[Face page 62.
Fig. 28.—Vase-painting—Munich.
[Furtwängler and Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, 33.]
[Face page 63.
A feature of the Ionic chiton not very easy to understand is the overfold, which occurs very frequently, especially in vase-paintings of the severe red-figured class; it is not a normal feature of the Ionic chiton, and may very possibly have been added by the Athenian women when they adopted the dress, since they had always been accustomed to wearing it with the Doric peplos. The view that Herodotus (v., 87) is wrong, and that the Athenian women never wore the Doric dress at all, is hardly tenable in the face of such evidence as the François vase and others like it, which are certainly of Attic workmanship.
The Ionic chiton with overfold is really, then, an instance of the blending of the two types of dress, which later became so complete that it is frequently difficult to decide whether a particular garment should more correctly be called Doric or Ionic.
In some instances the overfold of the Ionic chiton is formed in exactly the same way as that of the Doric dress, only it is frequently shorter: it is turned over before the garment is put on, then back and front are fastened together along the arm, either by sewing or by brooches. In this latter case the only distinction from the Doric dress, in addition to those of size and material, is that instead of being pinned only once on each shoulder, and so being sleeveless, it is pinned along from shoulder to elbow, so as to form sleeves. An example of this is to be seen in a figure of Aphrodite from a vase-painting in Paris reproduced by Miss Harrison.[116] This style of dress, with the sleeves sewn instead of pinned, is found on the first of the so-called Fates of the Parthenon pediment, and on one of the Nereids from the Nereid monument, on a torso at Epidaurus, and on many vase-paintings. Although not always represented in art, shoulder-cords or cross-bands were probably actually worn with this dress, as a general rule, since without some such contrivance it would slip inconveniently.
Fig. 29.—Vase-painting by Brygos—British Museum.
[Face page 66.