Another article of the same ambiguous character was the _Pylæon_, supposed to have derived its name from φύλον, _a leaf_. Athenæus,[180] on a subject of this kind, perhaps, one of the best authorities, describes it as the crown which, during certain festivals, the Spartans placed upon the head of Hera. Doubtless, however, the most tasteful and elegant of this class of female ornaments was the _Kalyx_, a golden syrinx or reed, passed like a ring over each several tress to keep it separate.[181] Eustathius describes it as a ring resembling a full-blown, but not expanded, rose; and this explanation will not be inconsistent with that of Hesychius, if we suppose the golden tubes to have terminated in the form of that flower. The _Strophion_ was a band or fillet[182] with which women confined their hair, as we discover from many ancient statues. Parrhasios the artist, who used to bind his luxuriant locks with a white strophion, was therefore accused of effeminacy.[183] The name, however, appears to have been applied to any kind of band, even to the broad belt worn to support the bosom: “My strophion being untied the walnuts fell out,” says the girl in Aristophanes.[184] There was also an ornament of the same name worn by priests.[185] ----- Footnote 180: Deipnosoph. xv. 22. Cf. Poll. v. 96. Footnote 181: Cœl. Rhodig. xxvii. 27, imagines it to mean a female head-dress, or a parasol. Jungermann. ad Poll. v. 96. Eustath. ad Iliad. β. 401. Footnote 182: On a mask, engraved among the Gemm. Antich. of Agostini, we find an exact representation of the modern feronet, pl. 24. Footnote 183: Athen. xii. 62. Pollux. v. 96. Footnote 184: Poll. vii. 67. 95. Footnote 185: Plut. Arat. § 58. ----- The _Opisthosphendone_,[186] one of the female ornaments enumerated in a fragment of Aristophanes, was worn only on the stage. Its proper name _sphendone_ it derived from its resemblance to a sling, being broad and elevated in front,[187] and terminating in narrow points at the back of the head where it was tied. On the comic stage it was sometimes worn for sport with the fore part behind.[188] The _Anadesma_[189] was a gilded fillet or diadem of gold, used like the _strophion_ for encircling the forehead. What was the precise use or form of the _Xanion_, another golden ornament fashionable in remote antiquity, could not be ascertained in the age of Pollux, who says that many writers supposed it to have been a comb. Of this number are Hesychius, Suidas,[190] and Phavorinus. But a learned modern conjectures with more probability, that it was some talismanic idol worn as a spell against the evil eye.[191] In fact it is expressly observed in the Etymologicon Magnum,[192] that the Hellenic women reckoned it among their phylacteries. ----- Footnote 186: Clem. Alexand. Pædag. ii. 12. Winkelmann, Histoire de l’Art. iv. 2. 75. note 6, and i. 2. 18. See also Cabinet Pio Clement, t. i. pl. 2, with the observations of Visconti. Footnote 187: