Читать книгу The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks - Hugo Blumner - Страница 5

Table of Contents

Costumes, Stitched and Draped—The Chiton—The Himation or Chlaina—Drapery—The Uniform Male Dresses of Sparta—The Chlamys—Similarity Between Male and Female Costumes—The Difference Between Doric and Ionic Garments—The Fashion at Athens in the Fifth Century B.C.—The Materials—Footgear—Leggings—Head-Coverings—Mode of Dressing the Hair.

To obtain a complete insight into the life of former ages we require primarily a knowledge of the historical and geographical, political, and religious conditions of the people in question, as well as of its intellectual development in art and science. These, however, it is not our purpose to consider here. The second requisite for a vivid picture is a clear notion of the surroundings in which the people of that time lived: their dwellings, furniture, utensils, etc. And lastly, there is another point, the knowledge of which is no less indispensable in order to obtain a clear image of the past, and that is the costume. Our knowledge of the customs and habits of daily life appears far more real, and stands out more vividly, if we can also form in our minds a picture of the people of that time. Thus no one can expect to form a clear picture of mediaeval life without at least a general notion of the costume of that period. This is equally true of every epoch of civilisation, even of a period so little distant from us in time as the eighteenth century.

We therefore preface our description of Greek life with an account of the details of Greek costume, and of its historical development; and our reasons for going into greater detail here than in other domains is that there are so many wrong, or at any rate incomplete, notions extant concerning it. For when we speak to-day of Greek costume we may generally assume that the majority of people, if female dress is in question, think of the drapery of the magnificent female figures in the Parthenon marbles; while, as regards male costume, their minds will at once recur to the classic figure of Sophocles in the Lateran or of the Aeschines of Naples, and form their notion of Greek male costume accordingly. It is, however, absolutely wrong to regard these as typical of Greek dress. They represent neither the costume of all Hellas nor that of the whole Greek age. That “noble simplicity and quiet greatness,” which is as conspicuous in the dress of the age of Pericles as in its art, is, like the latter, the product of slow development through various phases, concerning which, with the exception of a few literary allusions, the monuments give us all the information we possess.

Generally speaking, we may distinguish, both in male and female Greek costume, two kinds of garments—those which are cut in a certain shape and partly stitched, and mantles of various shapes which are draped on the figure and only acquire their form by means of this draping. This distinction holds good with few exceptions throughout the whole history of Greek costume; and, generally speaking, it is the under garments which are stitched, while the upper garments are draped. Yet we must observe that, while male clothing is, as a rule, confined to two garments, we very often find in female costume a third, or even a fourth, belonging sometimes to the first and sometimes to the second of the above-mentioned classes.

The names which were used throughout almost the whole of Greek antiquity for the two chief articles of dress are, for the under garment, chiton; for the upper garment, himation. These terms are used for both male and female garments, but several other designations are used, and the word himation is not found in the Homeric period, but the cloak which is worn over the chiton is called chlaina.

We may treat first of male costume. As regards the chiton of the oldest period, we infer, from allusions in epic poetry, with which the oldest monuments agree (for the discoveries at Mycenae give us no distinct notion of pre-Homeric costume), that both the short and the long kinds were in use. The short chiton seems to be the usual dress of daily life; it was especially worn when free movement was required, and was therefore the suitable garment for war or hunting, for gymnastic exercises or manual labour. The long chiton, which was afterwards regarded as especially Ionic, and certainly maintained itself longer in Ionia and in Attica than in the rest of Greece, was not, however, unknown to the Doric races. It was the usual dress for men of advanced age and good position; it was also worn by young people on festive occasions. We therefore find on the monuments of the oldest style that not only the older gods wear a long chiton, but also that young men are clothed in it on festive occasions, or if they are in any way connected with religious functions, as, for instance, priests, harp-players, flute-players, charioteers, etc. This use of the long chiton remains up to the classic period. Thus, for instance, we see the figure known as the Archon Basileus in the central group of the Eastern Parthenon frieze in this dress; and tragic actors, if they represented men of good position and in peaceful circumstances, also continued to wear the long chiton.

Epic poetry itself gives us no direct information about the shape of the chiton in the Homeric period. Helbig maintains, basing his assertions on some casual indications, and chiefly on the oldest monuments, that it differed from the dress of the classic period in being close-fitting and free from folds. It is true that the old vase paintings show us the short chiton fitting closely round the body and drawn quite firmly round the legs. It is girt fast round the hips, and as a rule does not go below the knee. However, it is not safe to draw conclusions of this kind from ancient pictures, for much which might be regarded as characteristic of ancient costume may be due only to the incompleteness of art, which was not yet capable of representing full garments with folds. Thus, in ancient works of art, the long chiton also appears quite narrow in the upper part, but then falls perpendicularly from the waist, sometimes gradually, but more often straight without any folds to the feet. (Compare the figure of Apollo in Fig. 1 and of Priam in Fig. 2.) Both the long and short chitons as a rule have no sleeves, but only an armhole; we sometimes find short sleeves not quite covering the upper arm. Unfortunately, we cannot form a clear notion from the pictures of the mode in which it was put on. It is, however, probable that the

Fig. 1.

Luk de Binleail A Roy. sc

short chiton was sewn together all round and thrown over the head, where there may have been an additional slit connected with this opening, and fastened with a pin. There are, however, no traces of this on the monuments, nor are fibulae or brooches mentioned in the Homeric descriptions in connection with the male chiton. Probably the long chiton was cut in the manner of a chemise. Helbig’s hypothesis that there was a slit down the middle of the front is just as uncertain as his similar assumption with regard to Homeric female dress.

Fig. 2.

Besides the chiton, the older male costume also had a sort of loincloth or apron. It is not at all improbable that at one period the Greeks wore merely the apron and cloak, and no chiton. When the latter became universally fashionable (which, according to recent surmises, was due to Semitic influence) the cloth disappeared, or continued only as part of military dress.

The himation, or chlaina, appears on ancient monuments stiff and free from folds, like the chiton. This is a garment resembling a mantle, which appears in many archaic vase pictures in two distinct forms: either as a wide cloak covering the greater part of the body, or as a narrow covering lightly draped. The first form, corresponding to the later male himation, is most commonly combined with the long chiton. The cut of this cloak is four-cornered, probably oblong, and it is worn in such a way that the greater part of it falls behind and covers the back and part of the legs, while in front it is thrown over the shoulders and arms, and falls down over the body, two of its points falling within the arms and the other two without. The other form, which may be in general compared with the later chlamys, is found with both the long and the short chiton, and is also sometimes worn as the only covering, without any under garment. This may, however, be regarded as the ideal clothing, which does not correspond to real life, just as in later monuments we find the chlamys alone without the chiton. It is put on in such a way that the lower arm is left uncovered, and the two points fall down in front over the shoulder and upper arm, while behind it either covers only the upper part of the back, or else the cloak falls down so far that its edge is almost as low as the points in front. (Compare Fig. 3, representing a dance from the François vase.) We cannot pronounce with certainty on the shape of this cloak. It appears, however, to have been oval or elliptical, and to have ended in two points; it was folded in such a way that the folded part was worn inside, while the edges, which were ornamented with wide borders, fell outside. In Fig. 2, where the shape of the cloak is that of an ellipse cut through the long axis, the folding is also evident. I should therefore differ from Helbig in regarding this narrower chlaina as the garment called in epic poetry diplax. Neither kind of cloak is fastened, and they both differ from that of later periods in being worn open in front. In Homeric poetry another kind of chlaina is also mentioned, which corresponds more closely to the later one; since it is stated that the folded chlaina is fastened on the shoulder with a brooch. No proof of this, however, has as yet been found in the older monuments.

Fig. 3.

As a remnant of the most primitive dress, clothes made of skins, such as were afterwards worn only by country people, huntsmen and the like, still existed in the Homeric age. Homer several times mentions skins as the dress of soldiers; on the older monuments we see them drawn over a short chiton, and sometimes even fastened with a girdle.

How long this ancient dress continued in use we cannot determine with any certainty; but the majority even of vase pictures with black figures show a different dress. It is true, as we mentioned just now, that the long chiton still continued in use besides the short one, but the cut and the mode of wearing it changed.

The monuments of this period almost always show signs of drapery, and this is, moreover, of an artificial, exaggerated, and pedantic kind. It must have been the fashion at that time, that is, from the sixth till nearly the middle of the fifth century, to lay the folds of men’s dress, as well as of women’s, in symmetrically parallel lines. In pictures the lower edges of dresses and cloaks show various regularly cut-out points, while on the inner side there are many small zigzag folds arranged with laborious symmetry. (Compare Fig. 4, “The Rape of Helen,” after a vase picture by the vase painter Hiero.) This may be partly due to the artistic style, which at that period inclined to over-elaboration; yet it is impossible to doubt that we find here not only an expression of archaic art, but also the representation of a dress laboriously and artificially folded, stiffened, and ironed, in which the folds were produced by external aids, such as ironing, starching, pressing, even stitching of the stuff laid in folds, or sewing such folds on to the material. We cannot determine when this custom began in Greece. In works of art we find it comparatively late in the sixth century B.C.; yet, as Helbig remarks, it is by no means impossible that this fashion existed at a far more ancient period, since the custom of laying material in artificial folds by means of stiffening or ironing was already known in Egypt in 4000 B.C.; and it therefore seems extremely probable that the Phoenicians adopted the practice at a very early period, and introduced it into Greece. It is a very natural assumption that this mode of draping would in the first instance be adopted for linen material, and that it would therefore be introduced among the Greeks with the linen chiton, which took the place of the woollen one formerly worn.

Fig. 4.

On the other hand, however, it is probable that, as woollen clothing was afterwards worn as well as linen, they attempted to ornament this in similar fashion by artificial folds; the works of art, however, show that these folds were far less in quantity and less sharply defined in woollen clothing than in linen, which is naturally much better adapted for the purpose.

Apart from the folds, the clothes now became wider and more comfortable, and were less closely girt round the hips. The chiton is still a garment made by sewing, and the long differs from the short only in length, not in shape. Both are, as a rule, so cut as to be sewn together regularly below the girdle; above the girdle they are sometimes provided with a slit on one side to facilitate putting on. They usually have sleeves, sometimes short, sometimes long; these are either fastened all round, or, as is also the case in female dress, open at the top and fastened by pins or buttons. In this case the chiton is sewn in such a manner as to be all in one above the girdle as far as the sleeve, and open at the top, so that the slits for the arms and neck are connected; the wearer puts the chiton over his head, draws up the sleeve on the upper arm, and thus supplies the opening for the neck. Besides this, there is often an ornamental arrangement such as we find in the female dress of the same period a puff of regular folds (kolpos), formed by drawing up the dress over the girdle and letting the piece drawn up all round fall again over the girdle; and, in addition, a bib falling over the breast in zig-zag folds, which appears, as a rule, to be a separate piece sewn on the dress at the opening of the neck. In Fig. 4 we observe the kolpos and bib over the short chiton of Hermes in the centre, the bib also over the long chiton of Paris (on the left), and of Tyndareus (on the right).

In this dress we already find the elements of the male costume common throughout classic Greece in the fifth century. It is modelled on the ancient elaborate style, and the sewing is reduced as much as possible, while the garment falls in regular free folds, and fits closely to the figure. According to Thucydides, it was at Sparta that it first became customary to adopt a uniform dress for the whole male population, and thus to do away with a distinction which had hitherto prevailed between the dress of poor and rich. This distinction, at any rate, held in so far that at Athens the richer people, as Thucydides states, wore the long linen chiton, the poorer people the short woollen one. At Athens and in Ionia the long linen chiton remained as the dress of older people till shortly before the time of Thucydides; but then it was universally discarded, or rather reserved for the classes mentioned above, and for festive occasions; while the short woollen chiton from that period became the universal dress. This is usually found in the form of a widish garment sewn together below the girdle, and above it divided into two parts, a front and back piece, put on in such a manner as to be fastened together by pins or fibulae on the shoulder. If the chiton was allowed to fall quite free it usually fell down about as far as the knees; but it was customary, especially when unimpeded and free movement was necessary, to draw up a part above the girdle and let it fall in folds below it. (Compare Fig. 5.) Workmen, countrymen, sailors, and others whose occupation required free movement of the right arm, used only to fasten the two pieces of the chiton on the left shoulder, then the points of the other side hung down in front and behind, and left the

Fig. 5.

right breast, shoulder, and arm exposed. This costume, of which the relief in Fig. 6 gives a representation, was called exomis. Strictly speaking, it is no actual garment, but only a particular way of wearing the chiton; but special tunics for labourers were made in

Fig. 6.

this fashion. Besides this, chitons were afterwards made with the upper part also sewn together, and with armholes or short sleeves, which, however, never covered more than a part of the upper arm. Long sleeves falling to the hand belong exclusively to barbarian costume. Yet the bib, which as late as the first half of the fifth century was worn with the male chiton also, is not a part of later costume.

From this time onward the name “himation” was used for the cloak worn with the chiton, while “chlaina” was only retained for a special kind, distinct rather by its material than by its shape. The himation was often worn in the oldest period in the way described above, that is, with two points falling on the two sides in front. (Compare the Hermes in Fig. 4.) But it became more and more common, and from the classic period onwards quite universal, to fold the cloak tightly round, and this was done as follows. One point was drawn from the back over the left shoulder and held fast here between the chest and arm, then the cloak was drawn round over the back in wide folds reaching to the shins, and from there back again to the front on the right side. This was done in two ways. If the right arm was to be kept free the himation was drawn through under the right shoulder and in front folded across the body and chest, while the last piece was thrown back across the left shoulder (compare the Paris in Fig. 4 on the left), or else over the left arm (compare the man on the right in Fig. 4). The other mode, and the one common in the dress of an ordinary citizen, was to draw the cloak over the right arm and shoulder, so that at most the right hand was exposed, and then to throw it back again over the left shoulder. This arrangement was facilitated by small weights of clay or lead sewn on

Fig. 7.

the points, which helped to keep the cloak firm in its place. It was, however, a special art, which required practice, and probably also assistance, to produce a beautiful and harmonious drapery in this kind of dress; and the position of the wearer showed itself in the way in which he wore his himation, which ought neither to be drawn up too far, nor fall too low. It was also regarded as inelegant to wear the cloak from right to left. There is no nobler or more perfect example of this costume, in which the chiton is combined with the himation, than the portrait statue of Sophocles in the Lateran given in Fig. 7. Here the wide cloak with its many folds covers the form in such a way as not to hide the shape of the body, and the various folds caused by the position of the arm and the mode of draping the cloak are combined together in the most harmonious manner. A humorous counterpart of this ideal figure is Fig. 8 in terra-cotta, representing a vulgar citizen in chiton and himation.

Fig. 8.

The “chlamys” was a special kind of cloak which originated in Thessaly, but from the fifth century

Fig. 9.

onwards became common in Greece. Originally it was a soldier’s or rider’s dress, and is, therefore, only seen on statues worn over armour. It is a short cloak of light material and oval shape, fastened by means of a brooch either in front at the neck, or more commonly on the right shoulder, thus covering the left arm and leaving the right free. (Compare Figs. 9 and 9, of which Fig. 9 shows the former mode of wearing the cloak, while in Fig. 10 the youth with the spear has his whole left side covered by the chlamys.) The chlamys was the common dress of youths as soon as they attained their majority ἐϕηβεία and entered the cavalry; till that age they wore no upper garment over the chiton in the ancient period, but in later times a wide himation, in which they usually enveloped themselves entirely. It was regarded as correct for modest boys not to have their arms exposed. Hermes also, the divine representative of youth, usually appears in the chlamys, but this is generally lightly folded and thrown over the left arm. Apollo too, except where he wears the long chiton as harp-player, is usually represented on works of art with the chlamys. It is, however, unusual in male dress, with the exception of military costume, and is never found in combination with the long chiton.

Fig. 10.

At home, as a rule, only the chiton was worn. It was, however, not considered correct to be seen thus in the street: only artisans or eccentric people went out without a cloak; but it was just as incorrect to appear without the chiton, only in the himation or chlamys. It is true this is very common on works of art: Zeus, Poseidon, and some other gods are represented without the chiton, and only in the himation, and Hermes and Apollo only in the chlamys; and even in representations of daily life we very often see in statues, reliefs, vase pictures, etc., men without under garments, clad only in the cloak (compare the youth in Fig. 9), and also in portrait figures. This is, however, a liberty taken by artists in order to avoid concealing the body entirely by the dress, but by no means corresponding to reality. Only those who specially desired to harden their bodies, and also poor people and certain philosophers who wished to proclaim their cynic principles by exceedingly scanty dress, went out, even in winter, in a cloak without an under garment. Shirt and trousers were unknown in Greek male dress; the latter are Oriental, and therefore only appear on monuments representing barbarous persons.

As regards female dress, it may be stated at once that the strong contrast found in modern times between the dress of men and women is foreign to Greek antiquity: both have essentially the same elements, sometimes even the same shape; and this similarity becomes greater the nearer we get to antiquity. This was not carried so far that a woman could simply have put on a man’s under garment; in fact, even the Homeric epics distinguish the woman’s peplos from the man’s chiton. Unfortunately, both the shape and the mode of wearing the Homeric peplos are matters of dispute which cannot be satisfactorily settled by the words of the epic. According to Helbig, it was not essentially different from the long male chiton; like this, it descended to the feet, fitting closely and without folds to the figure, and was provided with an opening for head and arms. The girdle was worn rather low down, not immediately under the breast or round the waist, but round the hips, and fell down somewhat in front. The peplos was put on by means of a slit between the breasts, which often descended as far as the feet, and was fastened by a large number of fibulae, or hooks. Helbig thinks that this fashion was due to Oriental influence, since such openings are very commonly found on monuments representing Oriental nations.

There is much in favour of Helbig’s hypothesis, especially the circumstance that a dress similar in many respects appears to have maintained itself for several centuries. The vase pictures, as well as several works of art, show, as Boehlau has remarked, that in almost all the Greek states (especially Corinth, Chalcis, Athens, Megara, Sparta, as well as Ionian and Sicilian towns) a closely-fitting chiton was worn by women as late as the seventh, perhaps even the sixth, century. This was not drawn over the head, but put on like our dress of the present day, and open in front. Numerous monuments of the oldest style show that slit in front, and it appears to be seldom wanting in very ancient pictures of the deities. This chiton is provided with tight sleeves falling down to the elbows, and is generally adorned at all the edges (accordingly round the neck and armholes, as well as round the hem) with broad stripes and patterns of various colours; and as a further peculiarity it has folds drawn up over the girdle and falling on each side over the hips.

Helbig’s hypothesis concerning the Homeric peplos: that it had a long opening in front extending to the feet, has been energetically combated by Studniczka, who attempts to explain differently all the passages quoted from the epics in support of the other theory, and regards the strips down the front found on monuments as merely meant for ornamental purposes, and not a reminiscence of that opening. Studniczka, for his part, considers the Homeric female dress identical with the so-called Doric, which is described to us by writers as the oldest Greek female dress, in place of which the Ionic afterwards came. His first assumption, therefore, is that the dress was not sewn and arranged for slipping on, but rather consisted in a shawl-shaped piece of stuff fastened on the shoulders by means of pins. This is not the fitting place to discuss this controversy; we must therefore content ourselves with alluding to it, and refrain from deciding in favour of either opinion, since this would not be the purpose of our book.

Herodotus informs us, concerning the female dress of the historic period, that the Athenian women in olden times wore the Doric dress, a woollen chiton fastened with fibulae, but afterwards, instead of this, adopted the Ionic dress, a stitched linen chiton. However simple this statement may sound, it is by no means so easy to trace this change of dress on the works of art. These show us female dresses in ancient times which appear to have been sewn rather than pinned together; while the chiton which we find in the classic period of Greek art may really be traced back to the Doric type. It is, therefore, comprehensible that attempts lately made, especially by Boehlau and Studniczka, to trace the transition from the ancient Doric to the later Ionic costume on works of art, should have led to very different results.

If we look at the female dress on the oldest vase pictures (compare Figs. 1, 3, 11-15), we almost always find a stiff chiton descending without folds to the feet (the Homeric name “peplos” gradually falls into disuse), which could, however, in no case be as narrow as it is depicted, else it would be impossible to walk in it; the feet as a rule are uncovered, but sometimes the dress is lengthened behind in the form

Fig. 11.

of a train, and there touches the ground. (Compare Fig. 15.) The girdle is regularly worn with this chiton, rather high up, and so as to be visible. There is also a second garment covering breast and shoulders, and falling down nearly as far as the girdle. How this