The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collections — John Shaqi
The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collectionsMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
History
The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Art, Greek; Art, Roman; Greece -- Social life and customs; Rome -- Social life and customs
The usual outer wrap, called himation, was a large oblong, rectangular
piece of woolen cloth, and was practically the same for both sexes. In
the seventh and sixth centuries there were various ways of arranging it;
as a shawl, or as a scarf fastened on one shoulder. The archaic statue of
a woman, No. 2 in the Sculpture Gallery, wears it doubled and fastened
on one shoulder over an Ionic chiton of soft, crinkled linen (fig. 68).
Gradually a simpler and more beautiful arrangement was adopted; the
himation was laid across the back with one corner over the left shoulder,
then folded around the front of the body, passing either over or under
the right arm according to the wearer’s wish, and the end thrown over
the left shoulder, from which it hung down the back, kept in place by a
weight in the corner. On a krater (No. 16.72) on the bottom of Case J
in the Fourth Room, the god Dionysos is wearing the himation arranged
in this way (see tail-piece, p. 67), and the cast of the so-called
Lateran Sophokles (No. 775 in the Gallery of Casts) shows the himation
at its best. Ladies often drew it up over their heads like a veil. The
terracotta statuettes in the Sixth Room illustrate the variety of ways
in which the wrap could be draped (figs. 64, 65). Besides the himation
there were cloaks of more convenient dimensions for riding, hunting,
or traveling. These were variously named but were all unsewn pieces of
cloth, rectangular or curved on one side, and were usually pinned on
one shoulder. A terracotta (No. 06.1118) in Case G in the Sixth Room
represents a traveler in chiton and riding-cloak (fig. 66), and the same
cloak is worn by a warrior on the large amphora on a pedestal in the
Fifth Room (see fig. 103).
[Illustration: FIG. 67. MAN’S CHITON]
Head-coverings were worn only by travelers, riders, or working-men. A hat
with a wide brim, called “petasos,” was the usual traveler’s head-gear.
It was made in a variety of shapes, the brim being sometimes broader at
back and front, sometimes at the sides. Another form had a circular brim
which turned up. This may be seen on three terracotta statuettes (Case 2,
and Case G in the Sixth Room). A cap, called “pilos,” was worn by smiths,
sailors, and working-men in general. There is a man wearing a pilos
on a cup on the top shelf of Case S in the Fourth Room, and a warrior
with the same hat will be found on a small hydria on the first shelf of
Case Q in the Fifth Room. Some head-coverings which may be either caps
or small hats with rolled brims, are represented in several terracotta
statuettes of boys in Case G in the Sixth Room. Women wore the petasos
for traveling, and they also used a kind of sun-hat, called “tholia,”
with a pointed crown and broad brim, made of straw and fastened by a
ribbon. Several examples of this stiff and ungraceful hat may be seen on
terracotta statuettes in Case 2, and in Case G in the Sixth Room (see
fig. 64).
[Illustration: FIG. 68. AKROPOLIS MAIDEN IN IONIC CHITON AND HIMATION]
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