Part 2

ἀμφὶ δ᾽ οἱ κυνέην κεφαλῆφιν ἔθηκεν ῥινοῦ ποιητήν· πολέσιν δ᾽ ἔντοσθεν ἱμᾶσιν ἐντέτατο στερεῶς, ἔκτοσθε δὲ λευκοὶ ὄδοντες ἀργιοδόντος ὑὸς. Θαμέες ἔχον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα εὖ καὶ ἐπισταμένως.

“And about his head he set a helmet made of leather; and inside it was stiffly wrought with many thongs, and outside the white teeth of a boar with shining tusks were set close together, this way and that, well and cunningly arranged.”

[9] Schliemann, _Mycenæ_, pp. 272, 273.

[10] Perrot and Chipiez, VI., fig. 380; Ἐφημερίς Ἀρχαιολογική, 1888, pl. viii.

In some cases the helmet presents a strikingly Egyptian appearance, and may quite possibly have been derived from Egypt; evidence of direct intercourse between the Cretans and Egyptians is not wanting; indeed the clearest representation of the costume of the pre-Hellenic inhabitants of the Ægean shores is to be found on an Egyptian tomb fresco,[11] where the Kefts are depicted bringing vases as tribute to the Egyptian monarch, their costume is identical with that of the cupbearer from the Knossian fresco, and they are carrying vessels of the same shapes as many which have been found in Crete and on other Mycenæan sites. It has been pointed out by Mr H. R. Hall[12] that the Keftiu were the people of the Ægean islands, including Crete, and that sometimes the name was applied exclusively to the Cretans. The Keftiu were formerly mistaken for Phœnicians; but their whole appearance and costume on the Egyptian fresco is utterly unlike anything Phœnician; so we are quite justified in considering that they represent the Cretans faithfully as they appeared to the Egyptians, especially in view of their similarity to the cupbearer of the fresco at Knossos, a native product of Cretan art.

[11] Perrot and Chipiez, III., fig. 303.

[12] _British School Annual_, IX., “Keftiu and the Peoples of the Sea.”

A striking analogy to the pre-Hellenic male costume is to be observed in the Etruscan wall-paintings from the tombs at Corneto, now in the British Museum. The waist-cloth, shoes, and head-dress are there represented in a form almost identical with that found in Mycenæan art. So little is known of the origin of the Etruscans, that it is difficult to say whether this similarity of dress indicates any racial connection between the two peoples; it is interesting to note that among ancient authorities Hellanicus of Lesbos states that the Etruscans were of Pelasgian origin, and modern writers have claimed a Pelasgian origin for the Cretans; there is not sufficient evidence forthcoming at present to determine whether they are right or wrong; but in any case, it is not improbable that both the Etruscans and the Cretans were branches of a common civilization, which spread itself all round the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in pre-Hellenic times, and that the Etruscans maintained some of their early characteristics down to a later date than other peoples of the same race.[13]

[13] Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités_, _s.v._ “Etrusci.”

Turning to the female costume of the pre-Hellenic age, we find we have something far more complicated to deal with. The same style of dress is found on the early faïence figures from Knossos and Petsofa, and extends right on until quite late Mycenæan times.

It consists of a short-sleeved jacket, fitting closely to the figure, and a full skirt, standing out round the feet in a manner suggestive of the hoops of the early Victorian age. The juncture of the two garments is hidden by a thick double girdle worn round the waist, which is pinched into the smallest possible compass.

The snake goddess and her votary[14] from Knossos have, in addition, a kind of apron reaching almost to the knees in front and behind, and rising to the hips at the sides. The costume is completed by the addition of a high hat or turban.

[14] Figs. 2 and 3 from _British School Annual_, IX.

Looking at the snake goddess more in detail, we find that the jacket is cut away into a V-shape from the neck to the waist, leaving both the breasts quite bare; the two edges are laced across below the breast, the laces being fastened in a series of bows. The jacket is covered with an elaborate volute pattern, the apron with spots and bordered with a “guilloche.” The horizontal lines on the skirt probably represent stripes in the material, the edge being ornamented with a reticulated band. The girdle of the goddess is composed of two snakes intertwined. The head-dress here consists of a high turban, probably made of cloth or linen wound round some kind of framework. The principle of the costume is always the same, though the fashions vary considerably in detail: for example, the skirt of the votary is composed of a series of seven flounces, one above the other, the lower edge in each case just covering the upper edge of the flounce below, the whole being probably sewn on to a foundation. On a fresco[15] representing a lady dancing, the skirt seems to consist of three such flounces. On the same figure the breast is not left bare, but a chemisette seems to be worn under the jacket, possibly made of some fine linen material, the edge of which is distinctly indicated at the neck. In one of the statuettes from Petsofa[16] the jacket terminates at the back in a high “Medici” collar, and in another fresco, from Knossos, a high sash appears on the back, the loop reaching to the nape of the neck, and the fringed edge hanging down to the waist; at first sight this sash recalls the Japanese “Obi.”[17] The millinery of the Cretan ladies, as illustrated by the terra-cotta fragments from Petsofa, exhibits an abundant variety of styles. The hat seems to have consisted of a flat, circular, or oval piece of material pinched up into any shape to suit the taste of the wearer; sometimes it is fastened down towards the nape of the neck, and curves round the head, rising high up in front over the face; in one case[18] the brim has a wavy edge and is trimmed with rosettes underneath; frequently it is done up into a large “toque” shape, narrowing to a point in front; this form occurs also on late Mycenæan terra-cottas.

[15] Fig. 4, only a very small fragment of the skirt remains; but the painting has been restored. Reproduced from the _British School Annual_, VIII., fig. 28.

[16] Fig. 5 from _British School Annual_, IX., pl. viii.

[17] The large sash worn over the “Kimono” and tied rather high up at the back.

[18] _British School Annual_, IX., pls. xi. and xii.

On none of the examples of costume quoted above is there any indication of fastening; the garments are obviously constructed by an elaborate system of sewing, but the means by which they were held in place on the figure is not represented, except in the case of the bodices of the goddess and her votary, which are laced across by cords. The use of fibulæ is nowhere indicated in art; and no fibulæ have been found, except in the later Mycenæan graves, which in all probability belong to the Achæan civilization introduced into Greece by the invasions from Central Europe.[19] A fragmentary hand from Petsofa has a bracelet represented in white paint, which is clearly fastened by means of a button and loop; since this method of fastening was known to the Cretans, it is probable that the ladies’ skirts were fastened at the waist by buttons and loops, the fastening being concealed by the belt, as is the case with the modern blouse and skirt costume.

[19] On “fibulæ,” see Sophus Müller, _Urgeschichte Europas_, p. 95. O. Montelius, _Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times_.

It has been pointed out by Mr J. L. Myres[20] that this jacket and apron type of dress is commonly worn at the present day by the peasants of the mountainous districts of Europe, chiefly in Italy, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Norway, and the Pyrenees. In Norway and Switzerland, moreover, we find the addition of a fan-like head-dress analogous to that represented in Minoan art. The appearance of the same kind of costume in Crete in the third millennium before our era merely serves to show that the type of dress need not necessarily be a modern development, but may possibly claim greater antiquity than has hitherto been supposed. The question of survival in the Ægean is interesting; as late as Tournefort’s[21] time, the inhabitants of some of the islands—for example, Mycone—appear to have worn a dress composed of a tight jacket and flounced skirt, with the addition of some Turkish elements; in the remoter islands there is a possibility—but it is little more than a possibility—that this may be a case of survival; in any case, the type seems to have disappeared in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century.[22]

[20] _British School Annual_, IX.

[21] Tournefort, I., 109.

[22] See also, Choiseul-Gouffier, _Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce_, Paris, 1809, where the women of the islands are represented wearing a tight corslet over a chemisette. A high head-dress, not unlike that of the Petsofa statuettes, was commonly worn by the island women as late as the eighteenth century.

II

HOMERIC

Turning to the various passages in the Homeric poems which refer to dress, we find that there is very little likelihood that they can be intended to describe the kind of costume dealt with above under the name of “Pre-Hellenic Dress.” The words used, and the accounts of the process of dressing, have no meaning, unless we suppose them to refer to the draped type of costume as opposed both to the close-fitting jacket type and to the dressing-gown type, consisting of a loose-sleeved garment opening down the front. The question of the kind of dress actually worn by the Trojan and Achæan heroes is not one to be entered into here; possibly it may have been the same as that reflected in the art of the Minoan and Mycenæan peoples; indeed, if the Trojans represent the older race which inhabited the shores of the Ægean, and the Achæans the invaders who came down upon them from the north, there is every probability that the former wore the pre-Hellenic dress, and the latter introduced the new Hellenic draped type. The use of the epithets βαθύκολπος and βαθύζωνος, “deep-bosomed” and “deep-girdled,” in the Homeric poems perhaps has some bearing on this point. Referring respectively to the deep hollow between the breasts and to the girdle cutting deep into the figure, they might well be applied to the wasp-waisted ladies of Knossos. It is significant to notice that βαθύκολπος is used only of Trojan women,[23] βαθύζωνος only of barbarian captives;[24] possibly the poet may be unconsciously referring to the difference between the dress of the older race and that of their Achæan conquerors.

[23] _Iliad_, 18. 122, 389, 24. 215.

[24] _Ibid._, 9. 594; _Odyssey_, 3. 154.

However that may be, in most cases Homer ascribes the same kind of costume to Achæans and Trojans alike; he is singing of deeds that happened many years, perhaps even two or three centuries, before his day, and being no archæologist, he imagines his heroes to have dressed as his own contemporaries did; he is acting no differently from the Italian masters, who painted their Madonnas in mediæval costume.

We find in Homer many differences in the nomenclature used when speaking of men’s and women’s dresses respectively. The words χιτών and χλαῖνα are applied exclusively to men’s costume, πέπλος and κρήδεμνον exclusively to women’s, whereas the word φᾶρος is the only one used indifferently for either; both men and women alike fasten their garments with brooches or pins of some kind (περόνη, ἐνετή) and with girdles (ζώνη, ζωστήρ). Many of the words applied to articles of wearing-apparel are also used to signify coverings for beds, seats, etc.: such are χλαῖνα, ῥήγεα, πέπλος, φᾶρος; the last is used also of sails and of the shroud of Laertes.[25] This being the case, we must infer that they were not made-up garments, but large square or oblong pieces of material which could be used for other purposes besides clothing; the Homeric dress, therefore, must belong to the draped type rather than to any other.

[25] _Odyssey_, xix., 137.

The men’s dress in Homer regularly consists of two pieces—the χιτών, or under-garment, and a cloak called variously χλαῖνα, φᾶρος, or, in one case, λώπη.[26] Warriors sometimes wore a skin instead of the mantle. For example, in _Iliad_, x., 22, Agamemnon is described as putting on a lion’s skin, and a few lines further on Menelaus appears wearing a dappled leopard’s skin.

[26] _Ibid._, xiii., 22.

The description of the process of dressing in the _Iliad_ is simple and straightforward. Agamemnon[27] awakes in the morning, and prepares to meet the assembly of the Achæans:

ἕζετο δ᾽ ὀρθωθεὶς μαλακὸν δ᾽ ἔνδυνε χιτῶνα καλὸν νηγατέον, περὶ δὲ μέγα βάλλετο φᾶρος· πόσσι δ᾽ ὑπὸ λιταροῖσιν ἐδῆσατο καλὰ πέδιλα, ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὤμοισιν βάλετο ξίφος ἀργυρόηλον.

“He sat upright and drew on his soft tunic, fair and new, and threw around him his great cloak: and beneath his shining feet he bound fair sandals, and around his shoulders he slung his silver-studded sword.”

[27] _Iliad_, ii., 42.

The χιτών was apparently, then, a garment which could be drawn on (ἔνδυνε) while in a sitting position. No mention is made, either in this or other similar passages, of pins or girdle to fasten the χιτών, so we may infer that it was a rather narrow garment sewn up at the two sides, with openings left for the head and arms.

Studniczka[28] gives a diagram of such a garment, which he describes as a sack left open at the bottom, with openings in the top and side-seams for head and arms.

[28] _Beiträge zur Geschichte der altgriechischen Tracht_, p. 13.

The words ἐνδύνω, ἐκδύνω, are commonly used for “to put on” and “to take off” a χιτών, which seems to imply that the garment was drawn over the head; although occasionally περί is used with the simple verb δύνω instead of the compound ἐνδύνω.[29] In no case is there any mention of pins or brooches in connection with the χιτών, so we are justified in inferring that it was a sewn garment; and in _Odyssey_, xxiv., 227, the χιτών of Laertes is actually described as sewn:

ῥυπόωντα δὲ ἕστο χιτῶνα ῥαπτὸν ἀεικέλιον.

“He wore a sewn tunic, dirty and unseemly.”

[29] _Odyssey_, xv., 60.

As a rule, the χιτών was worn ungirdled, except when the wearer was engaged in vigorous action, when he is usually described as girding himself for the purpose. For example, in the _Odyssey_,[30] when Eumæus is going to slay pigs, he prepares himself by confining his χιτών with a girdle:

ὣς εἰπὼν ζωστῆρι θοῶς συνέεργε χιτῶνα.

[30] xiv. 72.

Little mention is made in the Homeric poems of the length of the χιτών, but the distinguishing epithet of the Ionians is ἑλκεχίτωνες—with trailing chitons—so that trailing garments were evidently customary only among the Ionians; warriors while fighting and slaves occupied in active work would probably wear very short garments reaching only to the thigh, as they are to be seen on the earliest vase-paintings. The princes and elders of the people, engaged in peaceful pursuits, in all probability wore them reaching to the ankles. The word τερμίοεις, applied to the χιτών in _Odyssey_, xix., 242, is usually taken to mean “reaching to the feet,” and to be equivalent to ποδήρης, used by later writers.

With regard to the material of which the χιτών was made, the word itself is connected with a Semitic root signifying linen;[31] and from the various epithets applied to it in Homer, it is reasonable to infer that the garment was ordinarily made of that material. It is described as σιγαλόεις, “shining” or “glossy”; and although this particular epithet need mean no more than “dazzlingly clean,” its comparison for softness and brightness with the skin of an onion[32] would hardly be very apt, if it were made of a stuff that did not present a very smooth surface; a hand-woven woollen material might possibly be called μαλακός, “soft,” but could hardly be described as shining like the sun. Two passages in Homer show clearly that oil was used in the weaving of linen, which would have the effect of producing a shiny appearance. The maidens in the palace of Alcinous are described as weaving linen from which the oil runs off:

καιρουσσέων δ᾽ ὀθονέων ἀπολείβεται ὑγρὸν ἔλαιον. [_Odyssey_, vii., 107.]

“And from the close-woven linen the liquid oil runs off,” and in _Iliad_, 596, the youths in the dancing place on the shield of Achilles are described as wearing χιτῶνας ἐϋννήτους, ἦκα στίλβοντας ἐλαίῳ, “well spun, shining softly with oil.”

[31] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real Encyclopädie_, _s.v._ “χιτών,” Studniczka, p. 15 f.

[32] _Odyssey_, xix., 232:

τὸν δὲ χιτῶν᾽ ἐνόησα περὶ χροῒ σιγαλόεντα οἷόν τε κρομύοιο λοπὸν κάτα ἰσχαλέοιο τὼς μὲν ἔην μαλακὸς, λαμπρὸς δ᾽ ἦν ἠέλιος ὥς.

“And I saw the shining tunic on his body, like the skin of a dried onion—so soft it was, and bright as the sun.”

The epithet στρέπτος applied to the χιτών[33] requires comment; it was taken by Aristarchus, the grammarian, to mean a coat of chain mail. There is no evidence to show that such a piece of defensive armour was known to the early Greeks, and we find no reference to it until Roman times; there is, therefore, no justification for the inference that στρέπτος χιτών in Homer means a coat of mail.

[33] _Iliad_, v., 113; xxi., 31.

The word στρέπτος means primarily “twisted,” and could be applied to a coarse kind of linen whose texture showed very clearly the separate threads of which it was woven; but other uses of the word in Homer, and the second of the two passages in which it is applied to a χιτών, suggest a different interpretation. In _Odyssey_, ii., 426, in the description of the rigging of a ship, the expression εὐστρέπτοισι βοεῦσιν occurs. The adjective here can very well retain its simple meaning—“well-twisted”; the noun can mean nothing else but “ropes of ox-hide”—that is to say, the whole expression will signify ropes made of well-twisted thongs of leather.

The passage referred to in the _Iliad_ runs as follows:—

δῆσε δ᾽ ὀπίσσω χεῖρας εὐτμήτοισιν ἱμᾶσι τοὺς αὐτοὶ φορέεσκον ἐπὶ στρεπτοῖσι χιτῶσι. [_Iliad_, xxi., 30.]

The subject is the sacrifice of the twelve boys at the funeral of Patroclus.

Achilles bound their hands behind them with the well-cut thongs which they wore on their twisted chitons. The word ἱμᾶσι implies leather, and the only kind of chiton which would be likely to have leather thongs attached to it would be a jerkin made of leather, perhaps plaited in some way and fastened by means of leather laces. Such a garment might be worn in war under a metal breast-plate, or if very stoutly made might even serve as defensive armour, without the addition of any corslet; in any case, it would afford more protection than an ordinary linen chiton such as was worn by those engaged in the pursuits of peace.

Another garment worn by men is the ζῶμα, which appears at first sight to mean simply a girdle, but in one or two passages signifies something more. The word is obviously connected with the verb ζώννυμι, “to gird on,” and means a “thing girt on.” The word might well apply to a girdle, but it might also be used of anything put on round the waist, and so of a waist-cloth; there can be little doubt that it has this meaning in _Iliad_, xxiii., 683, where a description is being given of the preparations for a boxing match; and a few lines further on the participle ζωσαμένω, applied to the wrestlers, in all probability means putting on their waist-cloths. In other passages where the word occurs, its meaning is less obvious, although here too there is nothing to render the same interpretation impossible. In _Iliad_, iv., 186, a weapon is described as not inflicting a mortal wound:

εἰρύσατο ζωστήρ τε παναίολος ἠδ᾽ ὑπένερθεν ζῶμά τε καὶ μίτρη, τὴν χαλκῆες κάμον ἄνδρες.

“But the shining belt checked it, and the waist-cloth beneath, and the kirtle which the coppersmiths fashioned.”

Here the ζωστήρ and the μίτρη are obviously pieces of armour, and the ζῶμα is a garment worn under the ζωστήρ, and can very well bear the meaning of a waist-cloth. Such garments were worn at all periods; they formed the regular dress of the men of the pre-Hellenic age; they occur also on vases of the classical period.[34] There is no necessity, therefore, to suppose, as Studniczka does, that the word here is synonymous with χιτών. Studniczka supports his interpretation of this passage by another, _Odyssey_, xiv., 478 f., where Eumæus is describing to Odysseus an occasion when he and comrades had to sleep in the open air, and he felt the cold because he had foolishly left his cloak behind him, and had only his shield and ζῶμα φαεινόν. The expression could here maintain its signification of “waist-cloth”; only, the simple meaning is obscured by a phrase some five lines further on, when Eumæus continues:

οὐ γὰρ ἔχω χλαῖναν· παρὰ μ᾽ ἤπαφε δαίμων οἰοχίτων᾽ ἔμεναι.

“I had no cloak: some god beguiled me to go with only a single garment.”

[34] Cp. Fig. 7 (_a_); the human figure struggling with the Minotaur.

The simple meaning of οἰοχίτων is, “wearing only a chiton,” or under-garment; but without stretching the meaning of the expression very far, we can easily suppose its being applied to a man clad only in a waist-cloth; so that even here it is not necessary to suppose that ζῶμα is another word for χιτών.

We must next consider the over-garment worn by the Homeric heroes, for which several words are used, the most common being χλαῖνα and φᾶρος.