The toilet of the ancient Greeks was quite as elaborate as that of any modern people, and much time and care was bestowed upon it. That of the men was usually performed at the barber’s shop (????e???), which became, as we gather from frequent allusions in Aristophanes, a regular resort for lounging and picking up news and scraps of gossip of all kinds. A fashionable Athenian would probably spend a whole morning at the barber’s shop, where, in addition to having his hair cut and beard clipped or shaved, he could submit to the various operations of manicure and chiropody. An epigram in the palatine anthology[205] gives a list of barber’s implements, some of which have survived in a few examples, and may be seen in our museums. The list includes: scissors (?????), razor (?????), some sharp, pointed instrument for paring and cleaning the nails (st????). Mention is also made of a scraper (???t?a), which was probably used after bathing. An ancient razor differs from a modern one, in that it is crescent shaped.

In addition to these implements, various ointments were used, one of which, ????????, containing arsenic, was employed for removing superfluous hairs.

When repairing to the wrestling school or the gymnasium, a Greek would invariably be provided with an oil-flask (???a????, ???????) and a strigil (??st?a). The aryballos (Fig. 50) was a small globular vessel, with an opening just large enough to allow the oil to trickle slowly out, the lekythos being a long narrow bottle with a foot and a narrow neck.[206] Both were used to carry the olive oil with which athletes were accustomed to anoint themselves. The strigil was a curved metal instrument used for scraping the oil and sand from the body after wrestling. The famous statue of the Apoxyomenos in the Vatican Museum represents an athlete engaged in this operation.

The processes and requisites of the feminine toilet were many and various, and toilet scenes are frequently represented in vase-paintings. Sometimes we may see the process of the bath: an attendant slave pouring water from a large vessel over the crouching figure of the bather; in other instances we find a lady engaged in binding her hair with a fillet, tying her girdle, or fastening her sandal. There is almost invariably a maid in attendance, who assists in the operations, holding a scent-bottle, or a casket from which her mistress selects jewels.[207] One vase-painting shows a lady applying powder or colour to her cheeks with a brush.

Many allusions in literature, and especially in Aristophanes, show that paint and cosmetics of various kinds were in use in Athens in the fifth century B.C. It is not surprising to learn that hetairÆ made use of these artificial aids to beauty; but from a passage in Xenophon’s Œconomicus[208] we gather that the wives and daughters of respected citizens did not despise such means of enhancing and preserving their appearance. The passage describes how Ischomachus found his young wife ??tet?????? p???? ?? ?????? ?p?? ?e???t??a ?t? d????? e??a? ? ??, p???? d? ?????s? ?p?? ??????t??a fa????t? t?? ????e?a?, ?p?d?ata d? ????sa? ?????, ?p?? e???? d????? e??a? ? ?pef??e?, “with much white lead rubbed into her skin, to make her look fairer than she was; and with much rouge, to make her appear rosier; and wearing high sandals, to add to her natural height.”

Ischomachus persuades her to give up these vanities, asking her if she will like him better if he goes about ??t?? ??e?f?e??? ?a? t??? ?f?a???? ?pa?e?f?e???, “anointed with red ochre, and with pigment under his eyes.”

White lead was commonly used for producing a fair complexion; it was prepared by laying lead in vinegar, scraping off, powdering, and heating the white rust thus formed.[209] Various substances were used for producing rouge—some mineral, some vegetable; of the latter, the root of a plant (?????sa or ?????sa), certain kinds of seaweed (f????), and mulberry juice (s???????), were common. That some kind of pigment was used for darkening the eyelids is further testified by Pollux[210] and Aristophanes.[211] Lamp-black and a sulphuret of antimony (st???), were used for blackening eyebrows and eyelids. Perfumed powders and unguents were used for skin and hair, scented with myrrh or roses or other products. The simplest and most common unguent was, of course, olive oil. In addition to artificial complexions, we learn that false hair and wigs (p?????, p???????), were not unknown, and that these came from the East.[212]

Many examples have survived of the various articles pertaining to the equipment of a Greek lady’s toilet-table. Combs, hair-pins, mirrors, boxes, and bottles are numerous in our museums. Combs are usually made of ivory or bone, with a double row of rather fine teeth. Hair-pins of bone, ivory, or metal consist of a single pin with an ornamental head. Mirrors are of highly polished metal, usually bronze, though some have been found in silver. The mirrors may be divided into two classes—disk-mirrors and box-mirrors. The former consists of a single disk polished on one side, the reverse being usually engraved. The disk is furnished with a handle, which is sometimes so constructed that it can serve also as a foot; the mirror can so be made to stand on a table. The handle of a mirror of this kind very frequently takes the form of a human figure.[213] The box-mirror consists of two disks, the lower one, with its polished upper surface, serving as the mirror, the upper one as a cover to protect it. The two are sometimes quite separate and fit closely on to one another, but more often they are joined by a hinge; the cover is usually ornamented with relief work, a favourite subject being Aphrodite and Eros, although other mythological scenes are also found.[214]

Of the various receptacles used for containing trinkets, hair-bands, cosmetics, and so on, the commonest is the pyxis, although we find also baskets and little square caskets represented in vase-paintings and on the Attic grave reliefs. A box for cosmetics in the British Museum is in the shape of a bird.[215] The pyxis is a circular box with a lid; its sides are sometimes straight, but more often concave, and it is frequently raised on a foot. Its material was originally boxwood, hence its name, p????; but the majority of those which are extant are terra-cotta, though they are known also in ivory, alabaster, and precious metals. A common subject on a terra-cotta pyxis is a toilet scene or a marriage procession.[216]

The alabastron used to contain unguents or perfumes is a long narrow bottle with a spreading neck and small opening; it has no foot, and is round at the bottom, so that some kind of stand must have been necessary to hold it upright when not in use.[217] It was usually made of stone, alabaster, or terra-cotta. The lekythos also was sometimes used for the same purpose.

That Greek ladies wore abundant jewellery is proved by frequent representations both in sculpture and vase-paintings, as also by actual finds of jewellery, notably in the Greek graves of the fourth century at Kertch. These objects have been described and discussed by Mr A. B. Walters, in his book on The Art of the Greeks.[218] Rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and ear-rings, were commonly worn, as well as ornamental hair-pins and metal diadems for the hair. Many examples of goldsmith’s work are extant including some gold ornaments set with precious stones.

In summing up the results of the foregoing enquiry, we find that the nature and development of the costume of the Greeks is entirely in accordance with what we know of the nature and development of the national character. The chief characteristics of the Doric dress, which was probably worn in early days by all the inhabitants of the mainland alike, is a certain broad simplicity; that of the Ionic dress, which was worn by the Asiatic Greeks, and for a short period at least by the Athenians also, is graceful elegance. These characteristics distinguish the Doric and Ionic temperaments as exhibited in art also, notably in architecture, and to some extent also in sculpture. Athens appears to have occupied a middle position between the Peloponnese and Ionia. The Peloponnesians seem to have clung throughout their history to the Dorian dress, as the Ionians probably did to the Ionic; but in Athens we find change and development most strongly marked. In very early days the Athenians wore the Doric dress; then in the course of the seventh and sixth centuries their intercourse with the East brought them into contact with Eastern ideas and Eastern customs, and they appear to have caught something of the luxury which was characteristic of the East. At any rate, for a time at least they adopted the Ionic dress, and carried it to a great degree of luxury and extravagance. Then with the Persian wars came a reaction against anything savouring of Orientalism, and a return to greater simplicity. This led to a resumption of the Doric dress, with certain modifications and the retention of some Ionic elements.

It can hardly be questioned that the freedom and simplicity of their dress was to a great extent the cause of the development of the splendid physique which the Greeks undoubtedly enjoyed. Their loose draperies allowed their limbs perfect freedom, and their bodies were unhampered by constraint of any kind. In the palÆstra and the gymnasium, air and sunlight were allowed to exercise their salutary influence, for the Greeks were not “ashamed of their own naked skin,” and so discarded their clothing when in pursuit of their athletic occupations. The healthy state of body thus preserved no doubt had its share in fostering that healthy state of mind to which are due the sanity and sobriety that characterise all Greek thought, whether expressed in literature, art, or philosophy.