This is generally the dress with which the goddesses Victory and Iris are represented in works of art, the latter particularly among the statues from the pediment of the Parthenon, in which rapid motion is indicated by the chiton being thrown from the feet and ancles on the left side; and in the same chiton, though with more ample folds, is the dress of Athene in many statues of the more finished and perfect style of the art: and Artemis, the huntress, in the Doric chiton, girt up for the purpose of rapid motion.
In one of these different fashions, according to her object and business, the virgin of Sparta, generally without the himation,[1257] wore a single garment, and appeared even in the company of men without any further covering. Thus Periander the Corinthian[1258] was seized with love for the beautiful Melissa at Epidaurus, when he saw her dressed, after the Peloponnesian manner, in her chiton, without any upper garment, as she was giving out wine to the labourers.[1259] In this [pg 277] costume the Doric virgins might be seen dancing at their places of exercise and in the chorus.[1260] The married women, however, never appeared without an upper garment; which probably was not essentially different from the himation of the men: thus, for example, the wife of Phocion, who lived in the Doric manner, according to the account of Plutarch, often went out in the himation of her husband.
4. This leads us to consider the costume of the men, the chief parts of which we will describe generally, before we speak of them in detail. These then are, first, the chiton, a woollen shirt without sleeves, worn by all the Greeks and Italians, the only dress of boys;[1261] since it was not till after the increase of luxury in Athens that they began to dress young boys in the himation.[1262] Secondly, the himation, called in Homer χλαῖνα.[1263] a square piece of cloth, sometimes rounded off at the corners, which was commonly thrown over the left, and behind under the right arm, and the end was again brought back over the left shoulder.[1264] Thirdly, the chlamys (Θετταλικὰ πτέρα), of Macedonian and Thessalian origin,[1265] an oblong piece of [pg 278] cloth, of which the two lower ends came forward, and were fastened with a clasp upon the right shoulder; so that it left that arm free. This latter dress is never mentioned in the poems of Homer. Sappho was the first among the Greek poets who spoke of it.[1266] It was not therefore till after her time that its use was extended over Greece Proper, first as the dress of horsemen, and young men in general, and then as a military cloak; under which character it was introduced into Sparta.[1267] The earliest painted vases, however, always represent the warriors in the himation, which is commonly without folds, and drawn close to the body.[1268]
Thucydides[1269] says of the Lacedæmonians, that “they were the first to adopt a simpler mode of dress:” a statement which is founded on a peculiar notion of this historian, that the loose linen garments, which were still worn by old-fashioned people at Athens in the time of Aristophanes, were the original Greek dress; whereas we know with tolerable certainty that this dress was brought over to Athens by the Ionians of Asia.[1270] The Athenians again laid this aside at the time of the Peloponnesian war, and returned to the thin clothing of the ancient Greeks; with the exception of the women, who had formerly at Athens worn the Doric costume, but now retained the Ionic dress with long sleeves, wide folds, and trailing hem, which was generally of linen. Thucydides, however, is so [pg 279] far right, that the Lacedæmonians were distinguished among all the Greeks for their scanty and simple clothing: thus the Lacedæmonian habit,[1271] the τρίβων,[1272] was of thick cloth and small size,[1273] which the youths[1274] of Sparta were bound by custom to wear the whole year through without any other clothes;[1275] and to which older men (for example, those Athenians who aped the Lacedæmonian manners) sometimes voluntarily submitted.
5. As at Athens the style of dress indicated the rank and station of the wearer, so also the Doric manners were clearly expressed in the arrangement of the clothes. Thus, for example, it was generally recognised in Greece that holding the arms within the cloak was a sign of modesty;[1276] and hence the Spartan youths, like the Roman in the first year of their manhood, appeared always in the street with both hands under their cloak and their eyes cast down, “resembling statues,” says Xenophon,[1277] “in their silence, and in the immoveability of their eyes, [pg 280] and more modest than virgins in the bridal chamber.” In the same manner the youths of lower Italy, in which there were many Doric cities, are frequently represented on vases, with the arms folded under the cloak, which is indicated by the large fold across the breast.[1278]
In other respects equality[1279] and simplicity were the prevailing rule. Manufacturers of ointment were excluded from Sparta, as being corrupters of oil: dyers, because they deprived the wool of its beautiful white colour.[1280] “Deceitful are ointments, and deceitful are dyes,” is the Spartan expression for this idea.[1281] Even in the cities which had early departed from the Doric customs, there were frequent and strict prohibitions against expensiveness of female attire, prostitutes alone being wisely excepted.[1282] As in Sparta the beard was considered as the ornament of a man,[1283] and as a sign of freedom (to which the symbolical [pg 281] edict of the ephors to shave the beard refers),[1284] so also at Byzantium and Rhodes shaving was prohibited by ancient, but constantly neglected, laws.[1285] The custom of carrying sticks (in Doric σκυτάλαι) was common to the Spartans,[1286] with the Dorians of lower Italy.[1287]
6. The Doric customs were not, however, hostile to the beauty of personal appearance; but the beauty at which they aimed was of a severe kind, and remote from all feminine tenderness. The Spartan from his youth upwards[1288] preserved, in order to distinguish him from slaves and mechanics,[1289] according to ancient usage,[1290] the hair of his head uncut,[1291] which indeed, if not properly arranged, might frequently give him a squalid appearance. It seems that both men and women tied the hair in a knot over the crown of the head;[1292] [pg 282] while, according to the Ionic custom, which in this respect resembled that of the barbarians, it was divided into locks, and connected over the forehead with golden clasps in the shape of grasshoppers.[1293] On their heads the Lacedæmonians wore hats with broad brims, which were sometimes also used in war, though probably only by the light-armed soldiers.[1294] The manner in which they arranged and adorned their hair for battle was remarked above.[1295]
That most of the Doric states, and particularly the colonies, degenerated from this noble and beautiful simplicity, does not require to be proved. The splendour of Rhodes was proverbial, nor was any dress more effeminate than the transparent and loose robe of Tarentum;[1296] and the Sicilian garments, which Lysander or Archidamus received as a present from Dionysius, he rejected as unfit for his daughters.[1297]
Among the accompaniments of the toilette may be mentioned the baths; with respect to which it may be remarked, that the Lacedæmonian custom only admitted of two kinds; viz., the cold daily baths in the Eurotas (which also formed a part of the regimen of king Agesilaus[1298]), and from time to time a dry sudorific bath.[1299] But the weakening of the body by warm or tepid baths was strictly prohibited.[1300]