The chiton, χιτών, was formed by sewing together at the sides two pieces of linen, or a double piece folded together, leaving spaces at the top for the arms and neck, and fastening the top edges together over the shoulders and upper arm with buttons or brooches; more rarely we find a plain sleeveless chiton. The length of the garment varied considerably. The χιτωνίσκος, worn in active exercise, as by the so-called “Atalanta” of the Vatican, or the well-known Amazon statues ([Greek Art], fig. 40), reached only to the knee; the χιτὼν ποδήρης covered the feet. This long, trailing garment was especially characteristic of Ionia; in the Homeric poems (Il. xiii. 685) we read of the Ίαόνες ἑλκεχίτωνες. If worn without a girdle it went by the name of χιτὼν ὀρθοστάδιος. The long chiton was regularly used by musicians (e.g. Apollo the lyre-player) and charioteers. In ordinary life it was generally pulled up through the girdle and formed a κόλπος ([Greek Art], fig. 2).
Herodotus (v. 82-88) tells a story (cf. [Aegina]), the details of which are to all appearance legendary, in order to account for a change in the fashion of female dress which took place at Athens in the course of the 6th century B.C. Up to that time the “Dorian dress” had been universal, but the Athenians now gave up the use of garments fastened with pins or brooches, and adopted the linen chiton of the Ionians. The statement of Herodotus is illustrated both by Attic vase-paintings and also by the series of archaic female statues from the Acropolis of Athens, which (with the exception of one clothed in the Doric πέπλος) wear the Ionic chiton, together with an outer garment, sometimes laid over both shoulders like a cloak ([Greek Art], fig. 3), but more usually fastened on the right shoulder only, and passed diagonally across the body so as to leave the left arm free. The garment (which resembles the Doric πέπλος, but seems to have been rectangular rather than square) is folded over at the top, and the central part is drawn up towards the right shoulder to produce an elaborate system of zigzag folds ([Greek Art], fig. 22). The borders of the garment are painted with geometrical patterns in vivid colours; a broad stripe of ornament runs down the centre of the skirt.[24]
This fashion of dress was only temporary. Thucydides (i. 6) tells us that in his own time the linen chiton of Ionia had again been discarded in favour of the Doric dress, and the monuments show that after the Persian wars a reaction against Orientalism showed itself in a return to simpler fashions. The long linen chiton, which had been worn by men as well as women, was now only retained by the male sex on religious and festival occasions; a short chiton was, however, worn at work or in active exercise ([Greek Art], fig. 3) and often fastened on the left shoulder only, when it was called χιτὼν ἑτερομάσχαλος or ἐξωμίς. But the garment usually worn by men of mature age was the ἱμάτιον, which was (like the πέπλος) a plain square of woollen stuff. One corner of this was pulled over the left shoulder from the back and tucked in under the left arm; the rest of the garment was brought round the right side of the body and either carried under the right shoulder, across the chest and over the left shoulder, if it was desired that the right arm should be free, or wrapped round the right arm as well as the body, leaving the right hand in a fold like a sling ([Greek Art], fig. 2). The ἱμάτιον was also worn by women over the linen chiton, and draped in a great variety of ways, which may be illustrated by the terra-cotta figurines from Tanagra (4th-3rd cent. B.C.) and the numerous types of female statues, largely represented by copies of Roman date, made to serve as grave-monuments. The upper part of the ἱμάτιον was often drawn over the head as in the example here shown (Plate, fig. 21), a statue formerly in the duke of Sutherland’s collection at Trentham and now in the British Museum.
A lighter garment was the χλαμύς, chlamys, a mantle worn by young men, usually over a short chiton girt at the waist, and fastened on the right shoulder (cf. the figure of Hermes in [Greek Art], fig. 2). The χλαῖνα was a heavy woollen cloak worn in cold weather. Peasants wore sheepskins or garments of hide called βαίτη or σίσυρα; slaves, who were required by custom to conceal their limbs as much as possible, wore a sleeved chiton and long hose.
A woman’s head was usually covered by drawing up the ἱμάτιον (see above), but sometimes instead of this, a separate piece of cloth was made to perform this service, the end of it falling over the himation. This was the καλύπτρα, or veil called κρήδεμνον in Homer. A cap merely intended to cover in the hair and hold it together was called κεκρύφαλος. When the object was only to hold up the hair from the neck, the σφενδόνη was used, which, as its name implies, was in the form of a sling; but in this case it was called more particularly ὀπισθοσφενδόνη, as a distinction from the sphendonē when worn in front of the head. The head ornaments include the διάδημα, a narrow band bound round the hair a little way back from the brow and temples, and fastened in the knot of the hair behind; the ἄμπυξ, a variety of the diadem; the στεφάνη, a crown worn over the forehead, its highest point being in the centre, and narrowing at each side into a thin band which is tied at the back of the head. It is doubtful whether this should be distinguished from the στέφανος, a crown of the same breadth and design all round, as on the coins of Argos with the head of Hera, who is expressly said by Pausanias to wear a stephanos. This word is also employed for crowns of laurel, olive or other plant. High crowns made of wicker-work (πόλοι, κάλαθοι) were also worn (see Gerhard, Antike Bildwerke, pls. 303-305). When the hair, as was most usual, was gathered back from the temples and fastened in a knot behind, hair-pins were required, and these were mostly of bone or ivory, mounted with gold or plain; so also when the hair was tied in a large knot above the forehead, as in the case of Artemis, or of Apollo as leader of the Muses. The early Athenians wore their hair in the fashion termed κρώβυλος, with fastenings called “grasshoppers” (τέττιγες), in allusion to their claim of having originally sprung from the soil (Thuc. i. 6). The τέττιγες have been identified by Helbig with small spirals of gold wire, such as are found in early Etruscan tombs lying near the head of the skeleton. Such spirals were used in early Athens to confine the back hair, and this fashion may therefore be identified as the κρώβυλος. In archaic figures the hair is most frequently arranged over the brow and temples in parallel rows of small curls which must have been kept in their places by artificial means. Ear-rings (ἐνώτια, ἐλλόβια, ἑλικτῆρες) of gold, silver, or bronze plated with gold, and frequently ornamented with pearls, precious stones, or enamel, were worn attached to the lobes of the ear. For necklaces (ὅρμοι), bracelets (ὄφεις), brooches (περόναι), and finger-rings (δακτύλιοι or σφραγῖδες) the same variety and preciousness of material was employed. For the feet the sandal (σάνδαλον, πέδιλον) was the usual wear; for hunting and travelling high boots were worn. The hunting-boot (ἐνδρομίς) was laced up the front, and reached to the calves; the κοθορνος (cothurnus) was a high boot reaching to the middle of the leg, and as worn by tragic actors had high soles. Slippers (περσικαί) were adopted from the East by women; shoes (ἐμβάδες) were worn by the poorer classes. Gloves (χειρῖδες) were worn by the Persians, but apparently never by the Greeks unless to protect the hands when working (Odyssey, xxiv. 230). Hats, which were as a rule worn only by youths, workmen and slaves, were of circular shape, and either of some stiff material, as the Boeotian hat observed in terra-cottas from Tanagra, or of pliant material which could be bent down at the sides like the πέτασος worn by Hermes and sometimes even by women. The καυσία, or Macedonian hat, seems to have been similar to this. The κυρβασία, or κίδαρις, was a high-pointed hat of Persian origin, as was also the τιάρα, which served the double purpose of an ornament and a covering for the head. Workmen wore a close-fitting felt cap (πῖλος).
See F. Studniczka, “Beiträge zur Geschichte der altgriechischen Tracht” (Abhandlungen des arch.-epigr. Seminars in Wien, vii. 1886); Lady Evans, Chapters on Greek Dress (1893); W. Kalkmann, “Zur Tracht archäischer Gewandfiguren” (Jahrb. des k. deutschen arch. Instituts, 1896, pp. 19 ff.); S. Cybulski, Tabulae quibus antiquitates Graecae et Romanae illustrantur, Nos. 16-18 (1903), with text by W. Amelung; Ethel B. Abrahams, Greek Dress (1908).
| Fig. 19. |
iv. Etruscan Costume.—The female dress of the Etruscans did not differ in any important respect from that of the Greeks; it consisted of the chiton and himation, which was in earlier times usually worn as a shawl, not after the fashion of the Doric πέπλος. Two articles of costume, however, were peculiar to the Etruscans—the high conical hat known as the tutulus,[25] and the shoes with turned-up points (Latin calcei repandi). These have oriental analogies, and lend support to the tradition that the Etruscans came from Asia. Both are represented on a small bronze figure in the British Museum (fig. 19). On a celebrated terra-cotta sarcophagus in the British Museum of much later date (fig. 20), the female figure reclining on the lid wears a Greek chiton of a thin white material, with short sleeves fastened on the outside of the arm, by means of buttons and loops; a himation of dark purple thick stuff is wrapped round her hips and legs; on her feet are sandals, consisting of a sole apparently of leather, and attached to the foot and leg with leather straps; under the straps are thin socks which do not cover the toes; she wears a necklace of heavy pendants; her ears are pierced for ear-rings; her hair is partly gathered together with a ribbon at the roots behind, and partly hangs in long tresses before and behind; a flat diadem is bound round her head a little way back from the brow and temples. Purple, pale green and white, richly embroidered, are favourite colours in the dresses represented on the painted tombs.
| Redrawn from photo (Mansell). Fig. 20. |
The chief article of male dress was called the tebenna. We are told by ancient writers that the toga praetexta, with its purple border (περιπόρφυρος τήβεννα), as worn by Roman magistrates and priests, had been derived from the Etruscans (Pliny, N.H. ix. 63, “praetextae apud Etruscos originem invenere”); and the famous statue of the orator in Florence (Plate, fig. 22), an Etruscan work of the 3rd century B.C., represents a man clothed in this garment, which will be described below. Under the tebenna, or toga, which was necessary only for public appearance, the Etruscans wore a short tunic similar to the Greek chiton. For workmen and others of inferior occupation this appears to have been the only dress. Youths, when engaged in horsemanship and other exercises, wore a chlamys round the shoulders, which, however, was semicircular in cut, and was fastened on the breast by buttons and a loop, or tied in a knot, whereas the Greek chlamys was oblong and fastened on the shoulder by a brooch. On public or festal occasions the Etruscan noble wore, besides the tebenna, a bulla, or necklace of bullae, and a wreath, corona Etrusca. The bulla was a circular gold locket containing a charm of some kind against evil.[26] On the later sarcophagi the male figures wear not only a wreath or corona proper, but also a garland of flowers hung round the neck. The male head-dress was the galerus, a hat of leather, said to have been worn by the Lucumos in early times, or the apex, a pointed hat corresponding to the tutulus worn by females. The fashion of shoes worn by Roman senators was said to have been derived from Etruria. Etruscan shoes were prized both in Greece and in Rome.