It is probably a ritual scene, and may help to elucidate the nature of early AEgean cults." [Footnote: _Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xx_. p. 322. 1899.] Here, [Greek: poludaidalos]--if that word means "artistically wrought." Helbig thinks the Epics silent about the gold spangles on dresses. [Footnote: Helbig, p. 71.] Mr. Myres applauds Reichel's theory that [blank space] first meant a man's chest. If _thorex_ means a man's breast, then _THOREX_ in a secondary sense, one thinks, would mean "breastplate," as waist of a woman means, first, her waist; next, her blouse (American). But Mr. Myres and Reichel say that the secondary sense of _THOREX_ is not breastplate but "body clothing," as if a man were all breast, or wore only a breast covering, whereas Mycenaean art shows men wearing nothing on their breasts, merely drawers or loin-cloths, which could not be called _THOREX_, as they cover the antipodes of the breast. The verb [Greek: thoraesestai], the theory runs on, merely meant "to put on body clothing," which Mycenaeans in works of art, if correctly represented, do not usually put on; they fought naked or in bathing drawers. Surely we might as well argue that a "waistcoat" might come to mean "body clothing in general," as that a word for the male breast became, first, a synonym for the covering of the male buttocks and for apparel in general, and, next, for a bronze breastplate. These arguments appear rather unconvincing, [Footnote: _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xx. pp. 149, 150.] nor does Mycenaean art instruct us that men went into battle dressed in body clothing which was thickly set with many glittering gold ornaments, and was called "a many-glittering _thorex_." Further, if we follow Reichel and Mr. Leaf, the Mycenaeans wore _chitons_ and called them _chitons_. They also used bronze-plated shields, though of this we have no evidence. Taking the bronze-plated (?) shield to stand poetically for the _chiton_, the poet spoke of "_the bronze-chitoned Achaeans_" But, if we follow Mr. Myres, the Mycenaeans also applied the word _thorex_ to body clothing at large, in place of the word _chiton_; and when a warrior was transfixed by a spear, they said that his "many-glittering, gold-studded _thorex_," that is, his body clothing in general, was pierced. It does seem simpler to hold that _chiton_ meant _chiton_; that _thorex_ meant, first, "breast," then "breastplate," whether of linen, or plaited leather, or bronze, and that to pierce a man through his [Greek: poludaidalos thoraex] meant to pierce him through his handsome corslet. No mortal ever dreamt that this was so till Reichel tried to make out that the original poet describes no armour except the large Mycenaean shield and the _mitre_, and that all corslets in the poems were of much later introduction. Possibly they were, but they had plenty of time wherein to be evolved long before the eighth century, Reichel's date for corslets.