If we look at the female dress on the oldest vase pictures (compare Figs. 1, 3, 11-15), we almost always find a stiff chiton descending without folds to the feet (the Homeric name “peplos” gradually falls into disuse), which could, however, in no case be as narrow as it is depicted, else it would be impossible to walk in it; the feet as a rule are uncovered, but sometimes the dress is lengthened behind in the form [Illustration: FIG. 11.] of a train, and there touches the ground. (Compare Fig. 15.) The girdle is regularly worn with this chiton, rather high up, and so as to be visible. There is also a second garment covering breast and shoulders, and falling down nearly as far as the girdle. How this [Illustration: FIG. 12.] chiton was put on, and how the upper garment was connected with it, is not clear. When we see long borders descending from the girdle to the feet on some figures, and also continued above the girdle (as in the case of two women in Fig. 11), we might assume that here was an opening for putting on the dress; but we have already shown above that these borders are often of a purely ornamental character, and have no structural importance; and, indeed, they are entirely wanting on many chitons. It is, therefore, generally assumed that the garment represented here was sewn together below, and thus fastened all round, but above the girdle was open at the side, and that the bib was produced by making this upper part double, and fastening the folded ends on the shoulders with pins, thus corresponding to that style which is commonly called Doric. In fact, the point of the dress, passed from the back to the front, is often visible on the shoulder (compare Figs. 1, 3, and 11); sometimes even the long pin which fastened both points can be plainly recognised (Fig. 11); but in spite of this there is a great deal that this hypothesis does not explain. It is true we may reconcile with it the occasional appearance of different borders at the neck of the bib, for these might be sewn on, and thus this garment would be constructed ready for the wearer, while in the corresponding dress of the later period it rested with the wearer to draw down a shorter or longer piece of her chiton. But how are we to explain that upper part of the chiton in such a case as Fig. 12? Here it is closely fastened at the side. Clearly the artist wished to represent an armhole. These two facts are in opposition to the previous hypothesis, unless we assume that the upper part also was sewn together on one side, and its open side with the pins must be sought on the left side of the woman, which is not visible here. It is still more remarkable when, as in Fig. 13, the painter represents the lower part of the chiton with a pattern and the upper plain; or, as in Fig. 14, gives different patterns to the two parts. If we do not attribute this to the arbitrary fancy of the artist, or assume that the upper part of the chiton was ornamented with a