The Life in Ancient Times: Discoveries of Pompeii, Ancient Greece, Babylon & Assyria. T. L. Haines

partly falls smoothly over the neck, and partly is made into long curls hanging down to the shoulders. It was also not unusual to comb back the front hair over the temples and ears, and tie it, together with the back hair, into a graceful knot. Here, also, the above-mentioned ribbon was used. It consisted of a stripe of cloth or leather, frequently adorned, where it rested on the forehead, with a plaque of metal formed like a frontal. This stephane appears on monuments mostly in the hair of goddesses; the ribbon belonging to it, in that case, takes the form of a broad metal circle destined no more to hold together, but to decorate the hair. This is the case in a bust of Here in the Villa Ludovisi, in the statue of the same goddess in the Vatican, and in a statue of Aphrodite found at Capua. Besides this another ornamented tie of cloth or leather was used by the Greeks, broad in the centre and growing narrower towards both ends. Its shape had great similarity to the sling. It was either put with its broader side on the front of the head, the ends, with ribbons tied to them, being covered by the thick black hair, or vice versa; in which latter case the ends were tied on the forehead in an elaborate knot. The net, and after it the kerchief, were developed from the simple ribbon, in the same manner as straps on the feet gradually became boots.

      HAIR-DRESS. (From Pompeii.)

      The kekryphalos proper consists of a net-like combination of ribbon and gold thread, thrown over the back hair to prevent it from dropping. The large tetradrachmai of Syrakuse, bearing the signature of the engraver, Kimon, show a beautiful head of Arethusa adorned with the kekryphalos. More frequent is the coif-like kekryphalos covering the whole hair, or only the back hair, and tied into a knot at the top.

      The modifications of the sakkos, and the way of its being tied, are chiefly illustrated by vase-paintings. At the present day the Greek women of Thessaly and the Isle of Chios wear a head-dress exactly resembling the antique sakkos. The acquaintance of the Greeks with the curling-iron and cosmetic mysteries, such as oil and pomatum, can be proved both by written evidence and pictures. It quite tallied with the æsthetical notions of the Greeks to shorten the forehead by dropping the hair over it, many examples of which, in pictures of both men and women, are preserved to us.

      We conclude our remarks about dress with the description of some ornaments, the specimens of which in Greek graves and in sculptural imitations are numerous. In Homer the wooers try to gain the favor of Penelope with golden breastpins, agraffes, ear-rings, and chains. Hephaistos is, in the same work, mentioned as the artificer of beautiful rings and hair-pins. The same ornaments we meet with again at a later period as important articles of female dress.

      Many preserved specimens show the great skill of Greek goldsmiths' breastpins. Hair-pins, in our sense, and combs for parting and holding up the hair were unknown to the Greeks. The double or simple comb of Greek ladies, made of box-wood, ivory, or metal, was used only for combing the hair. The back hair was prevented from dropping by means of long hair-pins, the heads of which frequently consisted of a graceful piece of sculpture. Well known are the hair-pins adorned with a golden cicada which, in Solon's time, were used by both Athenian men and women for the fastening of the krobylos.

      It was the custom of the Greeks to adorn their heads on festive occasions with wreaths and garlands. Thus adorned the bridegroom led home the bride. Flowers full of symbolic meaning were offered on the altars of the gods, and the topers at carousals were crowned with wreaths of myrtle, roses, and violets, the latter being the favorite flower with the Athenians. The flower-market of Athens was always supplied with garlands to twine round the head and the upper part of the body; for the latter also was adorned with garlands. Crowns consisting of other flowers, and leaves of the ivy and silver-poplar, are frequently mentioned. Wreaths also found a place in the serious business of life. They were awarded to the victors in the games; the archon wore a myrtle-wreath as the sign of his dignity, as did also the orator while speaking to the people from the tribune.

      The crowning with flowers was a high honor to Athenian citizens—awarded, for instance, to Perikles, but refused to Miltiades. The head and bier of the dead were also crowned with fresh wreaths of myrtle and ivy.

      The luxury of later times changed the wreaths of flowers for golden ones, with regard to the dead of the richer classes. Wreaths made of thin gold have repeatedly been found in graves. The barrows of the old Pantikapaion have yielded several beautiful wreaths of ivy and ears of corn; a gold imitation of a crown of myrtle has been found in a grave in Ithaka. Other specimens from Greek and Roman graves are preserved in our museums. A golden crown of Greek workmanship, found at Armento, a village of the Basilicata (at present in Munich), is particularly remarkable. A twig of oak forms the ground, from among the thin golden leaves of which spring forth asters with chalices of blue enamel, convolvulus, narcissus, ivy, roses, and myrtle, gracefully intertwined. On the upper bend of the crown is the image of a winged goddess, from the head of which, among pieces of grass, rises the slender stalk of a rose. Four naked male genii and two draped female ones, floating over the flowers, point towards the goddess, who stands on a pedestal bearing an inscription.

      Greek, particularly Athenian, women carried a sunshade, or employed slaves to hold it over them. In the Panathenaic procession even the daughters of metoikoi had to perform this service. Such sunshades, which, like our own, could be shut by means of wires, we often see depicted on vases and Etruscan mirrors. This form was undoubtedly the most common one. The cap-like sunshade painted on a skyphos, which a Silenus, instead of a servant, holds over a dignified lady walking in front of him, is undoubtedly intended as a parody, perhaps copied from the scene of a comedy. In vase paintings we also see frequently the leaf-like painted fan in the hands of women.

      TOILET ARTICLES FOUND AT POMPEII.

      The above articles were in good preservation when found. a, l, n, are hand-mirrors; m, is a wall-mirror; c, toilet-box, made of ivory and beautifully carved; d and k, bronze combs; i, fine comb; b, ear and tooth-pick; f, pin-box, with glass and steel pins; h, salve-box; g, hair-pins made of ivory and gold; e, is a powder or paint-box.

      Of the secrets of Greek toilette we will only disclose the fact that ladies knew the use of paint. The white they used consisted of white-lead; their reds were made either of red minium or of a root. This unwholesome fashion of painting was even extended to the eyebrows, for which black color was used, made either of pulverized antimony or of fine soot.

      The mirrors of the Greeks consisted of circular pieces of polished bronze, either without a handle or with one richly adorned. Frequently a cover, for the reflecting surface, was added. The Etruscan custom of engraving figures on the back of the mirror or the cover seems to have been rare among the Greeks, to judge, at least, from the numerous specimens of mirrors found in Greek graves. Characteristic of these are, on the other hand, the tasteful handles, representing mostly Aphrodite, as in a manner the ideal of a beautifully adorned woman. These hand-mirrors frequently occur in vase paintings, particularly in those containing bathing utensils.

      The carrying of a stick seems to have been a common custom. It is mostly of great length, with a crutched handle; young Athenian dandies may have used shorter walking-sticks. The first-mentioned sticks seem to have been used principally for leaning upon in standing still, as is indicated by frequent representations in pictures.

      Crimes and Punishments; Contracts, Deeds, Etc.

       Table of Contents

      Truth or justice was thought to be the main cardinal virtue among the Egyptians, inasmuch as it relates more particularly to others; prudence, temperance, and fortitude being relative qualities, and tending chiefly to the immediate benefit of the individual who possesses them. It was, therefore, with great earnestness that they inculcated the necessity of fully appreciating it; and falsehood was not only considered disgraceful, but when it entailed an injury on any other person was punishable by law.

      A calumniator of