A variety of the ἐμβάδες is to be found in the ἐνδρομίδες, a kind of boot worn by runners, as also by Hermes, Artemis, and the Amazons. They seem to have had no flap at the top, and to have been laced over a tongue either through holes or round buttons.[199] Another kind seems to have consisted of strips of cloth or leather, or possibly felt, wound round the legs like the modern puttees.
The word κρηπίδες is frequently used of some kind of foot-covering, and we learn from Theocritus[200] and from Pollux[201] that these were worn by soldiers. The κρῆπις was probably some kind of sandal with a thick sole and stout straps interlacing one another in such a way as to form a protection for the heel and instep.[202] Pliny[203] tells us that sometimes they had nails in them.
Fig. 48.—(a) A Bronze in the British Museum. (b) Foot of the Hermes of Praxiteles (from a cast in the British Museum). (c) A Terra-cotta Flask in the British Museum.
[Face page 118.
Many varieties of shoes or boots are mentioned by Pollux[204] and other ancient writers. We read of ἀρβύλαι, ἀρβυλίδες, a cheap kind of boot worn on journeys; βλαυταί, light sandals with latchets, called also κονιπόδες, from the fact that they allowed the feet to get covered with dust; εὐμάριδες, Persian slippers of yellow kid; Περσικαί, cheap white shoes worn by women, especially by hetairæ; Λακωνικαί, distinguished by their red colour—these were probably the same as the Ἁμυκλαί mentioned by Theocritus. One of the archaic female statues in the Acropolis Museum at Athens wears red shoes. Wood was sometimes used for sandals. Pollux tells us that κρουπέζια were a special kind of wooden sandal used for dancing, and that Pheidias represented Athene Parthenos wearing Τυρρηνικά, sandals with high rectangular wooden soles and gold latchets.
Fig. 49.
Other shoes are too numerous to mention, and cannot be identified with certainty.