The fabrics in use for Greek dresses presented considerable variety. The commonest materials were naturally woollen, but linen and silk were used for more luxurious garments, and a kind of leather jerkin known as d?f???a[142] was sometimes worn by peasants.

That the woollen materials used themselves varied considerably in texture, is proved by some fragments actually found in a tomb at Kertch in the Crimea, and published in the Comptes rendus in 1878. These date for the most part from the fourth century B.C., but one at least probably goes back to the fifth century. They are in most cases rather loosely woven, so that the separate threads are clearly visible, and a bright object could be seen through the material. The oldest piece is composed of such fine threads that it is almost transparent; other pieces have a texture not unlike that of woollen crÊpe. A somewhat coarser piece, the threads of which are very strong, has a portion of a seam remaining, which is oversewn with strong woollen thread. In addition to very finely woven woollen materials, the more luxurious of the Greeks wore also many varieties of linen, and in some cases even silk. Pollux tells us that the long linen chiton was worn by the Athenians and Ionians, and many references are to be found in ancient literature to different kinds of linen, coming from places usually in Asia or the more easterly of the Ægean islands. Of these the most commonly mentioned are ??????a, garments made of linen from the flax of Amorgos, and ?ss??a, made of ?ss??, a yellowish kind of flax, coming especially from India and Egypt. We learn from Aristophanes[143] that the ??t????? ???????? was transparent, so that we may conclude that the linen from which it was made was very fine indeed; perhaps it resembled a very fine cambric. That ?ss?? was a linen of some kind, we are told by Pausanias,[144] and Pollux gives us the information that it came from India. That it was known in Egypt also, is testified by Herodotus,[145] who tells us of its use for mummy-cloths. It was probably rather a mark of luxury when worn by the Greeks, for SimÆtha[146] tells us that she wore a ??t?? of it when going out on a festive occasion.

Of materials which come under the heading of silk, three kinds were known to the ancients. We read in Latin authors of vestes coÆ, bombycinÆ, and sericÆ, and these were also known to the Greeks. Aristotle[147] is the first of the ancient writers who tells us anything of the production of silk. After describing the various changes undergone by the worm before becoming a moth, he gives us the following information:—

?? d? t??t?? t?? ???? ?a? t? ?????a ??a????s? t?? ???a???? t???? ??ap?????e?a?, ??pe?ta ?fa????s??? p??t? d? ???eta? ?f??a? ?? ?? ?af??? ???te? ????t??.

“Some women undo the cocoons of this creature, winding off the silk, and then weave it; and Pamphile, daughter of Plateus, is said to have been the first to weave it in Cos.” This implies that the manufacture of silk was carried on in Cos, but no information is given as to whether the worm was reared in that island or whether the raw silk was imported. Pliny[148] tells us more on the subject; he seems to distinguish the three kinds of silk mentioned above. Of these three, only “sericum” is, strictly speaking, silk—that is to say, a material made by unwinding the cocoon of the silkworm reared on the mulberry tree. This worm is first mentioned by Pausanias.[149] It was the Chinese who discovered this method of procuring the silk, and it was apparently unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The “coa” and “bombycina” were procured by piercing and carding the cocoon instead of unwinding them entire; the result was a substance coarser and less brilliant than silk. Pliny draws a distinction between “coa” and “bombycina,” telling us that the latter was a product of Assyria and came from the ordinary mulberry worm, whereas the worm from which coan silk was procured was reared on other trees, notably the oak, ash, and cypress.[150]

CoÆ vestes are frequently mentioned by the Latin poets, chiefly Horace, Tibullus, and Propertius, and from them we learn that they were chiefly worn by HetairÆ and were of a transparent texture;[151] sometimes they were purple and had gold threads interwoven or embroidered.[152] One piece of silk was found amongst other materials at Kertch. In colour it is a bronze-gold, and is woven in a lozenge pattern.

If Greek dress lacked variety of cut and material, the deficiency was to some extent made up by considerable gaiety of colour and ornamentation. Probably none but slaves and artisans would wear garments of one colour without pattern or ornamentation of any kind, and even they would sometimes have their dresses adorned with a simple border, such as a broad stripe. From the numerous references scattered up and down through extant literature, it appears that the favourite colours were purple, red, and yellow. Pollux[153] gives us a list of the colours most commonly used. This list includes green (at?a???) and gray (???????, ?????????), in addition to those mentioned above, but strangely enough no mention is made of blue. The word ????e??, “dark blue,” is seldom if ever applied to garments, yet it is scarcely likely that the colour was unknown to the Greeks. Possibly some shades described as p??f??e?? approached a violet, or blue, as distinguished from ????????, “true purple.” For red we find the word f?????e??, “dark red,” used especially of the military cloak of the LacedÆmonians,[154] and ?????af??, “scarlet”; for yellow ?????t?? and ???????. ?at?a???, “frog-coloured,” is the word applied to a green garment, and this is probably the colour described as ?f??????, “like unripe grapes.” Pollux[155] tells us that for mourning the Greeks wore fa??? ?a? ??a? ???????? ?????, “gray and black, very like each other.” From this we learn that fa??? was a very dark colour, probably gray or dun.

The ornamentation applied to dress by the Greeks was very varied in character; it is comparatively rare to find on Greek vases a dress that is entirely free from decorations, and the patterns represented are very numerous. Sometimes the ornament consists of a simple border, often of a pattern distributed all over the dress, and these designs are frequently of a very elaborate character, including animal and even human forms. In sculpture, too, this feature was not neglected; the maidens of the Acropolis at Athens all have some pattern on their draperies added in colour, and one of them has no less than seven different designs distributed over her costume. We know that the himation of the Olympian Zeus by Pheidias was richly decorated, and the fragment from Damophon’s great group at Lycosura will serve as a later example of sculptured drapery highly ornamented with patterns in relief. This has not only geometric and floral designs as borders, but the whole surface is covered with fantastic dancing figures of human and hybrid forms.

References in literature are not very frequent; the most noteworthy occurs in the Iliad,[156] where Helen is described as working at a great loom:

“She was weaving a great purple web of double fold, and over it she spread many battles of horse-taming Trojans and bronze-clad AchÆans.”

The epithet p???????, applied to dress, undoubtedly means “richly decorated,” and the ??????, “flowered garments,” frequently mentioned in inscriptions, presumably refers to garments ornamented with floral designs. In connection with the passage in Homer, the question has been raised as to whether these complex designs were woven into the material or embroidered afterwards. It seems hardly likely that they were woven in, unless the work were a heavy tapestry, such as would hardly be suitable for a costume; moreover, the word ?p?ss? means “to sprinkle on,” and is more easily applicable to the distribution of a design over a piece of material already woven than to the formation of a pattern in the course of the weaving. The words ??a?, ?st??, and ?fa??e? would still be applicable, because when the garment was at this stage, it would still be regarded as incomplete, and the designs, however applied, would probably be at least sketched out while it was still on the loom.

Among the fragments of materials found at Kertch were some which were embroidered, others which had simple geometrical designs woven into the borders; in addition to these there were some considerable fragments of a large sarcophagus cover, the ornamentation of which is strongly reminiscent of Greek vase-painting of the fourth century. The ground is black and is covered with designs in red and light terra-cotta; the ornamentation is divided into bands, and consists of battle scenes with chariots, and birds and beasts scattered about the field of the design; the bands are separated by different patterns, many of which are frequently met with on vases. These include the egg and dart pattern, ivy and laurel wreaths, large palmettes, and many others.[157] Names are inscribed against some of the figures, among others ????, ?T????? ????S??, (?)GG????O?, etc.

These designs are not embroidered, nor are they produced in the course of weaving the cloth; they are apparently drawn out by means of some pigment applied after the material was woven. Herodotus tells us[158] that the people of the Caucasus used to paint animals on their clothes with some vegetable pigment which they mixed with water. Some such procedure, then, must have been practised by the Greeks of the fourth century, which is the date assignable to the fragment in question, on the evidence of the inscriptions.

The designs applied to Greek dresses presented abundant variety, as is evidenced by extant monuments, especially by the vases; they may be roughly classed as geometric, floral, and those containing animal and human forms. Of the geometric designs some are rectilinear, others curvilinear. The favourite rectilinear borders are broad lines, parallel rows of zigzag lines, the mÆander or key pattern in very many forms varying from the simple running mÆander to a complicated double fret, broken at intervals by stars or chequers. In addition to these borders we frequently find a chequer pattern covering the whole surface of a garment. A kind of net pattern, often seen on vases, was very probably used in dresses also. Of the curvilinear designs the most common are the “guilloche” or plait-band, the simple spiral, and the ???t??? or wave pattern. On the black-figured vases a kind of scale pattern frequently occurs covering a wide surface.

A very great variety of floral designs was used by the Greeks for ornamentation of all kinds; they are very frequent as part of the scheme of decoration of vases, especially of those of Ionic origin. A favourite pattern is a simple laurel wreath like that depicted in Fig. 39; the ivy also forms the basis of more than design. Sometimes it takes the form of a row of leaves on either side of a straight line; more often the leaves alternate with tendrils and berries. By far the commonest and the most beautiful of floral designs are those made up of lotus buds and flowers and palmettes. Sometimes we find the lotus alone forming the motive of the design, sometimes it alternates with palmettes. A very graceful pattern is composed of oblique palmettes turned in opposite directions and connected by spirals.[159] That these designs so commonly used for the decoration of pottery were employed also in the textile arts is proved by some of the fragments found at Kertch. Quite considerable remains were found of a piece of woollen material elaborately embroidered with a large floral design (Fig. 40), the main motive of which is a graceful palmette, from the base of which spring spirals terminating in heart-shaped leaves and flowers. The design is executed in gold and green on a violet ground.[160]

Animal and human forms are naturally less common than geometric and floral designs. Mention has already been made of the wonderful diplax woven by Helen, in which she represented scenes of battle between Trojans and AchÆans. In art we find that goddesses are frequently depicted wearing garments covered with elaborate ornamentation of this kind. The FranÇois vase will afford several examples, and in later art the dress of Demeter on the Triptolemus vase by Hieron,[161] and the sculptured drapery from Damophon’s group at Lycosura, may be quoted. That mortals also indulged in such luxurious ornamentation is proved again by the Kertch fragments. One of the most charming pieces found there had a very naturalistic design of ducks embroidered in gold and green on a dark-brown ground (Fig. 41 c); another piece had a figure of an Amazon riding on horseback; and mention has already been made of the sarcophagus cloth covered with battle scenes.