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.