No special ornaments were worn in the hair by men after they gave up the old-fashioned curl-holders and the mysterious grasshoppers. The “band” or fillet laid round the forehead, which Dionysus commonly wears in works of art, was only actually used as the reward of victory in gymnastic or other contests. The diadem is a token of royal dignity, and, therefore, unknown in free Greece.
The change of fashion in the mode of wearing the beard can also be traced in Greek antiquity. There is no direct account of it in the Homeric poems, but probably some indirect hints. A well known simile in Homer mentions the razor. As the Achaeans wore their hair long, and certainly were not smooth shaven, the question arises, what use they could have made of the razor. Helbig points to the analogy of the Egyptian and Phoenician custom, which had considerable influence on Hellenic culture, and also shows, by means of old Greek monuments, that very probably the Ionians of the Homeric period shaved the upper lip; as, in fact, the Dorians also did in older times. It is true this period must have been preceded by an older one unacquainted with this custom, for the gold masks found in graves at Mycenae bear a moustache; and the best example of these is treated in such a way as to point to the use of some stiffening pomade, as well as the artificial cutting of the moustache.
The monuments also show us that the custom of shaving the upper lip continued for some time in the following centuries; but it was not the only prevailing one, for we also find whiskers, beard, and moustache. It is but natural that in the period when the hair was elaborately dressed, special care was taken also with the treatment of the beard. It was not only regularly cut, and usually in a point (compare Fig. [50]), but it was also cut short at certain places, especially between the lower lip and the chin, so that the part thus treated presented a different appearance from the rest of the beard. They also curled the moustache, and arched it upwards; and if we may believe the testimony of archaic monuments, we must assume that curling-irons were sometimes used for the artificial arrangement of the beard. It was not till the latter half of the fifth century that the beard was allowed to fall naturally and simply, at the time when they began to treat the hair in a
Fig. 50.
similar manner. The beard, although not entirely abandoned to its natural growth, since it was cut into a shape corresponding to the oval of the face, instead of the former point, at any rate was no longer treated by artificial means, such as pomades, elaborate curling, etc. The portrait type of Pericles or Sophocles (compare Fig. [7]) shows us the finest example of a simple and dignified mode of wearing the beard, while the ideal head of Zeus from Otricoli, with its artificially parted beard, in spite of the grandeur of the treatment, is far removed from the classic simplicity of the age of Pheidias. After Alexander the Great and his successors it became the custom to shave the whole face. The portrait statues show us that old men especially, who had formerly allowed their beard to grow, now almost always shaved it off. Aristotle, Menander, Poseidippus, the princes of the Alexandrine age, etc., have smooth-shaven faces. Youths and middle-aged men at that period sometimes let their beard grow, but old men only did so when they wished to indicate, by a long, ragged beard, that they were followers of the Cynic school; for even down to the time of the Empire the long beard was the distinguishing mark of the philosopher.
| Fig. 51. | Fig. 52. |