRAYING YOUTH (?)]
In prayer the worshipper looked upward and raised both hands. This
attitude is perhaps represented in a bronze statuette, probably a votive
offering, in Case D in the Fifth Room (fig. 1). A small wine-jug (Case 1,
middle shelf) is decorated with a scene no doubt very common in Athens;
before a statue of Athena raised on a low column stands a man saluting
the goddess by kissing his fingers and raising them toward her (fig. 2).
A bronze votive statuette in Case D in the Fourth Room is making the same
gesture.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. MAN SALUTING A STATUE OF ATHENA]
[Illustration: FIG. 3. MAN CARRYING A PIG TO BE SACRIFICED]
[Illustration: FIG. 4. VOTIVE TABLE]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. VOTIVE PLAQUE]
The universal custom of offering to a divinity gifts in supplication
and thanksgiving has many interesting illustrations in the collection.
A remnant of the ancient religion of Crete is the die for moulding
miniature bronze axes in Case B in the First Room. The little bronze
figure of a man carrying a pig in Case C2 in the Third Room served as
a memorial of a burnt sacrifice (fig. 3). The terracotta warriors from
Cyprus (Case 1 and the wall-cases in the corridor), and the Italic
bronze warriors (Case 3 and Case J in the Third Room) were probably
thank-offerings for a victorious home-coming. The group of terracotta
figures holding one another’s hands gives a rude picture of a ring-dance
such as was performed in honor of Aphrodite in Cyprus (Case 1, top
shelf). The painted terracotta face above this shelf is an example of
the many little masks called “oscilla” which were hung by cords in
sanctuaries or on the branches of trees outside (see tail-piece, p.
xvii). They seem to have been a substitute for the worshipper when he was
obliged to be away about his daily occupation. Several other examples
will be found in wall-cases in the corridor. Fourteen miniature bronze
greaves in Case 4 were probably dedications, perhaps made by soldiers
after a battle. Food and drink were the simplest and commonest gifts,
but were often beyond the means of the worshipper. If this were true, he
gave a representation in some cheap material of the offering he wished
to make, thus expressing pressing his good-will. In Case 1 are three
little tables with articles of food in relief upon the surface. We see a
ham, a whole boar, some cakes, fruit, and various dishes of food (fig.
4). Near these tables is a little tray with several cakes represented in
relief upon it, a substitute for the cakes which were placed on tables
in the temples, like the shew-bread of the Hebrews. The group of vases
connected by a ring was used for offering small portions of liquid,
probably oil, wine, honey, or milk. Gratitude for the cure of disease was
often exhibited by dedicating a representation of the affected part. On
the top shelf at the left are terracotta plaques showing eyes, eyes and
mouth, and an ear (fig. 5). Other examples are in Cases 47 and 75 in the
Cesnola Collection. The manufacture and sale of such objects formed an
industry in ancient times, and the records of the temple of Asklepios at
Athens which are still preserved contain long lists of them.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. TERRACOTTA HERM]
[Illustration: FIG. 7. WARRIORS MAKING A TREATY (?)]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. CHARMS OF COLORED GLASS]
The ceremonies and sacrifices in temples were few compared to the
frequent occasions for private and family worship. No meal was eaten
without offering a portion of food and drink to the gods, and statuettes
and symbols of divinities were kept in various rooms of the house and
near the house-door. The rude bust of Hermes on a pillar (Case 1, middle
shelf) is of the same type as the much larger pillars which in Athens
were placed near house-doors, in schools, and in the market-place (fig.
6). It was the mutilation of these images which caused such consternation
immediately before the sailing of Nikias on the disastrous Sicilian
expedition in 415 B.C.
[Illustration: FIG 9. LAR]
An interesting terracotta relief in Case 4 represents two warriors
clasping hands (fig. 7). Perhaps it may be regarded as a votive offering
made to commemorate a treaty or an alliance, either of which with the
Greeks and also the Romans was an agreement made in the sight of the gods
and accompanied by sacrifices. Readers of the Anabasis will remember the
treaty made by the Greeks and the Persians after Cyrus’s death (II, ii,
8, 9), when the sword-blades and spear-heads were dipped in the blood of
the victims caught in a shield, and the leaders on both sides gave their
right hands as a pledge of fidelity.
The superstitious and fearful aspect of ancient religion is represented
by the grotesque faces called apotropaia, “turners away,” which were
thought to avert misfortune. They were worn especially by children, and
large ones of various materials were often fastened up in workshops and
houses. A number of small examples in glass are in Case C in the Third
Room (fig. 8).
Perhaps the first divinities we think of when we turn to the native
Roman religion are the Lares, the guardians of house and field. The Lar
was represented as a youth holding a horn of plenty and a patera, a
shallow bowl used in sacrificing (fig. 9). Two of these figures stood
side by side near the hearth in the principal room of the early Roman
house, but at a later period they were placed in a little shrine usually
adjoining the atrium. A statuette of rather careless workmanship stands
on the middle shelf in Case 1 and a much better example in Case J in the
Eighth Room. A fine statuette of the Imperial period represents a priest
with his toga drawn up over his head in preparation for sacrificing, in
accordance with the custom which Virgil mentions in the Aeneid: “Veil
thine hair with a purple garment for covering, that no hostile face at
thy divine worship may meet thee amid the holy fires and make void the
omens” (III, vv. 405ff. Mackail) (Case J in the Eighth Room, fig. 10). A
life-size statue of a camillus, a boy assistant at religious rites, is in
this room (fig. 11). The office of camillus was an honorable one bestowed
upon the young sons of distinguished families.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. ROMAN PRIEST]
We have several interesting objects related to special cults. A goddess
revered by both Greeks and Romans was Tyche or Fortuna. A small bronze
statuette (Seventh Room, Case H 2) represents the Fortune of Antioch
seated on a rock, crowned with turrets, and holding in her hand a sheaf
of grain. Fortuna had many temples in Rome, where she was worshipped
under different titles. The popular belief in her power is attested by
Caesar, who tells of the confidence felt by his men in him and in his
success because they believed him to be a favorite of Fortune. A rather
rude statuette of this divinity stands on the second shelf of Case 1.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. CAMILLUS]
The worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis gradually spread from Egypt into
Asia Minor and thence into Greece and Rome. The bronze sistrum or rattle
was used in her rites, and she is often represented holding it in her
hand (Case 1, fig. 14).
An especially interesting memorial of an Eastern cult established in Rome
is the statuette of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, on her processional
car drawn by lions (Case M in the Eighth Room, fig. 12). The worship of
Cybele, a very ancient one, was introduced into Rome during the Second
Punic War at a time of great danger and anxiety. Our statuette represents
not the goddess herself but her cult statue, and probably commemorates
one of the annual festivals at which the image on its car was taken to
the river Almo to receive a ritual bath. The god-companion of Cybele,
Attis, was not worshipped at Rome before the time of Claudius, though his
cult was diffused over many parts of the East. A little terracotta from
Cyprus shows him in Phrygian dress on a horse (Case 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 12. STATUE OF CYBELE ON ITS CAR]
[Illustration: FIG. 13. SACRIFICIAL PROCESSION]
A glass relief (on the tray above the middle shelf) gives a realistic
picture of a Roman sacrifice (fig. 13); an ox is being led through the
portico of a temple by four men carrying knives and an axe. A priestess
walks before them with veiled head, holding a box containing incense,
meal, or other articles used at sacrifices.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. SISTRUM]
[Illustration]
II
THE DRAMA
CASE 1
Dramatic performances in Greece were a part of the worship of the
wine-god Dionysos, and in consequence attendance in the theatre at Athens
was a religious duty as well as a pleasure. The audience was composed
of the citizens, both men and women, and visitors from other states and
cities. In early times the playwright acted in his own play, but later
the profession of actor was distinct from that of poet. Women’s parts
were taken by men.
Plays were performed by daylight in the open air, in theatres so
constructed that most of the audience was at a considerable distance from
the actors. These circumstances naturally had a great effect upon the
conventions of the theatre and the manner of acting, as effects must be
broad, characters must be typical rather than individual, and facial play
was impossible (fig. 17). Early in the history of the Greek drama masks
for the actors were introduced, and continued in use for both tragedy
and comedy. They were usually made of linen stiffened with clay and
painted, though cork and wood were also used. The pupils of the eyes were
perforated so that the actor could see, and the mouth was always open. In
Case 1 are two terracotta masks, possibly made for use, one of a satyr
(see tail-piece, p. 18), the other of a young woman, and two little masks
representing comic characters. In the same room above Case 4 is a large
tragic mask of marble (fig. 15). This fine piece of decorative work is
modeled after the masks worn by the heroes of the tragic stage. Above the
tragic mask rose a projection called onkos which increased the apparent
height of the wearer. For the same purpose a shoe with a very thick
sole, the kothornos, was worn; the height of onkos and kothornos varying
with the importance of the character. The dress of the tragic actor
corresponded in a general way with that of every-day life, but the chiton
was long, and the costumes were frequently bright in color and decorated
elaborately with woven or embroidered bands.
[Illustration: FIG. 15. TRAGIC MASK]
[Illustration: FIG. 16. SLAVE IN OLD COMEDY]
[Illustration: FIG. 17. THEATRE AT EPIDAURUS]
[Illustration: FIG. 18. ACTOR OF MIMES]
A group of terracotta statuettes from Athens (Sixth Room, Case L) gives
a vivid picture of the actors of the Old Comedy, that of Aristophanes and
his contemporaries. By a convention of the stage, all comic actors, even
those who played young women’s parts, were grotesquely padded, and over
the padding male characters wore an elastic woolen covering much like
the modern jersey, which is represented by dots in the statuettes. The
man’s chiton was always ridiculously short. Women wore the long chiton
and himation. On examining these figures we see that they include certain
stock characters which were used over and over by playwrights. The figure
on the left hand in the lowest row represents an old man, probably
an irascible old father. His mask is made so as to present a kindly
expression on one side and an angry one on the other. The actor turned
to the audience the side which expressed his feelings at the moment. The
statuette at the left of the top row seems to be of the same general
type. The right-hand figure in the top row is Herakles (fig. 20); that
on the right hand of the lowest row is probably Odysseus, both favorite
comic characters. Another represents a slave who has stolen a purse and
has taken refuge at an altar upon which he sits weighing his pelf in both
hands (fig. 16). Besides these there are a young woman and a middle-aged
matron, an old nurse with a baby, and a street vendor with a basket. The
scheming slave, another stock character of ancient comedy, stands in a
thoughtful attitude at the left hand of the second row from the top.
In the Seventh Room (Case H 2) is a bronze statuette of an actor in the
New Comedy (fig. 19). The ridiculous dress of the earlier period has been
discarded for a fringed himation, but the mask is still worn. This actor
seems to be declaiming a passage “full of sound and fury” accompanied by
sweeping gestures.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. ACTOR IN NEW COMEDY]
In the same case is a statuette of an actor of mimes or pantomimes, in
itself a masterpiece of the grotesque (fig. 18). These performances were
generally satires upon contemporary life, and were immensely popular in
Greece and Italy, being sometimes provided as entertainment for guests
after dinner. The actors did not wear masks and probably relied much upon
gestures and facial play for their effects.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. COMIC ACTOR AS HERAKLES]
In Rome as well as in Athens the drama was connected with religious
festivals and the funerals of the great, but it encountered much
opposition from the more old-fashioned moralists and was never so popular
as were grosser amusements. The actors were frequently slaves, though
citizens engaged in this profession in increasing numbers under the late
Republic and the Empire, but their occupation deprived them of certain
civil rights and affected their social standing; while at Athens parts in
both tragedies and comedies were taken by citizens, who lost nothing in
public estimation by so doing. This in itself shows the marked difference
in the Greek and Roman attitudes. Roman tragedy was closely modeled
upon the Athenian, and the plays of Menander and his contemporaries,
translated and adapted by Plautus and Terence, became Roman comedy, from
which the classic comedy of modern Europe is derived. More popular,
however, were the farces and pantomimes of various kinds, in which the
native influence was strong, the dialogue and gestures being largely
extemporaneous, thus affording an opportunity to a clever actor for
displaying all his skill.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
III
HOUSES AND FURNITURE
CASES 2 AND 5
Though the Greek and the Roman house differed considerably in detail, in
a general way the two were similar. For Americans the simplest comparison
to make would be with the Spanish type of dwelling in California
and other parts of the Southwest, since all three have the common
characteristic of looking in, rather than out. The exterior presented
a blank wall, usually of brick, broken by a door and a few windows. An
open courtyard formed the center of the Greek house, and this manner of
building was borrowed by the Romans as their wealth increased and larger
and pleasanter houses were desired. The Roman house, which grew by the
addition of rooms to the original single-room hut, had a large opening in
the roof of the principal room or atrium, to provide light and allow the
smoke from the hearth to escape. Under the opening was a basin, called
impluvium, into which fell the rain-water from the roof. These features
were retained even after the atrium was used only as a reception room,
the household work and cooking being done in a separate kitchen.
[Illustration: FIG. 21. ROMAN WALL-PAINTING]
[Illustration: FIG. 22. CUBICULUM]
Houses were usually built of sun-dried brick on a stone foundation. The
roofs were often flat and were sometimes covered with hardened mud, but
tile roofs were also common. Marble for columns and other decorative
features was introduced into Rome in the later part of the Republican
period and colored marbles were used freely by the rich Romans of the
Empire. Walls were covered with stucco, which was frequently painted.
There was no wall-paper, of course, and pictures were painted directly
on the walls. Fashions in decoration changed as they do at present,
though more slowly. The wall-paintings from a villa near Boscoreale, in
the Eighth Room, illustrate several types in use in Italy in the first
century A.D. The earliest style imitated columns, marble panels, or
other ornamental features employed in buildings. Arabesques and fanciful
combinations of foliage, birds, animals, and masks came into use
later. Mythological and genre scenes, as the lady with the kithara (fig.
21) and the group of a man and a woman seated side by side, required a
skilful painter and were naturally reserved for the principal rooms.
In the cubiculum (fig. 22) another style has been employed, in which
buildings, arches, porticoes, and gardens are combined in a way which,
while of course somewhat fanciful, still probably represents the general
appearance of the streets and houses of Pompeii and other cities of the
time. Stucco reliefs, of which there are several graceful examples in the
Museum, were used in Greek houses of the Hellenistic period as well as in
Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. MOSAIC PICTURE]
Floors in early times were of hardened earth, paving stones, or plaster.
In the fifth century pebbles set in cement came into use in Greece,
and from this kind of floor mosaic, plain and patterned, was derived.
Pictures or decorative designs made of fine glass mosaic were also used
as wall decorations. Three examples are on the tops of Cases 1 and 2
(fig. 23).
[Illustration: FIG. 24. OLD MAN SEATED ON A KLISMOS]
The Greek and Roman furniture which has come down to us is necessarily
small in amount and fragmentary because, like most modern furniture,
it was made of wood and consequently has been destroyed by damp. There
remain, however, some fairly complete pieces, and a considerable
number of metal fittings and casings, as well as some models and many
illustrations from vases. Among the objects from Cyprus in wall-cases
in the corridor are two bronze tripods, and three ornaments consisting
of goats’ feet and bulls’ heads from another. The bronze lions’ paws
were feet for a large chair or chest. We have also a little terracotta
chair with a diminutive figure in it and a three-legged table of the
kind used to set beside a dining-couch, both from Cyprus, as well as a
round table on three legs, of much later date (Case 2). Two lekythoi
in Case K in the Fourth Room, decorated with interior scenes, show
chairs of a very graceful and comfortable type, the Greek klismos, and
the same kind of chair is seen on the grave-monument of a lady in the
Sculpture Gallery (No. 4), and on a large amphora on a pedestal in the
Fifth Room (fig. 24). The lady playing a kithara in the wall-painting
in the Eighth Room is seated in a large armchair, the thronos. In Case
5 is a bronze casing of beautiful work for a piece of furniture, and in
Case 2 a bronze chair-leg and an ornament terminating in the head of a
young bullock. Two tripods and some bronze mountings from Cyprus will be
found in wall-cases in the corridor. In the cubiculum from Boscoreale is
a table of marble and bronze. The bronze rim which surrounds the marble
top is inlaid with silver and niello in a beautiful pattern of palmettes
and rosette ornaments. A couch, probably for dining (wrongly restored as
a seat), and a footstool stand in the corridor between the Eighth and
Ninth Rooms. Bedsteads, which were similar to this couch in shape, were
merely frames on which thongs were stretched, like the old-fashioned
corded beds, the interlaced leather bands acting as springs. The wooden
frames were frequently decorated with bronze fittings, and in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods inlay and mountings of silver, gold, ivory,
and tortoise-shell were employed for the rich. Couches and beds were
usually supplied with a raised head-rest, often finished with bronze
animal-heads, such as the mule-heads in Case A in the Seventh Room and
Case L in the Eighth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 25. BRONZE CAULDRON]
[Illustration: FIG. 26. GREEK TABLE-WARE OF PAINTED TERRACOTTA]
Clothing was kept in chests, which were well adapted to the large
pieces of cloth composing a costume. A good illustration of a chest
may be seen in Case W in the Fourth Room, on an amphora decorated with
a scene from the story of Danaë and Perseus, and in Case 2 there is a
miniature chest of white stone from which the cover has been lost.
[Illustration: FIG. 27. BRONZE PATERA]
Household utensils, since they were made of metal or pottery, exist in
considerable numbers. Cooking was usually done over an open fire, though
stoves of a simple type came into use in the Hellenistic and Roman
periods. The bronze cauldrons used for boiling (Case S in the Third Room
and wall-cases in-the corridor) were valued highly, and were offered
frequently as prizes in athletic contests (fig. 25). At the funeral games
of Patroklos (Iliad XXIII, vv. 267-268) Achilles gives a ‘bronze cauldron
untouched by fire’ as a prize for the chariot race, and records of later
contests prove that the custom was a common one. An amphora in Case Y
in the Fourth Room is decorated with the figure of a youth, evidently a
victor in the games, carrying away upon his shoulders a cauldron which
he has won. The metal hook in Case N in the Seventh Room was used for
drawing pieces of meat from the cauldron. Pails, finely made and
decorated, especially as to the handles and their attachments, probably
served some purpose at table, as, for example, to hold cold water or snow
in which a vessel of wine was placed to cool.
[Illustration: FIG. 28. BRONZE WINE-JUG]
[Illustration: FIG. 29. BRONZE JUG]
[Illustration: FIG. 30. BRONZE BEAKER]
[Illustration: FIG. 31. BRONZE LADLE FOR WINE]
[Illustration: FIG. 32. BRONZE WINE-STRAINER]
The pottery in the various rooms of the collection shows the kinds of
dishes in use in Greek and Italian houses. There are cups of different
shapes, pitchers and jugs for water, wine, and other liquids, kraters
(large bowls for mixing water and wine), plates for food, and lekythoi
(oil-cruets) (fig. 26). The modern china, that is, high-fired pottery
covered with a vitreous glaze, was not known, and glass did not become
common until the Imperial period. In the Eighth Room and the corridor
are many examples of the glass vessels of that time, some plain, others
with ornaments in relief, and still others of colored glass in patterns
of remarkable beauty (Cases N and O in the Eighth Room). Much of the
plain glass has become iridescent owing to exposure to damp in graves.
The pottery in museum collections is naturally the finer product of
the workshop; receptacles for storing and for kitchen use were of
undecorated clay and more carelessly made. In the Cesnola Collection on
the tops of Cases 58-63 are some of the tall jars, called pithoi by the
Greeks and dolia by the Romans, which were used for storing and exporting
wine, grain, and many other articles, taking the place of the casks,
barrels, and boxes, and the paper bags and cartons of modern times. The
pointed ends were driven into earthen floors.
[Illustration: FIG. 33. ROMAN SILVER CUP]
[Illustration: FIG. 34. ROMAN SILVER SPOONS]
Another piece of table-ware which should be mentioned is a special plate
for fish, made in Italy, which had a depression in the center for holding
the sauce. These plates are decorated with interesting and surprisingly
accurate drawings of fish (Case Q in the Sixth Room, tail-piece, p. 31).
In Case E in the Third Room is a bronze table service of Greek work from
an Etruscan tomb, and in Case O in the same room are bronze jars and
jugs of various fine shapes (figs. 27-30), and ladles for dipping wine
(fig. 31). In Case A in the Fourth Room is a wine-strainer (fig. 32). The
remarkably beautiful handles from vessels in these cases are a further
proof of the taste and care expended upon household utensils. Silver
table services were not common among the Greeks, but silver and even gold
dishes were used by wealthy Romans. In Case C in the Eighth Room are four
cups of Roman date (fig. 33) with a ladle and a little jug or cup with a
spout.
Food was usually cut into convenient pieces in the kitchen and eaten with
the fingers, but spoons were used to a considerable extent by the Romans.
Several bronze spoons are exhibited in Case 5, and there are some silver
spoons of various shapes in the case with the silver cups in the Eighth
Room (fig. 34).
The habit of rising and going to bed early which prevailed in Greece
and Italy is easily understood when we see the meagre arrangements for
lighting which they possessed. In the street torches were carried, and
they were also used in the house in early times. A bronze torch-holder
of the late sixth century from Cyprus in the corridor and a terracotta
example in Case 2 appear to have been made so that they could be set on a
table. The Romans and Etruscans made candles of pitch and also wax ones
very similar to our own, but the Greeks were not acquainted with them
until they were introduced by the Romans. The iron candelabrum in Case S
in the Third Room was designed to hold candles on the prickets around the
top. Lamps were commonly of terracotta or bronze. Olive oil was burnt in
them with a wick of flax, but at best the light must have been poor and
flickering. Candelabra were commonly made of wood, but handsomer ones
were of bronze. A fine Etruscan candelabrum stands in the Fifth Room. It
was probably furnished with hooks or other attachments for hanging lamps,
or with prickets for candles (fig. 35). A group of lamps of various
shapes is shown in Case 2 (fig. 36).
[Illustration: FIG. 35. BRONZE CANDELABRUM]
[Illustration: FIG. 36. BRONZE LAMP ON A STAND]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IV
OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN
CASES 2, 3, AND 5
[Illustration: FIG. 37. WOMAN EMBROIDERING OR MAKING A NET]
The home in ancient times, especially the country house, was a
manufactory on a small scale, like many American homes of a century ago.
Most of the clothing for the family was made there, and consequently the
mistress of the house must understand wool-working in every stage and
the making of linen cloth, and must also be able to teach and direct
the slave women. Wool was often bought in the raw state or even in the
fleece, which necessitated cleansing it, certainly a disagreeable task.
The Syracusan lady in the Fifteenth Idyll of Theokritos scolds because
her husband has bought five dirty fleeces of poor quality—“work upon
work” for her. For making the roves a pottery shield, called epinetron
or onos, was placed on the knee and the fibers rubbed over it. An
interesting example, decorated with drawings of women at work (see
head-band, p. 32), has the upper surface covered with a scale pattern
which furnished the slightly roughened surface necessary for making the
roves (Case 2, top shelf, fig. 38). The covering, however, was sometimes
dispensed with; a finely decorated toilet-box in Case A in the Fourth
Room has on one side a drawing of a woman carding over her bare knee
(fig. 39). This box also shows the next stage in the making of cloth,
the spinning, for which distaff and spindle were used (see tail-piece,
p. 39). A small weight, the spindle-whorl, usually of terracotta, was
attached to the thread below the spindle to increase the twisting motion.
An example is in Case 5. This primitive method of spinning is still in
use among the Greek country-folk, witness a photograph taken in 1922
(fig. 41).
[Illustration: FIG. 38. ONOS OR EPINETRON]
[Illustration: FIG. 39. WOMAN CARDING WOOL]
[Illustration: FIG. 40. EMBROIDERED CLOTHING]
The loom used in Greece and Italy was upright, consisting of two posts
with a cross-bar. The threads of the warp, alternately long and short,
were held by terracotta weights tied to the lower ends. A loom-weight
from Crete is marked with the owner’s name, Kaleneika, wife or daughter
of Teriphos (Case 5).
[Illustration: FIG. 41. GREEK COUNTRY-WOMAN SPINNING]
Cloth was woven in the size desired for a particular garment, so that
no cutting was necessary and consequently there were no edges to hem.
Sewing was therefore restricted to seams, of which few were required, but
a great deal of time and skill could be devoted to embroidered ornament
upon fine garments. The earlier fashion, seen on black-figured vases,
was to cover the cloth with patterns, but later only borders were used,
or bands of figures. On an oinochoë of the fifth century, in Case C
in the Fifth Room, are two ladies perfuming clothes. The garments and
head-dresses they are wearing and the clothes they are folding are worked
with beautiful borders in the wave pattern and ornaments in the form
of conventionalized flowers (fig. 40). Besides providing fine apparel
for themselves and their families, women also expended their skill on
garments which they offered to the goddesses: the treasuries of Athena
and of Artemis at Athens contained chests full of many-colored robes
offered by worshippers (fig. 37). Naturally in the course of time various
industries sprang up which contributed manufactured products to the
household, but spinning and weaving continued to be domestic occupations,
at least to provide clothing for the slaves. Some conservative families
in Rome prided themselves upon wearing garments made at home; the Emperor
Augustus is said to have worn, except on special occasions, the handiwork
of the ladies of his family as an example of simplicity in a period of
general extravagance.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. BAKING BREAD IN A PRIMITIVE OVEN]
[Illustration: FIG. 43. WOMEN WINNOWING AND GRINDING CORN]
The preparation of food likewise required the housewife’s direction,
though the master of the house, or in large establishments a trusted
steward, attended to the marketing. Two small terracottas from Cyprus on
the bottom of Case 3 illustrate the making of bread by very primitive
methods. In the first (fig. 43), the woman at the left is winnowing
grain with a sieve, which she holds, and a winnowing-fan shaped like
a shovel, which lies by her side. The other woman (whose head is
unfortunately missing) is grinding the corn on a saddle-quern; she draws
the upper millstone back and forth over the lower, which is provided with
side boards to prevent the meal from falling off—a hard day’s work, one
would say. The other terracotta represents a primitive method of baking
bread. A clay oven like a huge bowl was built up by hand in a convenient
place. The usual fuel, dried grasses, was placed in and around it and
after the oven became heated and the fire had died down, the housewife
set the flat loaves around the inside to bake (fig. 42).
[Illustration: FIG. 44. WOMEN AT A WELL-HOUSE IN ATHENS]
Another task often represented on vases is the drawing and carrying of
water. In many places the public well-houses were the principal source of
supply, as the piping of water into dwellings was unusual in Greece until
Roman times. A hydria in Case 2 shows a group of women carrying away
their jars on their heads from a public well-house (fig. 44).
[Illustration: FIG. 45. MARRIAGE-VASE]
In Athens, and probably more or less throughout the Greek world, a
woman’s life was rather monotonous. Ladies did not go out unattended,
and indeed were not expected to go out at all without good reason. A
wife did not receive her husband’s guests or take part in his social
life; but women were included in family gatherings such as weddings and
dinners after the birth of children, they made visits to women relatives
and friends, and shared in the frequent religious festivals, which at
Athens included the theatre. In the earlier vase paintings there are
comparatively few figures of women, and such as appear are usually
goddesses or accessory persons in mythical scenes; but with the gradual
change to subjects taken from every-day life in the later sixth and the
early fifth century, we begin to see women about their usual occupations,
or in groups talking with each other or with men. Much of the later
Athenian pottery is decorated with charming scenes from the life of
women, showing them with their children, at their toilet, busy with
embroidery, or playing with pets. The younger ones seem to have enjoyed
some games which we have relegated to childhood, such as spinning tops
(see fig. 53). On the marriage-vases we see the bride being dressed by
her friends and servants, or receiving presents on the day after the
wedding, the traditional occasion for the presentation of gifts. Two of
these vases are in Case B in the Fifth Room (fig. 45), and a perfume vase
in Case Q is decorated with a similar scene. The usual presents seem to
have been bands and ribbons for the hair, perfumes, jewelry, and pets,
especially birds.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
V
CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
CASES 2 AND 3
Little babies were tightly bound in swaddling clothes soon after birth,
and the mother, in anxiety for her child’s safety, usually fastened an
amulet or charm of some kind around its neck to keep away unfriendly
spirits. The grotesque faces of colored glass previously mentioned (p.
8) may have served this purpose. Roman children wore the bulla, a case
of leather or gold, according to the means of the parents, containing a
charm. A large gold bulla of Etruscan workmanship is in a case at the
left side of the Gold Room (fig. 46). The baby became the charge of an
old and trusted slave-woman such as the kind old nurse represented in a
terracotta statuette on the middle shelf of Case 3. Another of the same
type is in Case K in the Sixth Room (fig. 47). The prettily decorated jug
with a spout is a feeding-bottle (fig. 48).
[Illustration: FIG. 46. GOLD BULLA]
[Illustration: FIG. 47. OLD NURSE HOLDING A BABY]
[Illustration: FIG. 48. TERRACOTTA FEEDING-BOTTLE]
Greek and Roman children played with toys much like those of the present
day, but they were simple and inexpensive. Rattles for babies were made
of terracotta with a few pebbles enclosed (Case 3, middle shelf). An
interesting toy for a small child is the terracotta horse from Cyprus
with large jars in its panniers such as those carried by real horses for
taking provisions to and from market (Case 2, top shelf, fig. 49). Carts
were favorite playthings; a small oinochoë in Case 3 shows a boy driving
two goats harnessed to a chariot, and on a white lekythos painted for
a child’s grave (Case F in the Fifth Room), a little boy is going to
Charon’s boat for his journey over the Styx, drawing his toy cart (fig.
50). Of course, Greek and Roman children kept house with their dolls, and
charming miniature vases were made for them, some for the doll’s table
and others for her toilet and wedding. These vases, which are decorated
with scenes of children at play, were given, it is thought, as presents
on a festival day called Choes, “Jugs.” A number of different types are
in Case G in the Fifth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 49. TOY HORSE ON WHEELS]
Dolls were made of wax and clay. The two seated terracotta dolls without
joints in Case L in the Seventh Room were found in graves at Tarentum in
Southern Italy. Another made of bone has jointed arms and could easily be
dressed (Case 3, tail-piece, p. 46). These dolls were originally painted
in bright colors, which have been destroyed by time.
[Illustration: FIG. 50. TOMB LEKYTHOS. CHILD DRAWING A CART]
Rolling hoops, contrary to modern ideas, seems to have been a boys’
sport. A boy with a hoop may be seen on a vase in Case J in the Fifth
Room (fig. 52). Mothers and nurses swung small children in swings, as
in the scene on a vase from Southern Italy (Case P, Sixth Room), and
older girls also enjoyed this pastime. As part of a game or perhaps as
forfeit, girls sometimes carried one another on their backs. A terracotta
statuette represents two girls playing ephedrismos, as this game was
called (Case 3, fig. 55). Young women and girls, as well as boys, played
with whipping-tops, as is shown on a lekythos on the same shelf (fig.
53), and on one side of a toilet-box two girls are playing a game
of ball with a wicket (fig. 51). Children also played hide-and-seek,
tug-of-war, and many games with beans, nuts, pebbles, small coins, and
the astragals described in the section on Amusements (pp. 68-69).
[Illustration: FIG. 51. GIRLS PLAYING BALL]
At about six years of age Greek boys were sent to school, while the girls
remained at home to learn from their mothers how to spin and weave, and
to read a little and keep accounts. Their education was of the simplest
kind and ceased very early.
[Illustration: FIG. 52. BOY ROLLING A HOOP]
[Illustration: FIG. 53. WOMEN WHIPPING TOPS]
[Illustration: FIG. 54. STYLUS]
The first school to which a boy went was that of the letter-teacher,
who taught reading, writing, and simple arithmetic. A kylix in Case 3
(see head-band, p. 40) is decorated with figures of schoolboys, one of
whom holds a roll of manuscript, and another a writing tablet. These
tablets were thin pieces of wood covered with wax and fastened together
with cords (fig. 56). A pointed stylus (fig. 54) was used for writing,
the blunt end being turned around when it was necessary to erase by
smoothing the wax[1]. After three or four years in the letter-school
the boys went to the music teacher, who taught them to sing and to play
the lyre, and in connection with the music they learned many selections
from the great poets. Training in the palaistra or wrestling-school was
begun very early, and was usually continued until the boy was old enough
to be called into the military service of the state. These lessons will
be described in the section on athletics, as the sports of the palaistra
were in general the same as those of the men’s gymnasium. In addition to
the subjects already mentioned, many boys, during the fifth century and
later, studied geometry, rhetoric, and philosophy.
[1] Several very interesting objects illustrating Greek writing
and writing-materials are exhibited in the case devoted to
learning in the Seventh Egyptian Room. They include a wooden
tablet covered with wax, several short letters on potsherds—a
cheap and common writing-material—and fragments of the Iliad
and the Odyssey on papyrus, the usual substance on which books
were written, dating from the third century B.C. The reed pens
in this case are of the kind employed for writing on papyrus.
[Illustration: FIG. 55. EPHEDRISMOS GAME]
[Illustration: FIG. 56. BOY WITH A WRITING TABLET]
[Illustration: FIG. 57. INK-POT]
In Italy, Greek ideas of education were generally adopted; boys learned
the Greek language and studied the Greek and Roman poets. A little
geography and history were taught, and arithmetic occupied much time,
for the Roman system of weights, measures, and coins was difficult and
inconvenient. Besides the schools for elementary subjects there were
special classes for the study of rhetoric and philosophy. The children
of rich or noble families were often educated at home by Greek tutors,
the girls and boys together, and among the humbler people they went to
the same school for a time. In general the education of girls was similar
to that of boys, so far as it went, and sometimes in wealthy families was
continued after marriage. Many ladies knew the Greek poets well and wrote
verses themselves. Music occupied much of their time and they learned to
dance for recreation and as a means of giving pleasure to their families
and friends.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VI
DRESS AND TOILET
CASES 2, 3, AND 5
[Illustration: FIG. 58. DIAGRAM OF DORIC CHITON]
Greek dress, both for men and women, consisted of two portions, a garment
for the house and a wrap to be worn over it. Men, from the time of the
Homeric poems downwards, wore a “chiton,” rectangular in shape and
somewhat wider than the body, closed on the sides and across the top
except for openings left for the head and arms. A short woolen chiton
was the usual dress for soldiers, workmen, and poor persons, while the
nobles of the Homeric poems seem to have worn linen chitons reaching to
the feet. Over this a wrap, either rectangular or curved on one side, was
arranged in various ways. The earliest representations show men wearing a
wrap with one curved edge, and apparently doubled like a shawl. This type
of dress may be seen in vase paintings in the Third Room; for example,
the figure of Dionysos on a stamnos (No. GR 564 in Case R), and the same
god on a large amphora (No. 12.198.4) in that case.
[Illustration: FIG. 59. AMAZONS IN MEN’S IONIC CHITONS]
The earliest garment for women which we know of was a chiton of wool
without sewing. This was a large rectangular piece of cloth considerably
wider and longer than the body. It was folded through the middle
lengthwise, so that one side was closed and the other open. The top,
again, was generally folded over, this hanging portion being called
“apoptygma.” Long pins inserted with the points upwards, or fibulae (see
head-band, p. 47), were used to fasten the double edge on the shoulders,
and a girdle was usually worn to hold the edges of the open side in place
(fig. 58). If the chiton were still too long, part of the cloth was drawn
up through the girdle into a blouse called “kolpos.” The heavy woolen
chiton may be seen in the drawing of three nymphs on an amphora (No. GR
549) in Case K in the Third Room. From these early representations in
art, it seems that clothing for both men and women was at first rather
narrow and was often covered with woven or embroidered patterns (fig. 60).
During the seventh and sixth centuries the rich and artistic Ionian
cities had a great influence on the customs of Greece, and from them the
ladies of Athens adopted the linen chiton, which was wider and was sewed
on the sides. The additional width was sometimes used to form sleeves by
catching the two pieces together at the top in three or four places, with
sewing, buttons, or small pins. Long sleeves sewn in were occasionally
worn, but were exceptional rather than customary, so that artists often
represent barbarians with sleeves to distinguish them from Greeks.
On a kotyle in Case C in the Fifth Room is a woman wearing a spotted
chiton with long, close-fitting sleeves. At this period men as well as
women at times wore the apoptygma and kolpos, but the man’s chiton was
generally short (fig. 59). On two kylikes on the bottom of Case L in the
Fourth Room (Nos. 12.231 and GR1120) women are represented in the linen
chiton (fig. 62). After the Persian Wars, as the result of the strong
reaction against Eastern fashions, men and women both adopted the woolen
Doric chiton again, and for men it remained the universal dress, being
now short and without apoptygma and kolpos. Still, the adoption of the
Doric chiton did not imply a violent change, for working people had worn
it continuously and it was the usual dress for young girls. Old men,
priests, charioteers, and officials on public occasions continued to
wear the long Ionic chiton, and both were in use by ladies at the same
period. It should be added that at this time the two types were often
worn together, the Ionic forming an undergarment with short sleeves,
and the Doric, a sleeveless gown. This costume is frequently seen on
grave-reliefs, but our only example is an engraving of a Maenad on a
bronze mirror in Case C in the Sixth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 60. EARLY CHITONS]
[Illustration: FIG. 61. WOMAN’S DORIC CHITON OF THE V CENTURY]
[Illustration: FIG. 62. WOMAN IN IONIC CHITON]
The woman’s Doric chiton of this time may be seen in the statue of
Eirene, No. 15 in the Sculpture Gallery (fig. 61), and it is worn without
a girdle by the young girl on a gravestone (No. 21, fig. 63). Here the
open side shows plainly. A drawing of Zeus on a krater on the bottom
of Case O in the Fourth Room, and a young hunter on a krater on the
left side of the first shelf show the man’s chiton (fig. 67). The Ionic
chiton is illustrated by the statue of a goddess, No. 19 in the Sculpture
Gallery. Metal buttons to represent the sleeve fastenings were inserted
in the marble.
[Illustration: FIG. 63. DORIC CHITON WITHOUT GIRDLE]
[Illustration: FIG. 64. LADY IN HIMATION AND HAT]
[Illustration: FIG. 65. LADY IN HIMATION]
[Illustration: FIG. 66. MAN IN RIDING-CLOAK AND HAT]
The usual outer wrap, called himation, was a large oblong, rectangular
piece of woolen cloth, and was practically the same for both sexes. In
the seventh and sixth centuries there were various ways of arranging it;
as a shawl, or as a scarf fastened on one shoulder. The archaic statue of
a woman, No. 2 in the Sculpture Gallery, wears it doubled and fastened
on one shoulder over an Ionic chiton of soft, crinkled linen (fig. 68).
Gradually a simpler and more beautiful arrangement was adopted; the
himation was laid across the back with one corner over the left shoulder,
then folded around the front of the body, passing either over or under
the right arm according to the wearer’s wish, and the end thrown over
the left shoulder, from which it hung down the back, kept in place by a
weight in the corner. On a krater (No. 16.72) on the bottom of Case J
in the Fourth Room, the god Dionysos is wearing the himation arranged
in this way (see tail-piece, p. 67), and the cast of the so-called
Lateran Sophokles (No. 775 in the Gallery of Casts) shows the himation
at its best. Ladies often drew it up over their heads like a veil. The
terracotta statuettes in the Sixth Room illustrate the variety of ways
in which the wrap could be draped (figs. 64, 65). Besides the himation
there were cloaks of more convenient dimensions for riding, hunting,
or traveling. These were variously named but were all unsewn pieces of
cloth, rectangular or curved on one side, and were usually pinned on
one shoulder. A terracotta (No. 06.1118) in Case G in the Sixth Room
represents a traveler in chiton and riding-cloak (fig. 66), and the same
cloak is worn by a warrior on the large amphora on a pedestal in the
Fifth Room (see fig. 103).
[Illustration: FIG. 67. MAN’S CHITON]
Head-coverings were worn only by travelers, riders, or working-men. A hat
with a wide brim, called “petasos,” was the usual traveler’s head-gear.
It was made in a variety of shapes, the brim being sometimes broader at
back and front, sometimes at the sides. Another form had a circular brim
which turned up. This may be seen on three terracotta statuettes (Case 2,
and Case G in the Sixth Room). A cap, called “pilos,” was worn by smiths,
sailors, and working-men in general. There is a man wearing a pilos
on a cup on the top shelf of Case S in the Fourth Room, and a warrior
with the same hat will be found on a small hydria on the first shelf of
Case Q in the Fifth Room. Some head-coverings which may be either caps
or small hats with rolled brims, are represented in several terracotta
statuettes of boys in Case G in the Sixth Room. Women wore the petasos
for traveling, and they also used a kind of sun-hat, called “tholia,”
with a pointed crown and broad brim, made of straw and fastened by a
ribbon. Several examples of this stiff and ungraceful hat may be seen on
terracotta statuettes in Case 2, and in Case G in the Sixth Room (see
fig. 64).
[Illustration: FIG. 68. AKROPOLIS MAIDEN IN IONIC CHITON AND HIMATION]
Shoes were of two principal types: sandals with straps, and high shoes or
boots for hunting and traveling. The Greeks valued finely made shoes, and
dandies sometimes invented new fashions which were called by their names,
as “Alkibiades shoes.” A terracotta foot from Cyprus wearing a sandal
and another painted black are on the middle shelf of Case 2. On a krater
in Case O in the Fourth Room Hermes wears high laced boots with a tongue
rising above the laces, and a stamnos on the bottom of Case E shows the
hunter Eos in boots. The bronze statuette of the philosopher Hermarchos
in the Seventh Room wears sandals which are worked out in detail (fig.
69), and an idea of the thickness of the soles may be gained from those
worn by the woman on a stele, No. 4 in the Sculpture Gallery. The number
and arrangement of the straps which held the sandal in place were various
and they were sometimes broad enough to form what was practically a shoe.
Boots were at times made with the leg-covering composed of leather bands
resembling modern puttees. Women wore sandals or low shoes. Black was the
usual color for foot-coverings, but gay colors were worn by women and
young men. The warm climate and custom permitted people often to dispense
with shoes in the house, and working-men went barefoot.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. GREEK SANDAL]
[Illustration: FIG. 70. GREEK JEWELRY]
The hair was worn long by men until the fifth century, and the Spartans
and Athenian gentlemen who admired Spartan ways continued the fashion.
It was sometimes allowed to fall on the shoulders in curls or braids,
but was more frequently braided in two plaits and wound around the head,
or made into a sort of roll at the back and fastened by a gold pin. In
the sixth century men wore pointed beards without moustaches, but later
it became customary to shave the entire face, though short beards and
moustaches were worn by older men. A warrior arming, on an amphora on the
bottom of Case 4, has a pointed beard and long hair. His young squire,
who stands behind him, is beardless but his hair is long and curling.
The lyre-player on a large amphora on Pedestal R3 in the Third Room has
long hair in a knot at the back, held in place by a band. A somewhat
similar arrangement is seen in the bronze statuette of Apollo in Case
C2 in the same room. The fashion of plaited hair wound around the head
is illustrated by a terracotta relief of Phrixos on the ram’s back in
Case E in the Fourth Room. In the fifth century short hair was usual
for both young and old men; young men did not wear beards but older men
frequently wore short beards with moustaches. A moustache without a beard
was regarded as the mark of the barbarian. The marble heads of two young
men, Nos. 12 and 14 in the Sculpture Gallery, and the athlete’s head
on Pedestal H in the Sixth Room show the fashion for young men, and a
comparison of the vases and small bronzes in the Third Room with those
in the Fourth Room will make clear the gradual change of style from
elaboration to simplicity.
[Illustration: FIG. 71. WOMEN’S COIFFURES]
The styles of women’s hair-dressing can be best understood by looking
at the statues, vases, and terracottas in the collection. A variety of
ornamental kerchiefs was worn, especially a very pretty band called
sphendone, “sling,” from its shape (fig. 71). On the bottom of Case J in
the Fifth Room is a large stamnos decorated with groups of women dressed
in the Ionic and Doric chitons and wearing various kinds of head-dresses.
Many of the terracottas in the Sixth Room and the head of a young
goddess, No. 7 in the Sculpture Gallery, illustrate the “melon” coiffure
which became the mode in the fourth century.
Fashions in dress were the same in general throughout the Greek world,
although of course there were local peculiarities. In Sparta boys and men
often wore only a small wrap without a chiton, and young men commonly
went barefoot. The women wore the Doric chiton.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. STRIGIL]
The jewelry in use included necklaces and bracelets, rings for the
ears and fingers, and pins for the hair and clothes. The Doric chiton
originally required two very large pins, which were inserted with the
points upwards, but they went out of use in the sixth century when the
Ionic chiton came into fashion and were not worn with the later Doric
chiton. The fibula or safety-pin was used throughout the Greek and Roman
world. A group of these pins of various types is exhibited in Case D in
the Second Room. The fibula illustrated in the head-band is in the Gold
Room. Greek jewelry of the fifth and fourth centuries was frequently of
great beauty. Precious stones were used but seldom until the Hellenistic
period, but the excellence of Greek workmanship has rarely been equalled
by other craftsmen. The Greek gentleman permitted himself only a handsome
ring which was useful as a seal, and the artistic value of these engraved
seal rings of gold or of gold set with a semi-precious stone has made
them favorites with collectors for many centuries. The rings and gems in
cases in the rooms of the Classical Wing, and the beautiful jewelry in
the Gold Room are proofs of the skill of Greek workmen and the fine taste
of their patrons (fig. 70).
[Illustration: FIG. 73. RAZOR]
[Illustration: FIG. 74. ALABASTRON]
Roman dress was similar to that of Greece in its principal
characteristics. The clothing of women was the same as that of the Greek
lady of the Hellenistic age represented in the terracotta statuettes. The
Ionic chiton, made usually of wool instead of linen, and called stola,
was worn in the house, but the married woman’s stola had a wide piece
like a flounce sewn on at the bottom. For the street the himation, called
by the Romans palla, was worn over it. The Roman citizen wore a white
woolen tunic like the Greek chiton, but it was usually provided with
short sleeves. Senators, knights, and free-born children had this tunic
ornamented with purple stripes running from each shoulder to the bottom,
both front and back. In the statue of a camillus in the Eighth Room the
stripes were inlaid in silver, of which traces remain. Over this was worn
the toga, corresponding to the Greek himation and arranged in the same
general way. The toga, however, was usually larger than the himation and
was semicircular on the lower edge. For senators, knights, and children
it was ornamented with a broad purple stripe following the straight edge.
Shoes and sandals of various kinds were in use; a special kind of high
shoe called calceus was always worn with the toga, and the tunic, toga,
and calceus formed the regulation dress for citizens in public. The
toga, being a very heavy, cumbersome garment, was not worn for traveling
or active work, and for these purposes there were many small wraps and
longer cloaks of various shapes.
[Illustration: FIG. 75. ARYBALLOS]
[Illustration: FIG. 76. GLASS BOTTLE]
Short hair was universally worn by men in Rome. Under the Republic
women’s hair was simply arranged, but throughout the Imperial period
a variety of styles prevailed at different times, most of which were
conspicuous for their bad taste and so elaborate that the desired effect
was produced by wearing wigs and wire supports. Some of the better styles
may be seen on the portraits in the Sculpture Gallery, and on the heads
of a girl and a woman on pedestals in the Eighth Room. During most of
their history the Romans did not wear beards or moustaches, but under the
Empire fashion fluctuated, following the style favored by the reigning
emperor. After the time of Trajan beards were usual.
[Illustration: FIG. 77. SILVER PYXIS]
[Illustration: FIG. 78. TERRACOTTA PYXIS]
Roman ladies were fond of ornaments and wore a great many of them. Large
sums of money were expended on precious stones and on shoes and other
garments embroidered with pearls. During the Republican period the Roman
wore a gold ring as the badge of his citizenship, but in the Imperial
period, with the increase of luxurious bad taste, dandies sometimes
covered all the joints of their fingers with rings.
Requisites for the toilet do not differ greatly from one period to
another, since the purposes for which they were intended remain
practically the same; so we find much that seems familiar among those
of the Greeks and Romans. Probably the oldest article in this group is
a razor with a crescent-shaped blade, made in Italy in the early Iron
Age. The shape seems to have been a common one (fig. 73). Tweezers, of
which an example is shown in Case 5, were used for removing superfluous
hair. An article of daily use in ancient times, though we have no modern
utensil to correspond with it, is the strigil or flesh-scraper (Case
5, fig. 72). It was used especially by athletes after exercise, to
remove the dust and sand of the wrestling-ground, so that the strigil,
oil-flask, and sponge became in Greece a kind of symbol for the athlete’s
life, which was, practically speaking, the life of all well-to-do young
men. On a gravestone, No. 7 in the Sculpture Gallery, the dead youth is
represented with a strigil in his hand, while his little slave holds his
towel and oil-flask. Both men and women used strigils in the bath for
scraping off the fuller’s earth or lye powder used as soap. A silver
strigil was included in the tomb furniture of an Etruscan lady which is
exhibited in Case F in the Sixth Room. There is an example in glass of
Roman date in Case 5.
[Illustration: FIG. 79. SPATULA]
[Illustration: FIG. 80. DIPPING-ROD]
It was customary among the Greeks and Romans to rub the body with oil
after the bath. The small jar called aryballos (Case G in the Fifth
Room, fig. 75) and the taller alabastron (Case 2, and Case A in the
Fourth Room, fig. 74) were used for holding oil and perfumes for toilet
use. Some small glass toilet bottles in Case J in the Third Room are so
charming in shape and coloring as to make a modern woman envious (fig.
76). In the Gold Room are two crystal scent bottles from Cyprus, one of
which has a gold stopper. The toilet box or pyxis held ointment, rouge,
face or tooth powders, or small toilet articles or ornaments. These
charming boxes were made of metal, as the silver box in Case F in the
Sixth Room (fig. 77), or of painted terracotta. The latter are often
triumphs of the potter’s and vase painter’s art; for example, the white
pyxis in Case V in the Fourth Room (fig. 78) and the red-figured pyxis in
Case A in the same room, with its interesting drawings of women working
wool (compare fig. 39). Others of a variety of shapes and decoration will
be found in Cases C and G in the Fifth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 81. GREEK MIRROR ON A STAND]
[Illustration: FIG. 82. ETRUSCAN MIRROR]
[Illustration: FIG. 83. GREEK MIRROR AND COVER]
The bronze boxes known as cistae are Etruscan. Some of those which have
been found in tombs are very large and are elegantly decorated with
engraved scenes. They seem to have been a kind of dressing-case, for
holding all of a lady’s toilet equipment. A small one was included in the
tomb furniture of an Etruscan woman which is shown in Case F in the Sixth
Room.
Bronze spatulae were useful in a variety of ways for mixing and applying
the cosmetics which were employed so constantly by Greek and Roman ladies
(fig. 79). An instrument corresponding to our medicine droppers are the
dipping-rods of bronze or glass. They could be inserted into bottles or
jars to take out a small quantity of liquid. A disk about half way up the
rod kept it from slipping into the bottle (fig. 80). Examples of both
utensils will be found in Case 5.
Ancient mirrors were as inferior to the modern in power to reflect as
they are superior in beauty. Disks of highly polished metal, usually
bronze, were employed for this purpose, for the process of making a
mirror by backing a sheet of glass is not older than the fourteenth
century. Sometimes the mirror consists of a simple disk, plain or
ornamented on one side with an engraving or a design in relief, or again
it is made in one piece with a long handle or with a short tang to be
inserted into a bone or ivory handle, or it is provided with a ring.
The disk is often protected with a cover which bears the principal
decoration. Etruscan mirrors most frequently have handles but no covers,
and are decorated with engraved scenes, usually taken from Greek
mythology (fig. 82). Greek mirrors are of two types: either a simple disk
without a handle, fitting into a cover, usually ornamented with a relief
(fig. 83), or a disk supported on a stand, often in the form of a human
figure (fig. 81). In Case A in the Fourth Room are two fine examples
of the latter, two stands from which the mirrors have been lost, and a
mirror with a cover decorated with a woman’s head in relief. Another
charming stand of Etruscan workmanship is in Case H in the Third Room.
In Case A in the Fifth Room are four very beautiful Greek mirrors of the
fourth century, and in Case C in the Sixth Room are examples of both
Greek and Etruscan types. A pretty terracotta statuette of a lady using
a mirror is in Case G in the same room; she is arranging her hair while
balancing her mirror on her knee.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VII
AMUSEMENTS, MUSIC, AND DANCING
CASES 1, 3, AND 5
As at the present time, festivities frequently centered around dining. In
Greece, many dinners were given by men to their friends, followed by the
symposium, at which the guests drank wine mixed with water, told jests,
sang, and often watched hired performers, such as jugglers, tumblers,
and dancers. A kylix in Case E in the Fourth Room is decorated with a
scene from a symposium (fig. 84). The special game for this occasion was
“kottabos,” which was played with the aid of a bronze contrivance like
a candelabrum, of which an example stands in the Fifth Room (fig. 85).
The players held their cups by one handle and tried to throw a small
quantity of liquid on the bronze disk at the top of the shaft, so that
it fell down with a ringing sound. The game was also played by throwing
the liquid into nutshells or small saucers floating in a krater full of
water, so as to make them sink. Many games of chance were known to the
Greeks and Romans. Perhaps the most popular were those played with the
knucklebones (astragaloi) of sheep and goats. They could be used like
dice, and also like “jacks,” being thrown up and caught on the back of
the hand. A toilet box on the middle shelf of Case 3 (fig. 87) shows
three women playing, one of whom has an astragal on the back of her hand.
The knob on the cover of the box is appropriately made in the same form.
Nine very small examples of glass are in Case 1 (fig. 86). The invention
of draughts was ascribed to Palamedes, one of the heroes of the Trojan
War, a story which at least proves that they were played in Greece in
very early times. Nuts and coins were also used as counters in various
games, and games of dice were played in various ways. Astragals could be
used as dice, and had the advantage of needing no marks, as the sides
were naturally different.
[Illustration: FIG. 84. SYMPOSIUM]
The musical instruments in use were the lyre and kithara and the flute,
with some other less common varieties of stringed instruments. The
kithara, the instrument of professional musicians, had a sounding-board
and hollow arms of wood. The strings extended from the “yoke,” a
cross-piece connecting the arms, to the sounding-board. The kithara
was usually played standing, and was hung by a band to the performer’s
shoulders. He played with both hands, using the plectron or “pick” in his
right. A rather rude terracotta from Cyprus in Case 1 represents a woman
with a kithara, a terracotta statuette of Eros with a kithara is in Case
K in the Seventh Room, and a wall-painting in the Eighth Room represents
a lady playing one (see fig. 21). Kithara players in festal costume at
the public games are represented on three vases in the collection (Case
K in the Third Room and Cases E and Y in the Fourth Room). Another
illustration is on an amphora on the bottom of Case P in the Fifth
Room, where Apollo, the god of music, stands before an altar holding
his favorite instrument (fig. 90). The best representation, however, is
the kithara held by a gold siren who forms the pendant of an earring
exhibited in the Gold Room. The details of construction are fully worked
out and the attachment of the strings can be clearly seen. Those used at
public festivals were often richly ornamented with carving and inlay of
semi-precious stones.
[Illustration: FIG. 85. KOTTABOS-STAND]
[Illustration: FIG. 86. GLASS ASTRAGALS]
[Illustration: FIG. 87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS]
The lyre was the usual instrument of the amateur. Boys learned to play
it at school, and gentlemen were expected to be able to accompany
themselves upon it at symposia. Its sounding-board was made of the shell
of a tortoise covered on one side with wood. The upright pieces, curved
outward and in again toward the top, were sometimes made of the horns
of animals. It had a yoke near the ends of the uprights, and a bridge
on the sounding-board. The strings, of sheep’s guts or sinews, varied
in number from three to eleven at different periods, but seven was the
usual number in the fifth century. The plectron was generally used in
playing both instruments. Several good illustrations of the lyre may be
seen in the Museum collection. A satyr with a lyre decorates an amphora
on the shelf in Case J in the Fourth Room. On the bottom of Case O is an
amphora showing Kephalos with a lyre (fig. 88), and on the shelf above a
boy singing to the lyre will be seen in the interior of a kylix. A man
holding a lyre, probably a guest at a symposium, decorates the inside
of a kylix in Case E. An interesting little bronze figure in Case C 2
in the Third Room represents a musician in festival dress with the same
instrument. The statuette was probably a votive offering for success in a
contest.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE]
[Illustration: FIG. 89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE CASTANETS]
[Illustration: FIG. 90. APOLLO WITH A KITHARA]
The ancient flute differed from the modern in being played at the end,
and in having a vibrating reed as a mouthpiece. The tone was shrill.
Flutes were always played in pairs, and a kind of bandage was often worn
by the player to support their weight. This can be seen on the psykter
in Case 4 and on a terracotta statuette from Cyprus in Case 1. Flute
music had a very wide use. It accompanied the voice in solo or chorus,
and the kithara at public contests; it was employed in the theatre at
Athens and at Rome, and was used to guide and accompany the exercises
of the palaistra. The flute furnished music for dancers, and in Rome it
was played at funerals. Meals were served and work such as the kneading
of bread in bakeries was done to its music. Flute-cases are often
represented in interior scenes in Greek vase paintings, as on the inside
of a kylix in Case O in the Fourth Room, showing a boy playing the lyre,
and on a lekythos in Case K in that room where a woman is playing the
same instrument. Another instrument was the syrinx or Pan’s pipe, made
of reeds arranged in graduated lengths, fastened together with cords and
wax. It was especially the shepherd’s companion in his long, solitary
days with his flocks. The little faun which forms the pendant of the
bracelet in Case K 2 in the Seventh Room is playing the syrinx. Cymbals
were used principally at religious ceremonies of an orgiastic type. There
are two pairs in the collection, one being marked with the owner’s name,
Kallisthenia (Case 5 and Case C 2 in the Sixth Room). Dancing formed a
part of worship in ancient times. The rude clay groups of men and women
dancing in a ring illustrate a feature of the worship of Aphrodite in
Cyprus (Case 1). In Greece boys were taught the exercises preliminary
to a dancer’s training as a part of their physical education, and the
many public festivals gave opportunity for large numbers to progress
further. Professional dancers, both boys and girls, were employed to
furnish entertainment at symposia. On a kylix on the bottom of Case L
in the Fourth Room is a girl dancing and playing the castanets, while a
young man looks on (fig. 89). Women of good family danced at home for
amusement, and at domestic festivals. The character of Greek dancing was
largely mimetic, the movements of the arms and the use of the drapery
being very important (see tail-piece, p. 75). The terracotta dancers in
Case L in the Seventh Room and another in Case 1 are good illustrations
of this (figs. 91-92). The Romans in early times practised religious
dancing. The processions of the Salii or priests of Mars, and of the
Arval Brothers are the best-known examples of such ritual performances.
Dancing as an amusement, however, they adopted from the Greeks in its
period of decadence, and consequently the sterner moralists opposed it.
Under the early Empire it nevertheless grew very fashionable. Girls and
women of noble family learned to dance as an accomplishment, and even men
of high rank danced, though at the cost of their dignity. Professional
dancers were greatly sought after and admired.
[Illustration: FIG. 91. WOMAN DANCING]
[Illustration: FIG. 92. WOMAN DANCING]
Our representations of pet animals are all on articles of Greek
manufacture. An old gentleman walking with his sharp-nosed Melitean dog
decorates the interior of the kylix by Hegesiboulos in Case K in the
Fourth Room. Cocks and quails were kept for fighting by boys and young
men. Ganymede on an amphora in Case J in the Fifth Room carries his
cock on his arm (see fig. 52). Quails, cranes, small birds, and rabbits
were also household favorites. On the perfume vases in Cases Q and C in
the Fifth Room, quails, cranes, and a rabbit appear among the groups of
women. Cats were probably introduced from the East or from Egypt in the
late sixth or the early fifth century, but they were rare and seemed to
have been looked upon as curiosities rather than as pets. The goose was
perhaps the commonest pet and children are often represented playing with
one. Some small boys with two goats harnessed to a little chariot appear
on the oinochoë in Case Y in the Fourth Room.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VIII
ARMS AND ARMOR
CASES 3, 4, AND 5