free. The garment (which resembles the Doric πέπλος, 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.[1]
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 χιτὼν ἑτερομάσχαλος or ἐξωμίς. But the garment usually worn by men of mature age was the ἱμάτιον, which was (like the πέπλος) 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 ἱμάτιον 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 ἱμάτιον 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 χλαμύς, 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 χλαῖνα was a heavy woollen cloak worn in cold weather. Peasants wore sheepskins or garments of hide called βαίτη or σίσυρα; 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 ἱμάτιον (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 καλύπτρα, or veil called κρήδεμνον in Homer. A cap merely intended to cover in the hair and hold it together was called κεκρύφαλος. When the object was only to hold up the hair from the neck, the σφενδόνη was used, which, as its name implies, was in the form of a sling; but in this case it was called more particularly ὀπισθοσφενδόνη, as a distinction from the sphendonē when worn in front of the head. The head ornaments include the διάδημα;, 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 ἄμπυξ, a variety of the diadem; the στεφάνη, 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 στέφανος, 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 (πόλοι, κάλαθοι) 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 κρώβυλος, with fastenings called “grasshoppers” (τέττιγες), in allusion to their claim of having originally sprung from the soil (Thuc. i. 6). The τέττιγες 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 κρώβυλος. 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 (ἐνώτια, ἐλλόβια, ἑλικτῆρες) 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 (ὅρμοι), bracelets (ὄφεις), brooches (περόναι), and finger-rings (δακτύλιοι or σφραγῖδες) the same variety and preciousness of material was employed. For the feet the sandal (σάνδαλον, πέδιλον) was the usual wear; for hunting and travelling high boots were worn. The hunting-boot (ἐνδρομίς) was laced up the front, and reached to the calves; the κοθορνος (cothurnus) was a high boot reaching to the middle of the leg, and as worn by tragic actors had high soles. Slippers (περσικαί) were adopted from the East by women; shoes (ἐμβάδες) were worn by the poorer classes. Gloves (χειρῖδες) 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 πέτασος worn by Hermes and sometimes even by women. The καυσία, or Macedonian hat, seems to have been similar to this. The κυρβασία, or κίδαρις, was a high-pointed hat of Persian origin, as was also the τιάρα, which served the double purpose of an ornament and a covering for the head. Workmen wore a close-fitting felt cap (πῖλος).
See F. Studniczka, “Beiträge 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 archäischer 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).
 |
| 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 πέπλος. Two articles of costume, however, were peculiar to the Etruscans—the high conical hat known as the tutulus,[2] 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
- ↑ These ornamental bands are carefully described and reproduced in colour by A. Lermann, Altgriechische Plastik (1907), pp. 85 ff., pls. i.-xx. Some authorities hold that the skirt forms part of the over-garment, but it seems clear that it belongs to the χιτών
- ↑ The tutulus was worn at Rome by the flaminica.
