Greek dress : $b a study of the costumes worn in ancient Greece, from pre-Hellenic times to the Hellenistic ageAbrahams, Ethel Beatrice
History
Greek dress : $b a study of the costumes worn in ancient Greece, from pre-Hellenic times to the Hellenistic age
Abrahams, Ethel Beatrice
Clothing and dress -- Greece
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
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