The second garment which was essential to the completion of a woman’s dress, at least when she appeared in public, was the κρήδεμνον or καλύπτρη,[66] which served both as cloak and veil. It was probably put on over the shoulders like a shawl, without being folded, in such a way that it could be drawn over the head without difficulty, and across the face, serving as a veil.[67] Sometimes it may have been doubled corner to corner diagonally and laid on the shoulder. That it was worn over the head is clear from _Odyssey_, v., 232, where Calypso puts on her φᾶρος; κεφαλῇ δ᾽ ἐρύπερθε καλύπτρην, “and over her head a veil.” From the description of Penelope, when she appears among the suitors “holding her shining veil before her cheeks,” we may gather that it was customary for women to veil themselves before men.[68] No woman would think of leaving the house without her κρήδεμνον. Helen, though she quits her house in haste, first veils herself with shining linen,[69] ἀργεννῇσι καλυψαμένη ὀθόνῃσιν, and it is only when they are far from the town and enjoying the quietude of the river bank, that Nausicaa and her attendant maidens throw off their veils for the ballplay.[70] [66] The κάλυμμα κυάνεον, “dark blue veil,” of Thetis (_Iliad_, xxiv., 93) is the same garment. [67] Hera is represented wearing it so on the François vase, Fig. 7 (_c_), and although her head is not covered, yet, from the way in which the folds lie high upon the nape of the neck, it is clear that they could easily be drawn up over the head (cp. also, Aphrodite, on the same vase). [68] Thetis is represented in the François vase just about to veil or unveil her face; though the head is missing, it is clear, from the position of the arm, that the κρήδεμνον was worn over the head. [69] _Iliad_, iii., 141. [70] _Odyssey_, vi., 100. From the constant use of the epithets λιπαρός and λαμπρός, “shining” or “bright,” we may infer that the κρήδεμνον was usually made of linen, and, in summer at least, it was probably a fine, light garment, possibly even semi-transparent. In no case are any pins or brooches mentioned in connection with it; and from the ease with which it can be slipped off,[71] it is reasonable to infer that it was worn without fastening of any kind, like a shawl or scarf. In the passage where Andromache casts off her head-dress in her anguish at the death of Hector,[72] Studniczka supposes that because the κρήδεμνον is mentioned as falling off last, the other δέσματα must have been worn over it and held it in place; this seems to be putting a too literal and even prosaic interpretation upon the lines. There is no occasion to suppose that the poet enumerated the various parts of the head-dress in the order in which they fell; and if we read in that spirit, we shall frequently find that the Homeric heroes put on their cloaks before their undergarments; for more than once the φᾶρος or χλαῖνα is mentioned before the χιτών.[73]