Some of the hats are so very like caps that we can scarcely decide whether they ought to bear the name of petasos. In the oldest period the petasos almost always had a pointed, rather high crown, and a broad brim turned up in front and behind. (Compare the examples in Fig. 35.) Afterwards varieties were introduced; sometimes the crown was semi-circular, sometimes flattened, now high, now low, or with a little point like a button; the brim, too, was sometimes broad, shading the whole face, sometimes quite narrow; now turned down, now horizontal; at other times, again, turned up or bent round the head. Thus in the first half of the fifth century, we find a very peculiar shape. The brim projects in front in

a narrow point, and at the back is turned up as far as the high conical crown. (Compare Fig. 35.) The commonest shape is that of which examples are given in Fig. 36; the crown is tolerably flat, generally not higher than the skull; the brim, which is rather broad, and generally turned down, is not circular all round, but cut out at several places—either between the ears and the forehead, so that a point falls over the latter, while the brim extends in semi-circular form round the back of the head; or else this half is cut out in the same way as the front part, so that the brim ends in four points, which generally fall over the forehead, back of the head, and ears. Still, we sometimes find instances where it is only cut out over the forehead, and the points fall to the right and left of the face. This shape is very common in the best period, that is, in the fifth and fourth centuries. Afterwards, there were some very strange shapes, such as that in Fig. 37, on the left, which is found on vase pictures of the best period and reminds us of the hats pointed in front and behind worn at the beginning of this century. The petasos was fastened under the chin with a cord; when it was not wanted it was pushed down below the neck, where it was kept in place by the cord; and we find it frequently in this position. (Compare Fig. 38.)

When, as sometimes happens, the petasos has a high crown, and a narrow turned-up brim, it is often very like the pilos, a cap of leather or felt, which was the common dress of workmen, especially smiths, countrymen, fishermen, sailors, etc. Odysseus, as sailor, is almost always represented with it; and so is Charon, the ferryman of the nether world, Hephaestus, as smith, etc. Invalids who were obliged to protect their heads from the weather, also wore such caps. These caps, too, were of various shapes; semi-circular, fitting closely to the head, and half-oval, projecting somewhat beyond the head, or of a more pointed conical shape. (Compare that of Odysseus, Fig. 39, and the sailors, Fig. 40, where, as is often the case, it has a narrow, lower brim.) It is evident from the drawing that the material must have been skin, which was the commonest next to felt. These caps were often fastened with strings below the chin, and there was sometimes a bow at the apex by which they could be hung up.

Women, who were seen out of doors much seldomer than men, had even less need for head-coverings. Especially in the oldest period, where scarves covering the greater part of the hair were in fashion, they probably contented themselves with drawing the himation over their heads when they went out. (Compare Fig. 4.) This was often done in later periods also, as we see in terra-cotta figures (compare Figs. 27 and 27); but even at that time women in the country, or travelling, often wore a petasos similar to that of the men, though with a narrower brim. A graceful Sicilian terra-cotta, represented in Fig. 41, shows a lady wearing one of these, and it is very becoming to the face. On the other hand, after the Alexandrine period, the tholia is very common. This is a light straw hat, with a pointed crown and broad brim, fastened by a ribbon and balanced on the head—no doubt very convenient, since the broad brim protected the wearer from the rays of the sun, but by no means becoming. Terra-cotta figures from Tanagra give numerous examples of this hat, which was evidently very common at the time, and is also mentioned by writers.

For further protection against the sun women often used sunshades, which were made to fold up like ours. Such sunshades are common on old

monuments, but, as a rule, ladies did not carry them themselves, but were accompanied by a slave, who performed this office for them. The sunshades were

usually round (compare Fig. 42), but there are also examples of a fan-shaped kind, which enabled the servant who walked behind to hold the sunshade by its long handle comfortably over her mistress without going too near her. Sometimes we even see men on vase pictures with sunshades. This, however, was regarded as effeminate luxury. The stick belonged to the ordinary equipment of a man. Old people walked with the help of a heavy knotted stick, or leant on it as they stood, like the Athenian citizens on the Parthenon frieze; and young people also used them. They seem always to have used natural sticks; but the Laconian canes, with curved handles, were considered specially convenient, and were used at Athens by those who liked to imitate Spartan manners and customs. In the fourth century the use of sticks seems to have become less common.

The last heading to be considered is the fashion of wearing the hair; and, although the writers and statues give us considerable information, there are several difficulties here which have not yet been solved.

In the heroic period long curly hair was regarded as a suitable ornament for a man. This is proved by the favourite epithet, “The curly-haired Achaeans,” and by other quotations from epic poetry; various indications prove that the curls were not always left to fall naturally, but that artificial means were sometimes adopted for facilitating and preserving their regular arrangement. When the “effeminate Paris” is said to rejoice in his “horn” (κέρᾳ ἄγλαε), old commentators state that this horn was a twisted plait. It is possible that this might be produced by the mere use of stiffening pomades or other cosmetic means, which had been introduced from the East in the Homeric period; but the statements in the Iliad about the gold and silver “curl-holders” of the Trojan Euphorbus clearly point to artificial aids. The oldest sculptures and vase pictures give sufficient proof that this mode of wearing the hair in regular curls continued for a long time, for they almost always represent hair falling far down the neck, generally in regular stiff locks with horizontal waving, while small curls surround the forehead, arranged with equal accuracy. As to the means employed for producing these curls, Helbig’s opinion is that the spirals of bronze, silver, or gold wire found in old graves in several parts of the Old World were used as a foundation for the curls, which were twined around them. Certainly these spirals have often been found in Etruscan graves, near the spot where the head rested, and generally one on each side. This might, however, be explained by the other interpretation that they were a kind of primitive ear-ring. Perhaps the “gold and silver” with which Euphorbus “bound together” his locks, according to Homer, was not a particular kind of adornment, but only flexible gold and silver wire.

The monuments as well as the writers teach us that men wore their hair long, in the next period also, down to the fifth century; we sometimes find hair of such length and thickness depicted that it seems almost incredible that a man’s hair could have been so much developed, even by the most careful treatment. However, it did not often hang quite loose, but it was tied back somewhere near the neck by a ribbon, and, unlike the Homeric head-dress, where each curl is separately fastened, the whole mass of hair was bound together, and then spread out again below the fastening, and fell down the back. Sometimes the hair, after being tightly tied together in one place, was interwoven with cords or ribbons lower down, so that it fell in a broader mass than where it was tied together, but by no means hung loose. Another kind of head-dress is that in which the hair is tied together in such a manner as to resemble a broad and thickish band, something like our head-dress of the last century. The hair falls a little way below the neck, and is then taken up again and tied in with the other piece by a ribbon in such a manner that the end of the hair falls down over this ribbon. Here, too, we find variety, for the hair sometimes fell some way down the back, sometimes was fastened up again at the back of the head. An example of the former kind is the bronze head from Olympia represented in Fig. 44; of the latter, Fig. 43, from a vase painting of the fifth century.

Most commonly, however, in the sixth and fifth centuries men plaited their long hair and laid the plaits round their head. There were two distinct modes of doing this. One was to take two plaits from the back of the head in different directions and fasten them like bandages round the head; the other was to begin the plaits at the ears, turn them backwards so that they crossed each other at the back of the head, then bring them round to the front and knot them together over the centre of the forehead. This is the head-dress of the figure on the Omphalos known as Apollo (Fig. 45), and the head of a youth (Fig. 46). There are also many other differences in detail; sometimes

the two plaits were laid across the hair from the parting to the forehead in the form of a fillet holding the hair fast, as in the marble head (Fig. 47); but sometimes the front hair is laid across the ends of the plait fastened together in front, as in the head from a vase painting represented in Fig. 48. The head in Fig. 47 also shows a peculiar mode of treating the back hair. The lower part of this is plaited, and the plait turned up again and fastened where the other two braids cross each other. Other plaits also fall from behind the ears in regular arrangement over the shoulders in front, often reaching as far as the breast. The hair on the forehead is dressed with equal care. With this fashion also the regular little curls, arranged in one or more rows round the forehead, are very common. Sometimes they are in spiral form, sometimes in that of “corkscrew” curls, as on the archaic bronze head from Pompeii represented in Fig. 49 and in Fig. 48.

These are the principal archaic modes of wearing the hair found on the monuments, but they by no means exhaust the varieties which might be observed. The writers, however, only mention one ancient head-dress. Thucydides, in the passage already quoted, which describes the long chitons formerly worn by the Athenians, also tells us that at the same time that this old-fashioned dress was abandoned, the Athenians gave up the old way of dressing their hair in the crobylus (κρωβύλος), into which they fastened golden grasshoppers. It has not yet, however, been possible to determine with any certainty which of the head-dresses found on the statues corresponded to this crobylus, which seems to be identical with the corymbus (κόρυμβος) mentioned in other places; nor has it been possible to find any traces of the grasshoppers. Consequently almost all the head-dresses above described have been claimed for the crobylus, even the double plaits behind the ears; and the grasshoppers have been explained sometimes as the above-mentioned spirals, sometimes as hair-pins or fibulae. Perhaps some day a fortunate discovery may throw light on this difficult question.

It would be scarcely possible to assign a chronological order to all these various archaic head-dresses. However, in the latter half of the fifth century they all disappear, and here we have another proof of the increasing aesthetic sense noticeable in all domains of life in the classic period. The allusions in Aristophanes show that in his time it was only old-fashioned people, who probably also went about in long chitons, who still wore the grasshoppers. From the time of Pheidias, the elaborate head-dresses entirely vanish; and though they are continued for a longer period on the vase paintings, that is probably because painting adhered longer than sculpture to the old forms and fashions, since its free development in style was also of later growth. After this time the long, flowing hair of the men, and the pigtail disappear; and though only youths and athletes wore their hair quite short, yet the men’s hair was also shortened, and owed its chief beauty to nature, which has granted the gift of graceful curl to Southern and Oriental nations. The portrait heads of this and the following period depict the hair as simply curled, soft, and not too abundant. This seems to have continued during the following centuries; at any rate,

the monuments show no trace of a return to the artificial head-dresses fashionable in ancient times. Just as wigs, powder, and pigtails have disappeared for ever among us, so antiquity, when it had once recognised the beauty of hair in its natural growth, never returned to the stiff and laborious head-dress of the past. Of course, there were various fashions in the mode of wearing the hair and having it cut; in fact, there are a number of different names for the modes of cutting it, such as the “garden,” the “boat,” but we do not know what these were like, since the monuments afford no clue. Probably it was only dandies who laid any stress on such matters. It is but natural that there should have been many local variations in the mode of wearing the hair, as in the dress, and probably these were of some importance in the oldest period; but we know very little about them. At Sparta it was the custom at the time of the Peloponnesian War to shave the hair quite close to the head, but as the Spartans wore long, carefully-curled hair at the time of the Persian wars, a change in the fashion must have taken place at Sparta in the course of the fifth century.

No special ornaments were worn in the hair by men after they gave up the old-fashioned curl-holders and the mysterious grasshoppers. The “band” or fillet laid round the forehead, which Dionysus commonly wears in works of art, was only actually used as the reward of victory in gymnastic or other contests. The diadem is a token of royal dignity, and, therefore, unknown in free Greece.

The change of fashion in the mode of wearing the beard can also be traced in Greek antiquity. There is no direct account of it in the Homeric poems, but probably some indirect hints. A well known simile in Homer mentions the razor. As the Achaeans wore their hair long, and certainly were not smooth shaven, the question arises, what use they could have made of the razor. Helbig points to the analogy of the Egyptian and Phoenician custom, which had considerable influence on Hellenic culture, and also shows, by means of old Greek monuments, that very probably the Ionians of the Homeric period shaved the upper lip; as, in fact, the Dorians also did in older times. It is true this period must have been preceded by an older one unacquainted with this custom, for the gold masks found in graves at Mycenae bear a moustache; and the best example of these is treated in such a way as to point to the use of some stiffening pomade, as well as the artificial cutting of the moustache.

The monuments also show us that the custom of shaving the upper lip continued for some time in the following centuries; but it was not the only prevailing one, for we also find whiskers, beard, and moustache. It is but natural that in the period when the hair was elaborately dressed, special care was taken also with the treatment of the beard. It was not only regularly cut, and usually in a point (compare Fig. 50), but it was also cut short at certain places, especially between the lower lip and the chin, so that the part thus treated presented a different appearance from the rest of the beard. They also curled the moustache, and arched it upwards; and if we may believe the testimony of archaic monuments, we must assume that curling-irons were sometimes used for the artificial arrangement of the beard. It was not till the latter half of the fifth century that the beard was allowed to fall naturally and simply, at the time when they began to treat the hair in a

similar manner. The beard, although not entirely abandoned to its natural growth, since it was cut into a shape corresponding to the oval of the face, instead of the former point, at any rate was no longer treated by artificial means, such as pomades, elaborate curling, etc. The portrait type of Pericles or Sophocles (compare Fig. 7) shows us the finest example of a simple and dignified mode of wearing the beard, while the ideal head of Zeus from Otricoli, with its artificially parted beard, in spite of the grandeur of the treatment, is far removed from the classic simplicity of the age of Pheidias. After Alexander the Great and his successors it became the custom to shave the whole face. The portrait statues show us that old men especially, who had formerly allowed their beard to grow, now almost always shaved it off. Aristotle, Menander, Poseidippus, the princes of the Alexandrine age, etc., have smooth-shaven faces. Youths and middle-aged men at that period sometimes let their beard grow, but old men only did so when they wished to indicate, by a long, ragged beard, that they were followers of the Cynic school; for even down to the time of the Empire the long beard was the distinguishing mark of the philosopher.

The head-dress of women also underwent many changes. We do not know how their hair was bound up and arranged in the Homeric period, when it was treated with sweet-scented oils and pomades, which were, in fact, very common during the heroic period. Mention is especially made of a cap-like arrangement of the hair, and a plaited braid connected with it. Helbig believes he has recognised the same fashion in the women’s head-dress on old Etruscan pictures, on which it is possible to distinguish a high-pointed cap and a band laid over it. However this may be, Andromache’s head-dress, as described by Homer, has a distinctly Oriental character. In the next period the works of art are again our best guide. They show us that, apart from external ornament, the head-dress of men and women in ancient times was essentially similar. We find the long hair either falling freely or in single plaits down the back (compare Figs. 11 and following); curls falling on the shoulders; and little ringlets surrounding the forehead; we find the hair tied up at the back of the neck, or the mode described above of tying it up in band-like fashion in several places. (Compare also the peculiar hair-knot in Fig. 11.) We also find that arrangement of double plaits laid several times round the back of the head, which has been claimed as the crobylus, although this is only mentioned as a male head-dress. This last fashion is even found in the graceful Caryatides of the Erechtheum, but here it is probably a reminiscence of the old custom, natural in these female figures, which are, as it were, in the service of the goddess. Otherwise none of these fashions continue beyond the last quarter of the fifth century, either for women or men.

About the middle of the fifth century the fashion

of wearing many-coloured kerchiefs, covering the greater part of the hair, must have been very prevalent. Polygnotus paints his women thus, and we find the same fashion in the pediments of Olympia, and on some of the female figures on the Eastern Parthenon frieze, and on numerous vase paintings of that period. (Compare Fig. 17, where the kerchief even seems to develop into a cap, with a bow at the apex.) But at the same period, when the men began to emancipate themselves from the stiff head-dresses, and to wear their hair in a natural manner, a simple and beautiful fashion also became commoner among the women. The hair was usually parted in the middle and either fell in slight ripples loosely down the back or else was drawn up into a knot at the back of the head. (Compare Figs. 20 and 20.) The latter fashion, which we still call the “Greek knot,” is the commonest and most beautiful in the next period too. Sometimes the knot fell far down the neck (compare Figs. 51 and 52), which was certainly the most graceful, or else it was higher up the head (compare Fig. 53), where the hair is combed upwards from the face, or else (compare Fig. 54) the knot developed into a flattened nest or wreath. A simple ornament frequently found is a narrow band or fillet entwined with the hair or laid around the hair and forehead. (Compare Figs. 16, 20, 24, and 52.) Kerchiefs were also much worn afterwards, sometimes put on in such a way as to cover almost the whole hair (compare Figs. 55 and 55), sometimes only a part, so that the hair at the back of the head is visible beneath it. (Compare Fig. 25.) There were also a variety of metal ornaments, which were fastened into the hair either to keep it firm or else for decorative purposes—golden circlets or diadems (compare Fig. 57), pins, etc. Detailed consideration of these ornaments show us that the age of Pericles and that immediately following it, were the periods when the style and technique attained their highest development and artistic beauty. Thus dress, hair, and ornament all combined harmoniously to represent the people of that age in surroundings corresponding in the fullest degree to the poetic and artistic attainments of the epoch.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH AND INFANCY.

But to-day joy and gladness have entered this man’s house. His wife has borne him the much-longed-for son and heir. The neighbours, who had seen the well-known nurse enter the house, were anxious to see in what manner the front door would be decked—whether, as before, woollen fillets would announce the birth of a daughter, or the joyous wreath of olive branches proclaim the advent of a son and heir. While the slaves are festively decking the door

outside, within the house the new-born child is receiving its first care. With a happy smile the young mother looks on from her couch while the nurse and maids are busily occupied in preparing the bath for the little one. For this only tepid water and fine oil are used, for the Spartan custom of adding wine to the baby’s first bath is unknown at Athens. After the bath, too, the baby has a warmer bed than would have fallen to his lot in the sterner city. True, the father intends, as soon as possible, to send to Sparta for one of those celebrated nurses known and prized for their success in rearing children; but still he shrinks from beginning the hardening process at this tender age, and rearing up the child according to Spartan customs without the warm swaddling clothes. So the baby is carefully wrapped in numerous swaddlings, in such a manner that even the arms are firmly swathed, and only the little head is visible. (Compare Fig. 58.) The ancient physicians prescribe for the new-born child soft woollen swaddling three fingers broad, and direct that the swaddling should begin with the hands, then pass on to the chest, and at last cover the feet, swathing each part separately but loosely, only drawing the bandages tight at the knees and the soles of the feet; the head also must be enveloped, and, finally, a second covering is put over the whole body. When modern physicians maintain that this swaddling must injure the child and check the development of its organs, they forget that the Greeks treated their children thus for centuries and yet were a healthy nation. But it is quite incredible that they should have been thus swaddled for the first two years of their life, as a passage in Plato seems to indicate, for this would not only have been extraordinary, but also injurious to the health. It can only be a question of maintaining a covering suitable to the age for these two years, instead of the children’s dress afterwards worn. A physician of the age of the Empire recommends the end of the fourth month as the time for gradually leaving off the swaddling; and probably this was also the Greek custom. Antiquity does not seem to have been acquainted with our soft cushions, but the little Athenians also had their cradles, though these did not stand on the ground on rockers like ours, for such cradles are not mentioned till the Roman period, and seem to have been unknown in the classic age; but they resembled a basket of woven osier, suspended from ropes like a hammock, and thus made to rock. The cradle in which Hermes, who seems already to have attained the age of boyhood, is depicted on a vase painting represented in Fig. 59, is of a peculiar shape, quite like that of a shoe; the handles at the side, through which ropes were probably passed, show that this was also made to rock. Fig. 60 shows a different kind of cradle. It is a bed on rockers, which may have been used in the same way as the babies’ cots common among us.

The young mother now for the first time gives the new-born baby the breast (compare Fig. 61, taken from a Greek terra-cotta), and rejoices that she is able to perform this duty herself. However, in case she should not have been able to do it, a poor peasant woman from the neighbourhood had been brought to the house and paid for her services. Meantime, the husband sits down by the bed and discusses with his wife the steps which must next be taken. A question that sometimes causes a good deal of difficulty presents none on this occasion—viz., the legitimation of the child. And as the boy is strong and healthy, there cannot be a question of the barbarous custom

of exposing it, which, though rarely resorted to at Athens, was still quite common at Sparta. Even had the child been a second daughter, the kindly-disposed master of the house would not have resorted to this cruel step; although, had he done so, his fellow-citizens would not have blamed him for it. But the parents have to settle on which day the family festival shall take place, to welcome and dedicate with religious rites the newborn child (Amphidromia) and what name they shall give it. They decide upon the tenth day after the birth for the festival. Many parents, it is true, celebrate this as early as the fifth day, and then on the tenth hold a second festival with an elaborate banquet and sacrifices, and but few rich people content themselves with a single celebration. But though in this case there is no lack of means, yet, as the young mother wishes to take part herself in the Amphidromia, they decide to be content with one celebration, which is to take place in ten days. According to old family custom, the boy receives the name of his paternal grandfather.

When the appointed day has come, and the house is festively decked with garlands, messengers begin to arrive early in the morning from relations and friends, bringing all manner of presents for the mother and child. For the former they bring many dishes which will be useful at the banquet in the evening, especially fresh fish, polypi, and cuttle-fish. The baby receives various gifts, especially amulets to protect him against the evil eye. For, according to widespread superstition, these innocent little creatures are specially exposed to the influence of evil magic. Therefore the old slave, to whom the parents have confided the care of the child, chooses from among the various presents a necklace which seems to her especially suitable as an antidote to magic, on which are hung all manner of delicately-worked charms in gold and silver: such as a crescent, a pair of hands, a little sword, a little pig, and anything else which popular superstition may include in the ranks of amulets; and hangs this round the child’s neck.

The festival begins with a sacrifice, and is followed by the solemnity in which mother and child, who, according to ancient notions, are regarded as unclean by the act of birth, are purified or cleansed, along with all who have come in contact with the mother. This part of the ceremony is the real “Amphidromia” (literally “running round”). The nurse takes the child on her arm, and, followed by the mother and all who have come in contact with her, runs several times round the family hearth, which, according to ancient tradition, represents the sacred centre of the dwelling. Probably this was accompanied by sprinkling with holy water. At the banquet the relations and friends of the family appear in great numbers. In their presence the father announces the name which he has chosen for the child. After this all take their places at the banquet, even the women, who, as a rule, do not take part in the meals of the men. The standing dishes on this occasion are toasted cheese and radishes with oil; but there is no lack of excellent meat dishes such as breast of lamb, thrushes, pigeons, and other dainties, as well as the popular cuttle-fish. A good deal of wine is drunk, mixed with less water than is generally the custom. Music and dancing accompany the banquet, which extends far into the night.

The first years of his life were spent by the little boy in the nursery, in which things went on in much the same way as with us. During this period boys and girls alike were under the supervision of mother and nurse. If the baby had bad nights and could not sleep, the Athenian mother took him in her arms just as a modern one would do, and carried him up and down the room, rocking him, and singing some cradle song like that which Alcmene sings to her children in Theocritus:—

At night a little lamp burnt in the nursery. Although, as a rule, in small houses the apartments for the men were below and those for the women and children in the upper storeys, yet it was customary for the women to move into the lower rooms for a time after the birth of a child, partly in order that they might be near the bath-room, which was necessary both for mother and child. During the first years of their life the children had a tepid bath every day; later on, every three or four days; many mothers even went so far as to give them three baths a day. When the child had to be weaned, they first of all gave it broth sweetened with honey, which, in olden time, took the place of our sugar, and then gradually more solid food, which the nurse seems to have chewed for the child before it had teeth enough to do this itself. Aristophanes gives us further details about Greek nurseries, and even quotes the sounds first uttered by Athenian children to make known their various wants.

They do not seem to have had any special mechanical contrivances for learning to walk. In the time of the Empire baskets furnished with wheels are mentioned. Apparently they were in no great hurry about this. For the first year or two the nurses carried the children out into the fields, or took them to visit their relations, or brought them to some temple; then they let them crawl merrily on the ground, and on numerous vase pictures we see children crawling on all fours to some table covered with eatables, or to their toys. (Compare the Stele, represented in Fig. 62, on which a child has crawled to its mother and is trying to raise itself.) When the child made its first attempt at walking, prudent nurses took care that it should not at first exert its feeble legs too much, and so make them crooked; though Plato probably goes too far when he desires to extend this care to the end of the third year, and advises nurses to carry the children till they have reached that age.