GREEK DRESS A STUDY OF THE COSTUMES WORN IN ANCIENT GREECE, FROM PRE-HELLENIC TIMES TO THE HELLENISTIC AGE BY ETHEL B. ABRAHAMS, M.A. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1908 TO MY FRIEND ETHEL STRUDWICK The object of this book is to give a continuous account of the dress worn by the people inhabiting Greek lands, from the earliest times of which we have any record down to the Hellenistic age. The first chapter stands somewhat apart from the rest, since it deals with the

For the chapter on Homeric dress, my chief authority has been the poems themselves; in the absence of contemporary monuments, I have used the François vase to illustrate this section, since the figures upon it seem to tally most closely with the descriptions of dress found in the poems. Of modern literary authorities, the most valuable has been Studniczka’s Beiträge zur Geschichte der Altgriechischen Tracht . For the dress of the classical period, the evidence from extant art is abundant, and I

The palace of Alcinous and the house of Odysseus, as described in the Odyssey , correspond in plan to the palace of Mycenæ excavated by the Greek Archæological Society in 1886, which undoubtedly belongs to the older stratum of civilization; [1] on the other hand, the methods of dis posing of the dead, and the underlying principles of costume, are utterly different in the two cases. The Homeric heroes burn their dead, whereas the remains found in Mycenæan graves prove that in the state of society

The men’s dress in Homer regularly consists of two pieces—the χιτών, or under-garment, and a cloak called variously χλαῖνα, φᾶρος, or, in one case, λώπη. [26] Warriors sometimes wore a skin instead of the mantle. For example, in Iliad , x., 22, Agamemnon is described as putting on a lion’s skin, and a few lines further on Menelaus appears wearing a dappled leopard’s skin. The description of the process of dressing in the Iliad is simple and straightforward. Agamemnon [27] awakes in the morning,

“In very truth, however, this dress is not originally Ionian, but Carian; for anciently the Greek women all wore the costume which is now called the Dorian.”— Rawlinson. He goes on to say that after this the Argive and Æginetan women, out of rivalry with the Athenians, wore much larger brooches than before. The importance of the passage is that it tells us of the two types of dress worn by Greek women. We learn that down to the early years of the sixth century all the Greek women wore the Dorian

Fig. 25. —Vase-painting from Lucania—British Museum. [ Face page 61. The Ionic chiton differed from the Doric in length, material, and method of fastening. We read in Homer already of the Ἰάωνες ἑλκεχίτωνες , “long-robed Ionians,” and Pollux tells us of the λινοῦς χιτών ὅν Ἀθηναίοι ἐφόρουν ποδήρη, καὶ αὖθις Ἴωνες, [108] “the linen tunic which the Athenians wore reaching to the feet, and the Ionians too.” This χιτών ποδήρης is a long chiton reaching to the feet; that its material was linen is tes

Having determined that the artists have represented a dress which was actually worn, we must proceed to consider the character of the dress as a whole, and of the parts of which it consisted. In giving a general description it will be best to take an example which exhibits all, or nearly all, the characteristics that can be collected from the various statues. No. 594 will serve our purpose. (Perrot and Chipiez, pl. xii.; Lechat, Au Musée de l’Acropole , fig. 16.) [127] The under-garment which ap

Ἐκ δὲ τούτου τοῦ ζῴου καὶ τὰ βουβύκια ἀναλύουσι τῶν γυναικῶν τινές ἀναπηνιζόμεναι, κἄπειτα ὑφαίνουσιν· πρώτη δὲ λέγεται ὑφῆναι ἐν Κῷ Παμφίλη Πλάτεω θυγάτηρ. “Some women undo the cocoons of this creature, winding off the silk, and then weave it; and Pamphile, daughter of Plateus, is said to have been the first to weave it in Cos.” This implies that the manufacture of silk was carried on in Cos, but no information is given as to whether the worm was reared in that island or whether the raw silk wa

Coming down to historic times, we find that before the Persian wars both men and women wore their hair long. After the middle of the fifth century a change took place, the men cutting their hair short for the most part, the women binding it up. The story of the Lacedæmonians combing their long hair when the Persians were close upon them is familiar (Herodotus, VII., 208). Extant monuments show us that before the Persian wars the men adopted various methods of disposing of their long hair: someti

The normal fashion, however, for people of good breeding was to wear sandals or shoes out of doors, and we learn from Aristophanes [190] that the Athenians at least were particular about the fit;—to “swim about” in large boots was a mark of boorishness. Xenophon [191] notices the division of labour in the shoemakers’ trade, where he mentions at least four different hands employed in making a pair of shoes. Fig. 46. —Sandals and Shoes. [ Face page 117. The simplest form of footgear was the sandal

When repairing to the wrestling school or the gymnasium, a Greek would invariably be provided with an oil-flask (ἀρύβαλλος, λήκυθος) and a strigil (ξύστρα). The aryballos ( Fig. 50 ) was a small globular vessel, with an opening just large enough to allow the oil to trickle slowly out, the lekythos being a long narrow bottle with a foot and a narrow neck. [206] Both were used to carry the olive oil with which athletes were accustomed to anoint themselves. The strigil was a curved metal instrument