[Face page 108.
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: sometimes we see it worn loose with a simple fillet tied round the head;[165] sometimes the long ends are turned up and tucked in under the fillet;[166] sometimes they are turned up and held together by an additional band. This is the case with a bronze head from Olympia,[167] where, however, some locks seem to have been left free on the neck. A relief in Athens, representing a Discobolus holding the “discus” behind his head,[168] shows the hair probably divided and twisted together in two coils fastened tightly at a little distance from the end by a ribbon, or possibly by a metal spiral.[169] The golden τέττιξ mentioned by Thucydides (I., 6) was obviously some kind of ornament inserted in the hair to hold the “chignon” in place. It has been shown by Helbig[170] that this was probably a metal spiral or series of rings used to bind together the ends of the long hair; such a style is frequently represented in the art of the end of the sixth century and beginning of the fifth. The bands represented in [Fig. 42] (c) are possibly intended for such metal rings. Helbig’s view is supported and confirmed by Studniczka.[171]
Probably the knot of hair bound up on the nape of the neck, as in the above examples, represents the κρωβύλος or κόρυμβος mentioned in Thucydides and elsewhere in literature. In later times this name was applied to the knot of hair on the top of the head which occurs so frequently in statues of Apollo; but there is no evidence to show that it was worn in this position before the fourth century at the earliest.
A style very commonly exemplified by extant statues of Apollo, dating from the early part of the fifth century, is to tie a fillet round the head and roll the long hair tightly over it, tucking the ends in usually behind the ears.[172] These ends are, however, sometimes allowed to hang down on the neck. Athletes very frequently disposed of their long hair by braiding it into two plaits from behind; these they crossed or brought round the head, fastening the two ends together in front.[173] Sometimes the short hair in front was combed down over the plaits, so as to conceal their union.
Fig. 43.—(a) Head of Apollo from the Temple of Zeus, at Olympia. (b) Head of an Athlete—Athens Acropolis Museum.
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The date of the change of fashion is impossible to fix. We find the athletes of Myron and Polycleitus represented with short hair, but long-haired Apollos are found considerably after their date. The change took place, in all probability, shortly after the Persian wars; it then became the fashion for Ephebi to cut off their long hair, which they consecrated to Apollo and Artemis or to a river god.[174] When once the change had come about, long hair was considered, in Athens at least, as a mark of affectation or effeminacy. In The Wasps of Aristophanes,[175] Amynias, the typical fop, is designated by the name of οὑκ τῶν Κρωβύλου, “he of the ‘chignon,’” and in The Clouds the wearing of the τέττιξ is spoken of as a fashion quite out of date, or, as we might say, antediluvian. There is some uncertainty as to whether the Lacedæmonians wore their hair short or long; some authorities state that even in the fourth century they still wore it long as a mark of freedom, and since they were more conservative than the rest of the Greeks, it is quite possible that this was the case. With this possible exception, the custom of wearing the hair short continued, though Alexander probably set the fashion of wearing rather long and mane-like hair.
Fig. 44.