The description of the process of dressing in the Iliad is simple and straightforward. Agamemnon[27] awakes in the morning, and prepares to meet the assembly of the Achæans:
ἕζετο δ᾽ ὀρθωθεὶς μαλακὸν δ᾽ ἔνδυνε χιτῶνα
καλὸν νηγατέον, περὶ δὲ μέγα βάλλετο φᾶρος·
πόσσι δ᾽ ὑπὸ λιταροῖσιν ἐδῆσατο καλὰ πέδιλα,
ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὤμοισιν βάλετο ξίφος ἀργυρόηλον.
“He sat upright and drew on his soft tunic, fair and new, and threw around him his great cloak: and beneath his shining feet he bound fair sandals, and around his shoulders he slung his silver-studded sword.”
Fig. 6. Studniczka’s Diagram.
The dotted lines mark the seams, the spaces A B, C D, E F being left open for arms and head respectively.
The χιτών was apparently, then, a garment which could be drawn on (ἔνδυνε) while in a sitting position. No mention is made, either in this or other similar passages, of pins or girdle to fasten the χιτών, so we may infer that it was a rather narrow garment sewn up at the two sides, with openings left for the head and arms.
Studniczka[28] gives a diagram of such a garment, which he describes as a sack left open at the bottom, with openings in the top and side-seams for head and arms.