was either the himation and chlamys, common in ordinary life, or else garments peculiar to the stage, of which a number of names have come down to us, but no exact details of their shape and mode of wearing. Here, too, colour was the rule; black clothing was worn [Illustration: FIG. 160.] by wretched and persecuted people. In their case, of course, the festive costume, which would have formed too sharp a contrast with their parts, was discarded; Philoctetes, Telephus, etc., did not appear in royal splendour, but in simple garments or even in rags. We may remember the description given in the “Oedipus at Colonus” of the appearance of the unhappy exiled prince; and Aristophanes’ jokes show us that Euripides aimed specially at attracting the pity of the spectators by wretched beggars’ dress. The dress of the women, generally speaking, was similar; perhaps there was a difference in the mode in which the upper garment was put on. Subordinate personages in tragedy--messengers, satellites, slaves, etc.--wore the short chiton; paidogogoi appeared in the barbaric dress already described; and thus variety in the appearance of the actors was produced, while the ceremonious dress was reserved for the most important personages. The ivory statuette of an actor, of which two sides are represented in Figs. 161 and 162, gives an excellent notion of the tragic costume. He wears a long chiton, with sleeves (painted blue in the original) decorated with three broad stripes, descending from the girdle to his feet, and with horizontal stripes round his sleeves. The mask, with the high superficies, bears an expression of wild anger; the size of the slits for the eyes is remarkable, and we can see through them the eyes of the actor, as well as a piece of the face immediately round them. As a rule, only the pupil so appears in Greek masks, and therefore the editor (C. Robert) surmises that this points to a Roman custom of the Imperial age. This statuette is also interesting for the shape of the “cothurnus,” the usual foot-gear of the tragic actor. The cothurnus was a tolerably high shoe, but made to fit either foot; [Illustration: FIG. 161.] [Illustration: FIG. 162.]