See _Annual of the British School at Athens_, ix. 356 sqq. (Myres);
xii. 233 sqq. (Mackenzie); Tsountas and Manatt, _The Mycenaean Age_,
ch. vii.
iii. _Greek Costume._--All articles of Greek costume belong either to
the class of [Greek: endymata], more or less close-fitting, sewn
garments, or of [Greek: periblemata], loose pieces of stuff draped round
the body in various ways and fastened with pins or brooches. For the
former class the generic name is [Greek: chiton], a word of Semitic
origin, which denotes the Eastern origin of the garment; for the latter
we find in Homer and early poetry [Greek: peplos], in later times
[Greek: himation]. The [Greek: peplos] (also called [Greek: eanos] and
[Greek: pharos] in Homer) was the sole indispensable article of dress in
early Greece, and, as it was always retained as such by the women in
Dorian states, is often called the "Doric dress" ([Greek: esthes Doris]).
It was a square piece of woollen stuff about a foot longer than the
height of the wearer, and equal in breadth to twice the span of the arms
measured from wrist to wrist. The upper edge was folded over for a
distance equal to the space from neck to waist--this folded portion was
called [Greek: apoptygma] or [Greek: diplois],--and the whole garment
was then doubled and wrapped round the body below the armpits, the left
side being closed and the right open. The back and front were then
pulled up over the shoulders and fastened together with brooches like
safety-pins ([Greek: peronai]). This was the Doric costume, which left
the right side of the body exposed and provoked the censure of Euripides
(_Andr_. 598). It was usual, however, to hold the front and back of the
[Greek: peplos] together by a girdle ([Greek: zone]), passed round the
waist below the [Greek: apoptygma]; the superfluous length of the
garment was pulled up through the girdle and allowed to fall over in a
baggy fold ([Greek: kolpos]) (see GREEK ART, fig. 75). Sometimes the
[Greek: apoptygma] was made long enough to fall below the waist, and the
girdle passed outside it (cf. the figure of Artemis on the vase shown in
GREEK ART, fig. 29); this was the fashion in which the Athena Parthenos
of Pheidias was draped. The "Attic" or "Corinthian" [Greek: peplos] was
sewn together on the right side from below the arm, and thus became an
[Greek: endyma]. The [Greek: peplos] was worn in a variety of colours
and often decorated with bands of ornament, both horizontal and
vertical; Homer uses the epithets [Greek: krokopeplos] and [Greek:
kyanopeplos], which show that yellow and dark blue [Greek: peploi] were
worn, and speaks of embroidered [Greek: peploi] ([Greek: poikiloi]). Such
embroideries are indicated by painting on the statues from the Acropolis
and are often shown on vase paintings.
The chiton, [Greek: chiton], was formed by sewing together at the sides
two pieces of linen, or a double piece folded together, leaving spaces
at the top for the arms and neck, and fastening the top edges together
over the shoulders and upper arm with buttons or brooches; more rarely
we find a plain sleeveless chiton. The length of the garment varied
considerably. The [Greek: chitoniskos], worn in active exercise, as by
the so-called "Atalanta" of the Vatican, or the well-known Amazon
statues (Greek Art, fig. 40), reached only to the knee; the [Greek:
chiton poderes] covered the feet. This long, trailing garment was
especially characteristic of Ionia; in the Homeric poems (Il. xiii. 685)
we read of the [Greek: Iaones helkechitones]. If worn without a girdle
it went by the name of [Greek: chiton orthostadios]. The long chiton was
regularly used by musicians (e.g. Apollo the lyre-player) and
charioteers. In ordinary life it was generally pulled up through the
girdle and formed a [Greek: kolpos] (GREEK ART, fig. 2).
Herodotus (v. 82-88) tells a story (cf. Aegina), the details of which
are to all appearance legendary, in order to account for a change in the
fashion of female dress which took place at Athens in the course of the
6th century B.C. Up to that time the "Dorian dress" had been universal,
but the Athenians now gave up the use of garments fastened with pins or
brooches, and adopted the linen chiton of the Ionians. The statement of
Herodotus is illustrated both by Attic vase-paintings and also by the
series of archaic female statues from the Acropolis of Athens, which
(with the exception of one clothed in the Doric [Greek: peplos]) wear
the Ionic chiton, together with an outer garment, sometimes laid over
both shoulders like a cloak (GREEK ART, fig. 3), but more usually
fastened on the right shoulder only, and passed diagonally across the
body so as to leave the left arm free. The garment (which resembles the
Doric [Greek: peplos], but seems to have been rectangular rather than
square) is folded over at the top, and the central part is drawn up
towards the right shoulder to produce an elaborate system of zigzag
folds (GREEK ART, fig. 22). The borders of the garment are painted with
geometrical patterns in vivid colours; a broad stripe of ornament runs
down the centre of the skirt.[24]
This fashion of dress was only temporary. Thucydides (i. 6) tells us
that in his own time the linen chiton of Ionia had again been discarded
in favour of the Doric dress, and the monuments show that after the
Persian wars a reaction against Orientalism showed itself in a return to
simpler fashions. The long linen chiton, which had been worn by men as
well as women, was now only retained by the male sex on religious and
festival occasions; a short chiton was, however, worn at work or in
active exercise (GREEK ART, fig. 3) and often fastened on the left
shoulder only, when it was called [Greek: chiton heteromaschalos] or
[Greek: exomis]. But the garment usually worn by men of mature age was
the [Greek: himation], which was (like the [Greek: peplos]) a plain
square of woollen stuff. One corner of this was pulled over the left
shoulder from the back and tucked in under the left arm; the rest of the
garment was brought round the right side of the body and either carried
under the right shoulder, across the chest and over the left shoulder,
if it was desired that the right arm should be free, or wrapped round
the right arm as well as the body, leaving the right hand in a fold like
a sling (GREEK ART, fig. 2). The [Greek: himation] was also worn by
women over the linen chiton, and draped in a great variety of ways,
which may be illustrated by the terra-cotta figurines from Tanagra
(4th-3rd cent. B.C.) and the numerous types of female statues, largely
represented by copies of Roman date, made to serve as grave-monuments.
The upper part of the [Greek: himation] was often drawn over the head as
in the example here shown (Plate, fig. 21), a statue formerly in the
duke of Sutherland's collection at Trentham and now in the British
Museum.
A lighter garment was the [Greek: chlamys], chlamys, a mantle worn by
young men, usually over a short chiton girt at the waist, and fastened
on the right shoulder (cf. the figure of Hermes in GREEK ART, fig. 2).
The [Greek: chlaina] was a heavy woollen cloak worn in cold weather.
Peasants wore sheepskins or garments of hide called [Greek: baite] or
[Greek: sisura]; slaves, who were required by custom to conceal their
limbs as much as possible, wore a sleeved chiton and long hose.
A woman's head was usually covered by drawing up the [Greek: himation]
(see above), but sometimes instead of this, a separate piece of cloth
was made to perform this service, the end of it falling over the
_himation_. This was the [Greek: kalyptra], or veil called [Greek:
kredemnon] in Homer. A cap merely intended to cover in the hair and hold
it together was called [Greek: kekryphalos]. When the object was only to
hold up the hair from the neck, the [Greek: sphendone] was used, which,
as its name implies, was in the form of a sling; but in this case it was
called more particularly [Greek: opisthosphendone], as a distinction
from the _sphendon[=e]_ when worn in front of the head. The head
ornaments include the [Greek: diadema], a narrow band bound round the
hair a little way back from the brow and temples, and fastened in the
knot of the hair behind; the [Greek: ampux], a variety of the diadem;
the [Greek: stephane], a crown worn over the forehead, its highest point
being in the centre, and narrowing at each side into a thin band which
is tied at the back of the head. It is doubtful whether this should be
distinguished from the [Greek: stephanos], a crown of the same breadth
and design all round, as on the coins of Argos with the head of Hera,
who is expressly said by Pausanias to wear a _stephanos_. This word is
also employed for crowns of laurel, olive or other plant. High crowns
made of wicker-work ([Greek: poloi, kalathoi]) were also worn (see
Gerhard, _Antike Bildwerke_, pls. 303-305). When the hair, as was most
usual, was gathered back from the temples and fastened in a knot behind,
hair-pins were required, and these were mostly of bone or ivory, mounted
with gold or plain; so also when the hair was tied in a large knot above
the forehead, as in the case of Artemis, or of Apollo as leader of the
Muses. The early Athenians wore their hair in the fashion termed [Greek:
krobylos], with fastenings called "grasshoppers" ([Greek: tettiges]), in
allusion to their claim of having originally sprung from the soil (Thuc.
i. 6). The [Greek: tettiges] have been identified by Helbig with small
spirals of gold wire, such as are found in early Etruscan tombs lying
near the head of the skeleton. Such spirals were used in early Athens to
confine the back hair, and this fashion may therefore be identified as
the [Greek: krobylos]. In archaic figures the hair is most frequently
arranged over the brow and temples in parallel rows of small curls which
must have been kept in their places by artificial means. Ear-rings
([Greek: enotia, ellobia, helikteres]) of gold, silver, or bronze plated
with gold, and frequently ornamented with pearls, precious stones, or
enamel, were worn attached to the lobes of the ear. For necklaces
([Greek: hormoi]), bracelets ([Greek: opheis]), brooches ([Greek:
peronai]), and finger-rings ([Greek: daktylioi] or [Greek: sphragides])
the same variety and preciousness of material was employed. For the feet
the sandal ([Greek: sandalon, pedilon]) was the usual wear; for hunting
and travelling high boots were worn. The hunting-boot ([Greek:
endromis]) was laced up the front, and reached to the calves; the
[Greek: kothornos] (cothurnus) was a high boot reaching to the middle of
the leg, and as worn by tragic actors had high soles. Slippers ([Greek:
persikai]) were adopted from the East by women; shoes ([Greek: embades])
were worn by the poorer classes. Gloves ([Greek: cheirides]) were worn
by the Persians, but apparently never by the Greeks unless to protect
the hands when working (_Odyssey_, xxiv. 230). Hats, which were as a
rule worn only by youths, workmen and slaves, were of circular shape,
and either of some stiff material, as the Boeotian hat observed in
terra-cottas from Tanagra, or of pliant material which could be bent
down at the sides like the [Greek: petasos] worn by Hermes and sometimes
even by women. The [Greek: kausia], or Macedonian hat, seems to have
been similar to this. The [Greek: kyrbasia], or [Greek: kidaris], was a
high-pointed hat of Persian origin, as was also the [Greek: tiara],
which served the double purpose of an ornament and a covering for the
head. Workmen wore a close-fitting felt cap ([Greek: pilos]).
See F. Studniczka, "Beitrage zur Geschichte der altgriechischen
Tracht" (_Abhandlungen des arch.-epigr_. _Seminars in Wien_, vii.
1886); Lady Evans, _Chapters on Greek Dress_ (1893); W. Kalkmann, "Zur
Tracht archaischer Gewandfiguren" (_Jahrb. des k. deutschen arch.
Instituts_, 1896, pp. 19 ff.); S. Cybulski, _Tabulae quibus
antiquitates Graecae et Romanae illustrantur_, Nos. 16-18 (1903), with
text by W. Amelung; Ethel B. Abrahams, _Greek Dress_ (1908).
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
iv. _Etruscan Costume._--The female dress of the Etruscans did not
differ in any important respect from that of the Greeks; it consisted of
the _chiton_ and _himation_, which was in earlier times usually worn as
a shawl, not after the fashion of the Doric [Greek: peplos]. Two
articles of costume, however, were peculiar to the Etruscans--the high
conical hat known as the _tutulus_,[25] and the shoes with turned-up
points (Latin _calcei repandi_). These have oriental analogies, and lend
support to the tradition that the Etruscans came from Asia. Both are
represented on a small bronze figure in the British Museum (fig. 19). On
a celebrated terra-cotta sarcophagus in the British Museum of much later
date (fig. 20), the female figure reclining on the lid wears a Greek
chiton of a thin white material, with short sleeves fastened on the
outside of the arm, by means of buttons and loops; a _himation_ of dark
purple thick stuff is wrapped round her hips and legs; on her feet are
sandals, consisting of a sole apparently of leather, and attached to the
foot and leg with leather straps; under the straps are thin socks which
do not cover the toes; she wears a necklace of heavy pendants; her ears
are pierced for ear-rings; her hair is partly gathered together with a
ribbon at the roots behind, and partly hangs in long tresses before and
behind; a flat diadem is bound round her head a little way back from the
brow and temples. Purple, pale green and white, richly embroidered, are
favourite colours in the dresses represented on the painted tombs.
[Illustration: Redrawn from photo (Mansell).