Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient LifeYaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
History
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life
Yaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
Civilization, Ancient; Classical antiquities
The antiquated notion of white having been the universal color of
Greek garments, a colored dress being considered immodest, has been
refuted by Becker. It is, however, likely that, with the cloak-like
epiblememata, white was the usual color, as is still the case amongst
Oriental nations much exposed to the sun. Brown cloaks are, however,
by no means unusual; neither were they amongst Greek men.
Party-colored Oriental garments were also used, at least by the
wealthy Greek classes, both for male and female dresses, while white
still remained the favorite color with modest Greek women. This is
proved, not to mention written evidence, by a number of small painted
statuettes of burnt clay, as also by several pictures on lekythoi from
Attic graves. The original colors of the dresses, although
(particularly the reds) slightly altered from the burning process, may
still be distinctly recognized.
The dresses were frequently adorned with interwoven patterns, or
attached borders and embroideries. From Babylon and Phrygia, the
ancient seats of the weaving and embroidering arts, these crafts
spread over the occidental world, the name "Phrygiones," used in Rome
at a later period for artists of this kind, reminding one of this
origin. As we learn from the monuments, the simplest border either
woven or sewed to the dresses, consisted of one or more dark stripes,
either parallel with the seams of the chiton, himation, and
ampechonion, or running down to the hem of the chiton from the girdle
at the sides or from the throat in front. The vertical ornaments
correspond to the Roman _clavus_. Besides these ornaments in stripes,
we also meet with others broader and more complicated; whether woven
into, or sewed on, the dress seems doubtful. They cover the chiton
from the hem upwards to the knee, and above the girdle up to the neck,
as is seen in the chiton worn by the spring goddess Opora, in a
vase-painting. The whole chiton is sometimes covered with star or dice
patterns, particularly on vases of the archaic style. The
vase-painters of the decaying period chiefly represent Phrygian
dresses with gold fringes and sumptuous embroideries of palmetto and
"meandering" patterns, such as were worn by the luxurious
South-Italian Greeks. Such a sumptuous dress is worn by Medea in a
picture of the death of Talos on an Apulian amphora in the Jatta
collection at Ruvo. In the same picture the chitones of Kastor and
Polydeukes, and those of the Argonautai, are covered with palmetto
embroideries, the edges at the bottom showing mythological scenes on
the dark ground.
[Illustration: STONE SET BROOCHES.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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