Greco-Roman hairstyle

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Pharsalos
, Thessaly.

In the earliest times the Greeks wore their κόμη (hair of the head) long, and thus Homer constantly calls them κᾰρηκομόωντες (long-haired).

This ancient practice was preserved by the

Leonidas and his followers were discovered by the Persian spy before the battle of Thermopylae.[2] It seems that both Spartan men and women tied their hair in a knot over the crown of the head.[3] At a later time, the Spartans abandoned this ancient custom, and wore their hair short, and hence some writers erroneously attribute this practice to an earlier period.[4]

The custom of the

ephebus, was a solemn act, attended with religious ceremonies. A libation was first offered to Heracles, which was called oinisteria or oinesteria;[5] and the hair after being cut off was dedicated to some deity, usually a Potamoi.[6] It was a very ancient practice to go to Delphi to perform this ceremony, and Theseus is said to have done so.[7]

The ephebi are always represented on works of art with their hair quite short, in which manner it was also worn by the athletes.[8] When the Athenians passed into the age of manhood, they again let their hair grow. In ancient times at Athens the hair was rolled up into a kind of knot on the crown of the head, and fastened with golden clasps in the shape of grasshoppers. This fashion of wearing the hair, which was called krobylos, had gone out just before the time of Thucydides.[9] The Athenian women also wore their hair in the same fashion, which was in their case called korymbos.[10]

On vases, the heads of women were most frequently shown covered with a kind of band or a coif of net-work. Of these coiffures one was called kredemnos, which was a broad band across the forehead, sometimes made of metal, and sometimes of leather, adorned with gold; to this the name of stlengis was also given, and it appears to have been much the same as the ampyx. But the most common kind of head-dress for women was called by the general name of cecryphalus, and this was divided into the three species of cecryphalus, saccus, and mitra. The kekryphalos, in its narrower sense, was a caul or coif of net-work, corresponding to the Latin reticulum. It was worn during the day as well as the night, and has continued in use from the most ancient times to the present day. It is mentioned by Homer,[11] and is still worn in Italy and Spain.

These

Elean byssus,[14] and probably of other materials, which are not mentioned by ancient writers. The persons who made these nets were called kekryphaloplokoi.[15] Women with this kind of head-dress frequently occur in paintings found at Pompeii, from one of which the preceding cut is taken, representing a woman wearing a Coa Vestis (Coan cloth).[16]

The sakkos and the mitra were, on the contrary, made of close materials. The sakkos covered the head entirely like a sack or bag; it was made of various materials, such as silk, byssus, and wool.

Servius[21] to have been the same as the mitra, but in a passage in the Digest[22]
they are mentioned as if they were distinct.

Regarding the Romans besides the generic coma we also find the following words signifying the hair:

capillati.[25] But after the introduction of barbers into Italy, it became the practice to wear their hair short. The women too originally dressed their hair with great simplicity, but in the Augustan period a variety of different head-dresses came into fashion, many of which are described by Ovid.[26] Sometimes these head-dresses were raised to a great height by rows of false curls.[27]

The dressing of the hair of a Roman lady at this period was a most important affair. So much attention did the Roman ladies devote to it, that they kept slaves especially for this purpose, called ornatrices, and had them instructed by a master in the art.

large pin
.

False hair or wigs were worn both by Greeks and Romans.

funus); and among both the slaves had their hair cut close as a mark of servitude.[31]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roman hairstyles.
  1. ^ Plut. Lyc. 16
  2. ^ Herod, vii. 208, 209.
  3. ^ Comp. Aristoph. Lys. 1316, with Hor. Carm. ii. 11, in compium Lacenae more comas religata nodum. Miiller, Dor. iv. 3. § 1.
  4. ^ Pans. vii. 14. § 2; Philostr. Vit. Apoll. iii. 15. p. 106, ed. Olear.; Pint. Ale. 23.
  5. ^ Hesych. and Phot. s. v.
  6. ^ Aeschyl. Chotpli. 6; Paus. i. 37. §2.
  7. ^ Plut. Tlies. 5; Theophr. Char. 21.
  8. ^ Lucian, Died. Mer. 5.
  9. ^ Thucydides i. 6.
  10. ^ See James Millingen (Peintures Antiques, plate 40). The word corymbium is used in a similar sense by Petronius.
  11. ^ II. xxii. 469
  12. ^ Juv. ii. 96; Petron. 67.
  13. ^ Salmas. Eocerc. ad Solin. p. 3.92.
  14. ^ Paus. vii. 21. § 7.
  15. ^ Pollux, vii. 179.
  16. ^ Museo Borlon. vol. viii. p. 5.
  17. ^ Comp. Aristoph. Tltcsin. 257.
  18. ^ Mart. viii. 33. 19.
  19. ^ Herod, i. 195, vii. 62; Virg. Aen. ix. 616, 617; Juv. iii. 66.
  20. ^ Plin. //. N. xxxv. 9. s. 35.
  21. ^ ad Virg, Aen. ix. 616.
  22. ^ 34. tit. 2. s. 25. § 10.
  23. ^ De lie Rust. ii. 11. § 10.
  24. ^ Ov. Fast. ii. 30
  25. ^ Juv. vi. 30.
  26. ^ de Art. Am. iii. 136, &c.
  27. ^ Juv. Sat. vi. 502.
  28. ^ Ov. de Art. Am. iii. 239; Suet. Claud. 40; Dig. 32. tit. 1. s. 65.
  29. ^ Juv. iii. 66.
  30. ^ See e.g. Juv. vi. 120.
  31. ^ Aristoph. Aves, 911; Plant. Ampli. i. ]. 306; Decker, Ckaricles, vol. ii. p. 380, &c.; Bottiger, Sabina, vol. i. p. 138, &c.

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