Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

CLOTHING

time of the most highly developed culture as it is displayed in the spirit of the Greeks, the two factors of the feeling of shame and the need for protection against the weather cannot be separated in reference to clothing, it appears that we shall not have much to say of men’s clothing; but even women’s clothing can be treated with comparative brevity, since, considering the seclusion of Greek women and the very small part played by them in public, there was hardly any opportunity to wear specially splendid dress when walking, so that the fashion could not have had nearly the same importance in the life of Greek women as at the present day.

The Greek boy, in his short chlamys, which, however, did not show the forms of the youthful body, was disadvantageously dressed. ‘The chlamys was a kind of shawl which was fastened on the right shoulder or on the breast by a button or clasp, and was worn till the lad reached the status of the ephebi (that is, about sixteen years). Smaller boys wore, at least in Athens and until the time of the Peloponnesian war, only a short chiton, a kind of thin shirt. Aristophanes praises the hardening effect and simplicity of the old times in the words (Clouds, 964) : “ I will, therefore, describe the ancient system of education, how it was ordered, when I flourished in the advocacy of justice and temperance was in the fashion. In the first place, it was incumbent that no one should hear the voice of a boy uttering a syllable; and next, that those from the same quarter of the town should march in good order through the streets to the school of the Harpmaster, naked, and in a body, even if it were to snow as thick as meal.”

And it is well-known that Lycurgus (Lycurg., 16) also endeavoured to harden the boys of Sparta by making them wear in summer and winter one and the same wretched garment, as long as they were little, up to about 12, the chiton, and later the tribon, a short wrapper of coarse stuff.

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