Fig. 9.
onwards became common in Greece. Originally it was a soldier’s or rider’s dress, and is, therefore, only seen on statues worn over armour. It is a short cloak of light material and oval shape, fastened by means of a brooch either in front at the neck, or more commonly on the right shoulder, thus covering the left arm and leaving the right free. (Compare Figs. [9] and [9], of which Fig. [9] shows the former mode of wearing the cloak, while in Fig. [10] the youth with the spear has his whole left side covered by the chlamys.) The chlamys was the common dress of youths as soon as they attained their majority ἐϕηβεία and entered the cavalry; till that age they wore no upper garment over the chiton in the ancient period, but in later times a wide himation, in which they usually enveloped themselves entirely. It was regarded as correct for modest boys not to have their arms exposed. Hermes also, the divine representative of youth, usually appears in the chlamys, but this is generally lightly folded and thrown over the left arm. Apollo too, except where he wears the long chiton as harp-player, is usually represented on works of art with the chlamys. It is, however, unusual in male dress, with the exception of military costume, and is never found in combination with the long chiton.
Fig. 10.
At home, as a rule, only the chiton was worn. It was, however, not considered correct to be seen thus in the street: only artisans or eccentric people went out without a cloak; but it was just as incorrect to appear without the chiton, only in the himation or chlamys. It is true this is very common on works of art: Zeus, Poseidon, and some other gods are represented without the chiton, and only in the himation, and Hermes and Apollo only in the chlamys; and even in representations of daily life we very often see in statues, reliefs, vase pictures, etc., men without under garments, clad only in the cloak (compare the youth in Fig. [9]), and also in portrait figures. This is, however, a liberty taken by artists in order to avoid concealing the body entirely by the dress, but by no means corresponding to reality. Only those who specially desired to harden their bodies, and also poor people and certain philosophers who wished to proclaim their cynic principles by exceedingly scanty dress, went out, even in winter, in a cloak without an under garment. Shirt and trousers were unknown in Greek male dress; the latter are Oriental, and therefore only appear on monuments representing barbarous persons.
As regards female dress, it may be stated at once that the strong contrast found in modern times between the dress of men and women is foreign to Greek antiquity: both have essentially the same elements, sometimes even the same shape; and this similarity becomes greater the nearer we get to antiquity. This was not carried so far that a woman could simply have put on a man’s under garment; in fact, even the Homeric epics distinguish the woman’s peplos from the man’s chiton. Unfortunately, both the shape and the mode of wearing the Homeric peplos are matters of dispute which cannot be satisfactorily settled by the words of the epic. According to Helbig, it was not essentially different from the long male chiton; like this, it descended to the feet, fitting closely and without folds to the figure, and was provided with an opening for head and arms. The girdle was worn rather low down, not immediately under the breast or round the waist, but round the hips, and fell down somewhat in front. The peplos was put on by means of a slit between the breasts, which often descended as far as the feet, and was fastened by a large number of fibulae, or hooks. Helbig thinks that this fashion was due to Oriental influence, since such openings are very commonly found on monuments representing Oriental nations.
There is much in favour of Helbig’s hypothesis, especially the circumstance that a dress similar in many respects appears to have maintained itself for several centuries. The vase pictures, as well as several works of art, show, as Boehlau has remarked, that in almost all the Greek states (especially Corinth, Chalcis, Athens, Megara, Sparta, as well as Ionian and Sicilian towns) a closely-fitting chiton was worn by women as late as the seventh, perhaps even the sixth, century. This was not drawn over the head, but put on like our dress of the present day, and open in front. Numerous monuments of the oldest style show that slit in front, and it appears to be seldom wanting in very ancient pictures of the deities. This chiton is provided with tight sleeves falling down to the elbows, and is generally adorned at all the edges (accordingly round the neck and armholes, as well as round the hem) with broad stripes and patterns of various colours; and as a further peculiarity it has folds drawn up over the girdle and falling on each side over the hips.