[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.