They particularly inculcated respect for old age; and the fact of this being required even towards strangers, argues a great regard for the person of a parent; for we are informed that, like the Israelites and the Lacedæmonians, they required every young man to give place to his superiors in years, and even, if seated, to rise on their approach.
Nor were these honors limited to their lifetime; the memory of parents and ancestors was revered through succeeding generations; their tombs were maintained with the greatest respect; liturgies were performed by their children, or by priests at their expense; and we have previously seen what advantage was taken of this feeling, in the laws concerning debt.
"For of all people" says Diodorus, "the Egyptians retain the highest sense of a favor conferred upon them, deeming it the greatest charm of life to make a suitable return for benefits they have received;" and from the high estimation in which the feeling of gratitude was held among them, even strangers felt a reverence for the character of the Egyptians.
Through this impulse, they were induced to solemnize the funeral obsequies of their kings with the enthusiasm described by the historian; and to this he partly attributes the unexampled duration of the Egyptian monarchy.
It is only doing justice to the modern Egyptians to say that gratitude is still a distinguishing trait of their character; and this is one of the many qualities inherited by them, for which their predecessors were remarkable; confirming what we have before stated, that the general peculiarities of a people are retained, though a country may be conquered, and nominally peopled by a foreign race.
Dress, Toilet and Jewelry.
We now come to the dress of the Ancients. We shall have to consider those articles of dress used as a protection against the weather, and those prescribed by decency or fashion, also the coverings of the head and the feet, the arrangement of the hair and the ornaments. Unfortunately, the terminology is, in many cases, uncertain. Many points, therefore, must remain undecided. Before entering upon details, we must remark that the dress of the Greeks, compared with modern fashion, was extremely simple and natural. Owing to the warmth of the climate and the taste of the inhabitants, both superfluous and tight articles of dress were dispensed with. Moreover, the body was allowed to develop its natural beauty in vigorous exercise; and in this harmony and beauty of the limbs the Greeks prided themselves, which, of course, reacted favorably on the character of the dress.
GOLD PINS
Identical with this in form is the chiton worn by Doric women. It was simple, short-skirted, and with a slit in the upper part at both sides. It was fastened with clasps over both shoulders, and shortened as far as the knees by means of pulling it through the girdle. In this form it is worn by two maidens in the Louvre, destined for the service of the Lakonian Artemis at Karyæ. They carry kinds of baskets on their heads, and are performing the festive dance in honor of the goddess. The exomis is worn by the female statue in the Vatican known as the "Springing Amazon," and also by statues of Artemis, and representations of that goddess on gems and coins. The long chiton for women reaching down to the feet, and only a little pulled up at the girdle, we see in a vase painting, representing dancing youths and maidens, the former wearing the short, the latter the long, chiton. A development of the long chiton is the double-chiton. It was a very large, oblong piece of woven cloth, left open on one side, like the Doric chiton for men. It was equal to about one and a half lengths of the body. The overhanging part of the cloth was folded round the chest and back, from the neck downwards, the upper edge being arranged round the neck, and the two open corners clasped together on one shoulder. On this open side, therefore, the naked body was visible. Over the other shoulder the upper edge of the chiton was also fastened with a clasp—these clasps, as seen in annexed cuts, were elaborate ornaments, some being richly bejeweled, others being made of wrought gold—the arm being put through the opening left between this clasp and the corresponding corner of the cloth.
SHAWL OR TOGA PIN
In the same way was arranged the half-open chiton, the open side of which, from the girdle to the lower hem, was sewed up. A bronze statuette illustrates this way of putting it on. A young girl is about to join together on her left shoulder the chiton, which is fastened over the right shoulder by means of an agraffe. It appears clearly that the whole chiton consists of one piece. Together with the open and half-open kinds of the chiton, we also find the closed double-chiton flowing down to the feet. It was a piece of cloth considerably longer than the human body, and closed on both sides, inside of which the person putting it on stood as in a cylinder. As in the chiton of the second form, the overhanging part of the cloth was turned outward, and the folded rim pulled up as far as the shoulders, across which (first on the right, and after it on the left side) the front and back parts were fastened together by means of clasps, the arms being put through the two openings affected in this manner. Round the hips the chiton was fastened by means of a girdle, through which the bottom part of the dress trailing along the ground was pulled up just far enough to let the toes be visible. Above the girdle the chiton was arranged in shorter or longer picturesque folds. The chief alterations of varying fashion applied to the arrangement of the diploidion which reached either to the part under the bosom or was prolonged as far as the hips; its front and back parts might either be clasped together across the shoulders, or the two rims might be pulled across the upper arm as far as the elbow, and fastened in several places by means of buttons or agraffes, so that the naked arm became visible in the intervals, by means of which the sleeveless chiton received the appearance of one with sleeves. Where the diploidion was detached from the chiton, it formed a kind of handsome cape, which, however, in its shape, strictly resembled the Diploidion proper. Its shape was considerably modified by fashion, taking sometimes the form of a close-fitting jacket, at others (when the sides remained open) that of a kind of shawl, the ends of which sometimes equaled in length the chiton itself. In the latter case, the ampechonion was naturally at least three times as long as it was wide. In antique pictures women sometimes wear a second shorter chiton over the other. A great many varieties of dress, more distinguishable in the vase-paintings, representing realistic scenes, than in the ideal costumes of sculptural types, we must omit, particularly as, in most cases, they may be reduced to the described general principles.
PEARL SET PINS
From the chiton we now pass to the articles of dress of the nature of cloaks. They also show throughout an oblong form, differing in this essentially from the Roman toga. It, belonging to this class, was arranged so that the one corner was thrown over the left shoulder in front, so as to be attached to the body by means of the left arm. On the back the dress was pulled toward the right side so as to cover it completely up to the right shoulder, or, at least, to the armpit, in which latter case the right shoulder remained uncovered. Finally, the himation was again thrown over the left shoulder, so that the ends fell over the back.
Concerning the materials of the described garments, we have mentioned before that linen was used principally by the Ionians, wool by the Dorians; the latter material in the course of time became the rule for male garments all over Greece. The change of seasons naturally required a corresponding modification in the thickness of these woolen garments; accordingly we notice the difference between summer and winter dresses. For women's dresses, besides sheep's wool and linen, byssos, most likely a kind of cotton, was commonly used. Something like the byssos, but much finer, was the material of which the celebrated transparent dresses