Thus there was a real significance in ceremonial investiture (cf. Num. xx. 26, 28) and in the transference of clothes (cf. Elisha and Elijah’s mantle, 2 Kings ii. 13). Further the exchange of garments was not meaningless, and the prohibition in Deut. xxii. 5 points to religious or superstitious beliefs, on which see J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis and Osiris (2nd ed.), pp. 428-435. On the claim involved by the act of throwing a garment over another (Ruth iii. 9; cf. 1 Kings xix. 19), see W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage[21], 105 sq.; J. Wellhausen, Archiv f. Religionswiss. (1907), pp. 40 sqq.; and on some interesting ideas associated with sandals, see Ency. Bib., s.v. “Shoes.” As a sign of grief, or on any occasion when the individual felt himself brought into closer contact with his deity, the garments were rent (subsequently a conventional slit at the breast sufficed) and he donned the sak, a loin-cloth or wrapper which appears to be a survival of older and more primitive dress.[21] Later tradition (Mish., Kil. ix. 1) does not endorse Ezekiel’s prohibition of woollen garments among the priests in the sanctuary (xliv. 17 sq.). Why the layman was forbidden a mixture of wool and linen (sha’atnēz, Deut. xxii. 11) is difficult to explain, though Maimonides perhaps correctly regarded the law as a protest against heathenism (on the magical use of representatives of the animal and vegetable kingdom, in conjunction with a metal ring, see I. Goldziher, Zeit. f. alttest. Wissens. xx. 36 sq.).
Ancient oriental costume then cannot be severed from the history and development of thought. On the one side we may see the increase of rich apparel and the profusion of clothes by which people of rank indicated their position. On the other are such figures as the Hebrew prophets, distinguished by their hairy garment and by their denunciation of the luxury of both sexes.[22] Superfluous clothing was both weakening and deteriorating; this formed the point of the advice of Croesus to Cyrus (Herod. i. 155). But “foreign apparel” was only too apt to involve ideas of foreign worship (Zeph. i. 8. sq.), and the recognition that national costume, custom and morality were inseparable underlay the objection to the Greek cap (the πέτασος) introduced among the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Macc. iv. 10-17, with the parallel 1 Macc. i. 11-15). The Israelite distinctive costume and toilet as part of a distinctive national religion was in harmony with oriental thought, and, as a people chosen and possessed by Yahweh, “a kingdom of priests and an holy nation” (Ex. xix. 5 sq.; cf. Is. lxi. 6), certain outward signs assumed a new significance and continued to be cherished by orthodox Jews as tokens of their faith. The tassels attached by blue threads to the four corners of the outer garment were unique only as regards the special meaning attached to them (Num. xv. 37-41; Deut. xxii. 12), and when in the middle ages they marked out the Jew for persecution they were transferred to a small under-garment (the little tālīth), the proper tālīth being worn over the head in the synagogue. Similarly, sentences bound on the left arm or placed upon the forehead (Deut. xi. 18, cf. the high priest’s plate) find analogies in the means taken elsewhere to ensure the protection of or to manifest one’s adherence to a deity; the novelty lies in the part these sentences took in the religion (see [Phylactery]). While the particular prohibition regarding the beard and hair in Lev. xix. 27 (cf. Ezek. xliv. 20) was for the avoidance of heathen customs, the pēyōth or long curls which became typical in the middle ages are reminiscent of the Horns-curl of Egypt and the Mahommedan “heaven lock” and evidently served as positive distinctive marks. Apart from these details later Jewish dress does not belong to this section. In the Greek and Roman period foreign influence shows itself very strongly in the introduction of novelties of costume and of classical terms, and the subject belongs rather to the Greek and Roman dress of the age.[23] Two conflicting tendencies were constantly at work, and reached their climax in the middle ages. There was an anxiety to avoid articles of dress peculiar to other religions, especially when these were associated with religious practices; and there was a willingness to refrain from costume contrary to the customs of an unsympathetic land. On the one hand, there was a conservatism which is exemplified when the Jews in course of immigration took with them the characteristic dress of their former adopted home, or when they remained unmoved by the changes of the Renaissance. On the other hand, the prominent badge enforced by Pope Innocent III. in 1215 was intended to prevent Jews from being mistaken for Christians, and similarly in Mahommedan lands they were compelled to wear some distinctive indication of their sect. Thus the many quaint and interesting features of later Jewish costume have arisen from certain specific causes, any consideration of which concerns later and medieval costume generally. See I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896), chap. xv. sq.; and especially the Jew. Encyc., s.v. “Dress” (with numerous illustrations).
Authorities.—Much useful material will be found in popular illustrated books (especially C. J. Ball, Light from the East, London, 1899) and in the magnificent volumes on the history of ancient art by G. Perrot and C. Chipiez. On Egyptian costume see especially J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (ed. by S. Birch, 1878), and A. Erman Life in Ancient Egypt (1894, especially pp. 200-233); for Egyptian evidence, see W. M. Müller, Asien und Europa nach altägypt. Denkmäler (Leipzig, 1893), Mitteil. d. vorderasiat. Gesellschaft (1904), ii. (and elsewhere). The most important study on old Babylonian dress is that of E. Meyer, “Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien,” in the Abhandlungen of the Berlin University (1906). For Hittite material, see the collection by L. Messerschmidt, Mitteil. d. vorderas. Ges. (1900 and 1902). For special discussions, see H. Weiss, Kostümkunde, i. (Stuttgart, 1881), articles in Dict. Bible (Hastings), Ency. Biblica, and Jewish Encyc., and I. Benzinger, Hebr. Archäologie (Tubingen, 1907), pp. 73 sqq. See also the general bibliography at the end.
(S. A. C.)
| From Petsofá (Annual of the Brit. School at Athens). Fig. 15.—Terra-cotta Statuette. |
| Perrot et Chipiez’s Art in Primitive Greece, by
permission of Chapman & Hall. Fig. 16.—Lead Statuette from Kampos. |
ii. Aegean Costume.—The discoveries made at Mycenae and other centres of “Mycenaean” civilization, and those of more recent date due to the excavations of Dr A. J. Evans and others in Crete, have shown that Hellenic culture was preceded in the Aegean by a civilization differing from it in many respects (see [Aegean Civilization]), and not least in costume. The essential feature both of male and female dress during the “Minoan” and “Mycenaean” periods was the loin-cloth, which is best represented by the votive terra-cotta statuettes from Petsofá in Crete discovered by Professor J. L. Myres and published in the ninth volume of the Annual of the British School at Athens (fig. 15). J. L. Myres shows that the costume consists of three parts—the loin-cloth itself, a white wrapper or kilt worn over it, and a knotted girdle which secured the whole and perhaps played its part in producing and maintaining the wasp waists characteristic of the Aegean race. The loin-cloth was the only costume (except for high boots, probably made of pale leather, since they are represented with white paint) regularly worn by the male sex, though we sometimes find a hood or wrapper, as on a lead statuette found in Laconia (fig. 16), but the Aegean women developed it into a bodice-and-skirt costume, well represented by the frescoes of Cnossus and the statuettes of the snake-goddess and her votaries there discovered. This transformation of the loin-cloth has been illustrated by Mr D. Mackenzie (see below) from Cretan seal-impressions. In place of the belted kilt of the men we find a belted panier or polonaise, considerably elongated in front, worn by Aegean women; and Mackenzie shows that this was repeated several times until it formed the compound skirt with a number of flounces which is represented on many Mycenaean gems. On a fresco discovered at Phaestus (Hagia Triada) (fig. 17) and a sealing from the same place this multiple skirt is clearly shown as divided; but this does not seem to have been the general rule. On other sealings we find a single overskirt with a pleated underskirt. The skirts were held in place by a thick rolled belt, and the upper part of the body remained quite nude in the earliest times; but from the middle Minoan period onward we often find an important addition in the shape of a low-cut bodice, which sometimes has sleeves, either tight-fitting or puffed, and ultimately develops into a laced corsage. A figurine from Petsofá (fig. 18) shows the bodice-and-skirt costume, together with a high pointed head-dress, in one of its most elaborate forms. The bodice has a high peaked collar at the back. Other forms of head-dress are seen on the great signet from Mycenae. The fact that both male and female costume amongst the primitive Aegean peoples is derivable from the simple loin-cloth with additions is rightly used by Mackenzie as a proof that their original home is not to be sought in the colder regions of central Europe, but in a warm climate such as that of North Africa. It is not until the latest Mycenaean period that we find brooches, such as were used in historical Greece, to fasten woollen garments, and their presence in the tombs of the lower city of Mycenae indicates the coming of a northern race.
 | |
| From Monumenti antichi (Acad. Lincei). | From Annual of the Brit. School at Athens. |
| Fig. 17.—Part of a Fresco discovered at Phaestus. | Fig. 18.—Terra-cotta Statuette from Petsofá. |
See Annual of the British School at Athens, ix. 356 sqq. (Myres); xii. 233 sqq. (Mackenzie); Tsountas and Manatt, The Mycenaean Age, ch. vii.
iii. Greek Costume.—All articles of Greek costume belong either to the class of ἐνδύματα, more or less close-fitting, sewn garments, or of περιβλήματα, loose pieces of stuff draped round the body in various ways and fastened with pins or brooches. For the former class the generic name is χιτών, a word of Semitic origin, which denotes the Eastern origin of the garment; for the latter we find in Homer and early poetry πέπλος, in later times ἱμάτιον. The πέπλος (also called ἑανός and φᾶρος in Homer) was the sole indispensable article of dress in early Greece, and, as it was always retained as such by the women in Dorian states, is often called the “Doric dress” (ἐσθὴς Δωρίς). It was a square piece of woollen stuff about a foot longer than the height of the wearer, and equal in breadth to twice the span of the arms measured from wrist to wrist. The upper edge was folded over for a distance equal to the space from neck to waist—this folded portion was called ἀπόπτυγμα or διπλοῒς,—and the whole garment was then doubled and wrapped round the body below the armpits, the left side being closed and the right open. The back and front were then pulled up over the shoulders and fastened together with brooches like safety-pins (περόναι). This was the Doric costume, which left the right side of the body exposed and provoked the censure of Euripides (Andr. 598). It was usual, however, to hold the front and back of the πέπλος together by a girdle (ζώνη), passed round the waist below the ἀπόπτυγμα; the superfluous length of the garment was pulled up through the girdle and allowed to fall over in a baggy fold (κόλπος) (see [Greek Art], fig. 75). Sometimes the ἀπόπτυγμα was made long enough to fall below the waist, and the girdle passed outside it (cf. the figure of Artemis on the vase shown in [Greek Art], fig. 29); this was the fashion in which the Athena Parthenos of Pheidias was draped. The “Attic” or “Corinthian” πέπλος was sewn together on the right side from below the arm, and thus became an ἔνδυμα. The πέπλος was worn in a variety of colours and often decorated with bands of ornament, both horizontal and vertical; Homer uses the epithets κροκόπεπλος and κυανόπεπλος, which show that yellow and dark blue πέπλοι were worn, and speaks of embroidered πέπλοι (ποικίλοι). Such embroideries are indicated by painting on the statues from the Acropolis and are often shown on vase paintings.