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

CLOTHING

to the knee, or a little lower; to wear it too long was considered a sign of extravagance or pride ; for instance, Alcibiades (Plato, Alcib., 1, 122; Plutarch, Alcib., 1), when a young man, often gave offence by this, while those whose himation ended above the knee were considered indecent (Theophrastus, Charact., 4); especially to sit down so that the himation slipped up above the knee was regarded as directly barefaced, which is intelligible considering that drawers were not worn. Thus we must understand what Lucian tells us of the cynic, Alcidamas (Sympos., 14), who at a meal lies down half-naked (that is, with his himation slipped up high above the knee), leaning on his elbow, holding the cup in his right hand, just as Heracles is shown by painters in the cave of the centaur Pholus. This was considered indecent, since here there is no motive for the exposure of the person; but if the same Alcidamas, in order to show the pure white of his body, bares himself to the extreme limit, that only excited the laughter of the guests.

What was said here of the clothing of men holds good for the whole time Greece lasted, a few unessential modifications excepted. In the case of the women’s clothing, we must dwell upon this somewhat longer and distinguish different epochs. It is extraordinarily interesting that women’s clothing at no time in Greece developed with greater luxuriance and refinement than during Hellenic prehistoric times, which are usually called “ AXgzan Civilization”. Thanks to several monuments, paintings, and small examples of plastic art from the palace of Cnossus in Crete we are well informed as to the fashion of upper-class women of these very ancient times, from which no literary testimony has come down to us. We see the ladies of the royal court of the first half of the second millennium B.c. appearing in a costume, which modern times would certainly stigmatize as immodest. From the hips

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