Greek dress

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Greek Dress, by Ethel Beatrice Abrahams
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 costume of the race which occupied the Ægean shores before the real Hellenic races arrived on the scene, and of which we have abundant remains in Crete and elsewhere within the Ægean area. The remains found at Mycenæ, Tiryns, and other so-called Mycenæan sites, seem to be the last efforts of this dying civilization, which was replaced in the period of invasion and conquest recorded in the Homeric poems. I have been unable to trace any continuous development from the dress of this pre-Hellenic people to that of classic Greece, and the marked difference in the type of costume between the two periods bears out the theory of a difference of race.
I have endeavoured to show that the dress described in the Homeric poems is of the same type as the dress of classic Greece, and of this I have traced the historic development, classifying it into two main divisions, namely, Doric and Ionic. The simple and severe Doric dress contrasts with the more luxurious costume of the Ionian Greeks, although there are many instances, from the fifth century and onwards, in which the two styles are blended. I have noted also the elements which probably came in from Northern Greece; these are chiefly the chlamys and petasos.
The bulk of the following pages constituted a thesis approved for the degree of Master of Arts in the University of London. In revising the work for the press, however, some alterations and additions have been made. The chief of these is the addition of the section on the toilet; the illustrations have been carefully selected from extant monuments.