[225]. The young lady, in Lucian, describes thin hair drawn back so as to expose the forehead as a great deformity.—Diall. Meret. i.
[226]. A taste not greatly dissimilar presides over the in-door dress of the modern Greek women. “In the gynecæum,” says Chandler, “the girl, like Thetis, treading on a soft carpet, has her white and delicate feet naked; the nails tinged with red. Her trowsers, which in winter are of red cloth, and in summer of fine calico or thin gauze, descend from the hip to the ankle, hanging loosely about her limbs, the lower portion embroidered with flowers, and appearing beneath the shift, which has the sleeves wide and open, and the seams and edges curiously adorned with needlework. Her vest is of silk, exactly fitted to the form of the bosom and the shape of the body, which it rather covers than conceals, and is shorter than the shift. The sleeves button occasionally to the hand, and are lined with red or yellow satin. A rich zone encompasses her waist, and is fastened before by clasps of silver gilded, or of gold, set with precious stones. Over the vest is a robe, in summer lined with ermine, and in cold weather with fur. The head-dress is a skull-cap, red or green, with pearls; a stay under the chin, and a yellow fore-head cloth, She has bracelets of gold on her wrists; and, like Aurora, is rosy-fingered, the tips being stained. Her necklace is a string of zechins, a species of gold coin, or of the pieces called Byzantines. At her cheeks is a lock of hair made to curl toward the face; and down her back falls a profusion of tresses, spreading over her shoulders.”—ii. 140.
[227]. Lucian. Amor. § 41. Homer in numerous passages celebrates the deep bosoms of his country women, and Anacreon, also, touches more than once on the same topic.
[228]. Anchusa. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 8. 3. Dion. Chrysost. i. 262. Poll. vii. 95. Aristoph. Lysist. 46. et Schol. Muret. Not. in Xen. Cyrop. p. 743, seq. Xen. Cyrop. i. 3. 2.
[229]. Poll. v. 101, vii. 95.
[230]. Xenoph. Œconom. x. 2, 60.
[231]. Cf. Xen. de Vect. iv. 8.
[232]. Luc. Amor. § 41, seq. Cf. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 339. Aristoph. Plut. 1015, et schol. Plut. Vit. x. Orat. Lycurg. In the country, too, women went often abroad, and evidently led a very comfortable life; their habits, in fact, greatly resembled those of English country ladies; the wives of men whose estates lay contiguous freely visiting and gossiping with each other. Thus in the action on the damage caused by the torrent, we find the wife of Tisias and the mother of Callicles discussing the spoiling of the barley and the barley meal, and meeting, evidently, as often as they thought proper. In fact, before the quarrel, the footpath across the field was clearly well worn.—Demosth. in Call. § 7.
[233]. Aristoph. Lysist. 662.
[234]. Poll. vii. 49.