It turns out that bread, meat, herbs, olives, flatbreads, sweets and fruits coexisted on Greek tables. Of the legumes, the ancient Greeks preferred beans, chickpeas (mainly baked), lentils, and peas, which they consumed in the form of puree. Hercules gorged himself on split pea puree, accompanied, of course, by a bull on a spit, as Aristophanes told us about in his “Frogs.”

"The Feasting Sophists" by Athenaeus

But we find the most transparent picture of ancient Greek nutrition in Athenaeus from the Egyptian Naucratis, an ancient Greek biologist, nutritionist, gastronome and rhetorician who lived at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century, in his book “Dipnosophists” (“Feasting Sophists”). Thus, in one of the fragments Athenaeus, among other things, says that “the soul is delighted by the sight fresh bread from fine flour, tender octopus, sausages, boiled chard leaves, split peas and garlic, mackerel, peas, honey, cheese, stuffed intestines, walnuts, millet, baked lobsters and squid, boiled mullet, boiled cuttlefish, boiled eel... grapes, figs, apples, pomegranates, oregano, pears, olives, apple pies, leeks, eggs, mussels, oysters, tuna, sesame, ducks, swans, partridges, pelicans, sweet white wine...”

Oil in ancient Greek cooking

There are more than a hundred items on the list, but the most important place on the table is occupied by olive oil, which was also used in palestras. The most famous oils were produced in Attica, on the islands of Samos and Ikaria, and the ancient Greeks harvested oil from unripe olives, and it was this that they used in salads. They used almond oil and walnut oil to make sweets.

Note: everything is boiled, baked, mashed - and nothing fried!

Milk and cheeses

Not a single table was complete without milk and cheese, although the townspeople considered these products to be delicacies. The athletes ate soft cheeses, as well as garlic and onion in raw form accompanied all, without exception, dishes. Therefore, it is not surprising that women hid from men in gyneconite, and one can only imagine what a thick spirit stood in the palaestra.

Game in the food of the gods

The ancient Greeks also knew how to cook small game, which they not only baked over coals, but also preserved their meat in oil, just in case “if guests unexpectedly showed up,” and flavored it with all sorts of wild herbs.

Hercules' favorite soup

The poor ancient Greeks (and there were some), those who condemned Socrates out of envy, ate soups. By the way, there was often a vat of fish soup on the poor table, which the rich ancient Greeks neglected. Salads - poor and rich Athenians - were seasoned with olive oil, wine vinegar and honey. So all the talk about primacy French cuisine- a complete distortion of historical truth!

Hercules' favorite soup - and he also lived his life hard, since nature, having rewarded him with irrepressible strength, gave him brains out of his fist - was pea soup.

Meat only for the Olympian gods

It seems that only the Olympian gods indulged in meat in Greece, and in extreme cases, even the priests, since, despite the abundant sacrifices to the gods, meat in Ancient Greece was considered an expensive food. Pork was cheaper than others, but they preferred not to eat pig brains, since philosophers forbade it.

Fish and seafood delicacies

A favorite dish of the ancients was also snails, which were consumed approximately the same way they are shelled today in Crete: boiled, in tomato sauce, with aromatic herbs.

Poor and rich Athenians had a great weakness for seafood. By the way, while the Saronic Gulf was clean as a tear, and while modern Athenians also ate its seafood, they got sick a little, and they had never heard of heart disease and cholesterol. In Ancient Greece in great demand dried fish from the Black Sea and the Gelespont were also used.

Take note:

The wise ancient Greeks ate more fish than meat. In the morning they had the habit of drinking goat milk, a kind of tea made from honey dissolved in warm water, as well as kykeon, a drink possibly made from barley and mint. Does he seem disgusting to you? Well, what's better than muesli?

How was concern for beauty and health woven into the life of the ancient Greeks? In ancient times, they attached great importance to the external harmony and beauty of a person, admired it and knew a lot about it. Both men and, of course, ancient Greek women wanted to look good.

The endless pursuit in search of the elixir of ideal beauty and youth is familiar to every woman. Before the advent of cosmetics, the fair sex invented many effective ways self care.

Beauty secrets of the ancient Greeks

The women of Ancient Greece were proud of their appearance and knew secrets that, centuries later, are available to any modern beauty.

Greek women paid attention to water procedures Special attention. Each day began with a bath and adding oils to the water, which soothed and had a beneficial effect on the skin. and honey were actively used to moisturize the body, facial skin and maintain good hair condition.

In ancient times, hair length spoke not only about a person’s preferences, but also about his social affiliation: short haircuts Only slaves wore them. Ancient Greek women preferred to have their long hair had a golden hue, which was achieved with the help of vinegar, and wax was used for shine.

Already in ancient times, women knew that men were attracted to hair that left a fragrant trail, and Greek women found a way out. They collected herbs, flowers and spices, and then made a decoction with the addition of olive oil.

However, men also kept up with fashion: for example, in the 6th century BC. Men's hairstyles with long curls were in fashion. Later, after, the curls began to be worn shorter. And in general, in ancient Athens, long, well-groomed hair was considered a sign of aristocracy. Lycurgus argued that long hair makes handsome man even more beautiful, and the ugly - even more unattractive.

Ancient barbers occupied important place in society - they chatted with all the clients and were aware of everything that was happening around them. They say that when the Macedonian king Archelaus came to the barber and he asked how to cut his hair, Archelaus replied: “Without further ado.” 🙂

Many museums in Greece display small vessels intended for storing ointments and homemade creams. These funds had different purposes: relieved rashes, burns, injuries, or simply soothed the skin.

Mixtures of medicinal powders were prepared from aloe juice, cinnamon and honey. All this is not only applied to the skin, but also taken orally after bathing. If the skin needed cleansing, the following remedy helped: a tablespoon of heavy cream was mixed with a teaspoon of sea salt, the mixture was applied to the skin of the face and washed off after massaging.

Although Hippocrates was not a woman, he delighted not only ancient but also modern ladies with his discoveries. In his treatises on medicine, separate works were devoted to cosmetology. To this day, many are grateful to the doctor for the description amazing properties clay. White clay helps get rid of acne, increases blood circulation and strengthens hair. Blue clay reduces the depth of wrinkles, cleanses the skin, helps fight allergies, and has anti-inflammatory properties.

“How to care for your eyelids and the delicate skin under your eyes?” – this question really worries women. The ancient Greek women had effective way. They lubricated the area around the eyes with warm olive oil and massaged it, and washed it off after half an hour. Repeating this procedure daily made it possible to smooth out wrinkles.

To maintain the ideal condition of the skin of the body, Greek women also created a special product. For 400 g of rose petals, take 500 g of olive oil, infuse this mixture for a week, filter and add a few spoons to the bath. This recipe was guaranteed to give the skin elasticity and softness.

At all times, people equally strived for the ideal, but achieved what they wanted different ways. Ancient beauties possessed beauty and knew many recipes for achieving this beauty, so modern women have no reason not to trust them.

Ancient Greek word ψιμυθίασις meant “makeup”, and came from the word “blush”. Ancient Greek women actively used face paints. Here is what one ancient writer named Ischomachos writes:

“I noticed that my wife had preened herself: she had smeared her face with lead white to make it appear whiter than she really was, rouged her cheeks to make them appear pinker than she really was, and put on high-heeled sandals to make her appear taller than she actually was. really..."

So, dear men, they were ironic about our attempts to decorate ourselves several thousand years ago! 🙂

We’ll talk about the life of the ancient Greeks later; after all, it was significantly different from the modern one. Perhaps it’s worth taking something useful from the ancients!

Elena Meteleva

The following stereotype is popular regarding the differences in appearance between ancient and modern Greeks:

The Greeks supposedly used to be all fair, with regular facial features. That's what it says in ancient Greek poems. And the fact that now they are completely different is the consequences of the Turkish conquest.

“Recent genetic studies of Greek populations have provided evidence of statistically significant continuity between ancient and modern Greeks.” (Wikipedia).

The myth about fair-haired people is explained very well on the Greek forum:

Thanks to user Olga R.:

“The Greeks were never a “homogeneous” ethnic group. Since ancient times, they were divided into two tribal groups: the Ionians (Achaeans) and the Dorians (within these groups there were also subgroups, but this is not relevant to the subject of our conversation). These tribes differed from each other each other not only in culture. but also in appearance. The Ionians were short, black-haired and dark-skinned, and the Dorians were tall, fair-haired and light-skinned. The Ionians and Dorians were at enmity with each other, and both tribal groups mixed completely only in Byzantine times. Although the word “completely” this is not entirely appropriate: in geographically isolated areas - for example, on some islands - a relatively pure Ionic or Doric type can still be found.

The Greeks of the Black Sea region (Ponti-Romans, Azov Rumians, Urums, etc.), like the rest of the Greeks, are also very heterogeneous: among them there are both pure Ionians and Dorians, and mixed type(The Black Sea region was inhabited for many centuries by people from different regions of Greece). Therefore, some Greeks in Ukraine may well differ from some Greeks in Greece - but, of course, not all and not from everyone. For example, if you go to Crete, you will find there as many “white and curly” Greeks as you like (most Cretans have retained the Doric type of appearance)."

“Then where did such a “classical” Greek image come from and take hold?

Thanks to the "Western European artists of the 17th-19th centuries. They depicted the ancient Greeks as similar to themselves, their loved ones - that is, to the Germans, Dutch and other Western Europeans. Hence the "stereotype" (not at all based on historical data.

“White-haired blonds are also, of course, called “ξανθοι” (what else can you call them?) But if you hear or read this word in relation to a Greek, it means light brown hair.”

"Homer describes Odysseus as a typical Ionian: dark and black-haired."

"...The fact is that the appearance of the ancient Greek gods was, as it were, a symbol of their essence - that is, it depended not on how the admirers of these gods looked, but on the “properties” of the gods themselves. Thus, Apollo’s golden hair is a symbol The "gray" eyes of Athena are actually not gray, but "owl": A8hna glaukwphs (the interpretation of this word as "gray" appeared because the ancient Greek word glaux - "owl" - was confused by modern translators with the word glaukos - “gray” or “blue”). The owl was a symbol and one of the incarnations of the goddess Athena; many scientists believe that Athena was originally the goddess of death and was revered in the form of an owl (a typical Neolithic image of death and burial). By the way, there are images Athens with the head of an owl."

What is it? Where did the sculptures with “Greek profiles” (i.e., with the absence of the bridge of the nose) come from? Where did the descriptions of golden-haired people come from? Let's even say that it was blondes who were mentioned. Well, the gods can do anything! They must be different from mere mortals by definition. The absence of the bridge of the nose seemed to hint at such an origin. On the contrary, scoundrels and commoners were depicted with prominent eyebrows. It's a question of symbols. Greek art was not realistic in every way.

Tnm, if you look at the busts of philosophers and imagine them in natural colors. And it’s even easier to check out pictures of everyday life, where simple collective farmers are depicted - on red-figure vase paintings. Or even like gods, but in the clothes of mere mortals:

Classic Mediterranean type! Curly dark hair. And the profile, initially stylized to resemble the canon, later becomes more and more realistic.

The Italians, who never knew the Turkish occupation, look approximately the same. They have a different theme: the earliest Romans looked like the northern French of today. And then the blood of slaves from the Middle East was mixed in. Well, maybe. But this does not deprive them of classification among the “true Aryans”:

Moreover, southern Italians (i.e., residents of Naples and Sicily) are in many ways descendants of Greek colonists.

This is what the inhabitants of these areas looked like in ancient times:

And most importantly, look carefully at these faces. They can be dark-skinned and brown-eyed. But the common origin, one way or another, is felt. Here's Despina Vandi, for example:

And here is a Greek collective farmer from the film “The Day When All the Fish Floated Up.” Isn’t this an ancient Greek bust of a philosopher?):

Yes, no matter how many times I looked at all sorts of Greek mosaics, vases, frescoes - all curly.

Why were the Achaeans and Dorians at war? How was this expressed? Ancient Greece, after all, is essentially a bunch of policies, city-states, warring and collaborating, was the population homogeneous and consisted of one type or not?

Why is it that fair hair is a cool sign (as far as I know, most of the gods were fair-haired), but large brow ridges are not?

Answer

Sorry for not answering right away. Pre-holiday chores, sir)

In fact, this is a common story when a nation is formed, over time, gradually from different ethnic groups, closely related, and sometimes not so closely related. The fragmentation of a single civilization at different stages is also natural. The Achaeans created the Mycenaean civilization in the 2nd millennium BC. The fight against Crete, where the evil Minotaur is, and the war with Troy are from that era. The Dorians, although they spoke a similar language, lived to the west for a long time, and compared to the Achaeans, they almost climbed trees.

The Bronze Age Catastrophe has arrived. Due to difficult conditions, the Dorians invaded the borders of the mentioned power. Some of the Achaeans had to be evacuated, where they joined the “peoples of the sea” who pirated in the Mediterranean.

At first it looked almost like an invasion of barbarians in animal skins. But during the Greek “Dark Ages” the conquerors assimilated some of the achievements of the conquered, mixed with them, and, coupled with their progressive energy and the achievements of the advancing Iron Age, eventually gave life to what in our understanding is classical Ancient Greece.

In total, four branches played a role in the formation of the ancient Greek ethnos: the Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians.

Some kind of memory was preserved locally. The people of Athens remembered that they used to have a great civilization, and that they were mainly descendants of the Achaeans. The Spartans were Dorians in their purest form. The Ionians eventually ended up in the east - in Asia Minor and on the adjacent islands. There, apparently, there were very significant connections with the already existing local population. Due to mixing with which, the Ionians, presumably, acquired a characteristic southern appearance.

Of course, there were differences on the ground. Even in our time, for example, we distinguish between northern and southern Russians. There are different dialects. In Greece to this day, depending on the region, either the Dorian or the Ionian type prevails. According to the records of one knowledgeable guy known online, known simply as the Greek (he even starred in one of the “Dinner Party” programs), the indigenous population of the country is now, in the majority, of the European type, but repatriates from the CIS countries are usually Ionians.

Comment

18+
Cave! Legibus Foederationis Russicae haec acroasis prohibita est omnibus minoribus duodeviginti annis. Continet enim descriptiones stupri, meretricii actuumque sexualium inter homines eiusdem sexus. Haec omnia tamen, quamquam turpissima aliquibus videntur esse, neque obscura neque ignota fuerunt Graecis Romanisque antiquis, nec etiam aetate minoribus.

Translated from Latin, this means the following: “According to the laws of the Russian Federation, this lecture is not recommended for persons under 18 years of age, since it contains descriptions of homosexual contacts, sexual violence and prostitution.” Hello! I am Irina Kali-teevskaya, editor of the Arzamas website, and we are continuing a course of lectures on the culture of antiquity. As you probably already understood, this lecture is dedicated to sexual culture. Of course, this topic always arouses interest, and not necessarily a completely healthy one, but this is not the main reason why we also decided to address it. The fact is that sexual culture helps to understand how ancient society was structured. We talked about this with Elizaveta Shcherbakova, candidate of philological sciences, specialist in ancient philosophy and medicine.

When it comes to sexuality and sexual morality, ancient culture poses a particular difficulty for us. Texts by Greek and Latin authors, images on vases, frescoes and statues often make an extremely strange, even scandalous impression on us. It is difficult for us to imagine openly obscene images in public space - that is, in city squares, in houses.

It is enough to mention such ancient artifacts as herms. Herms are a type of statue that represents a rectangular pillar ending with a realistically depicted head of a deity - traditionally Hermes (hence the name “herms”), but later these could be other gods, for example Dionysus, and there are even real ones people: for example, the herm of the famous orator Demosthenes is kept in Munich. In addition to the head, this pillar is always equipped with an erect male genital organ. And these same herms were an important part of public space in various Greek cities - they were placed in squares, at intersections, on roads.

Roman copy of the herma of Demosthenes from the original of Polyeuctus from Athens. 280 BC e. Glyptothek, Munich; Wikimedia Commons

What seems even more surprising to us is the use of such objects in religious cults. For example, in Ancient Athens there was whole line religious festivals, at which the so-called phallus, or phallus, was an important cult attribute. This is a model of a male erect genital organ. Such a phallus was used, for example, in the Athenian festival of Haloa - this is a women's festival of the goddess Demeter. We have images on vases of women with these kinds of iconic phalluses.

Strong with a pipe. Red-figure painting. Vulci, 520-500 BC. e. Cabinet des Médailles; Wikimedia Commons

Here we must clearly understand that the interpretation of any image and any image in general is extremely dependent on the context. Thus, in Greek and Roman culture, unlike ours, the image of an erect male genital organ - such a cult phallus - is perceived primarily not as pornographic, but as symbolic: the phallus is also among the Greeks , and among the Romans it was associated primarily with fertility. That is why it played such an important role in agricultural cults, for example in the cult of Demeter (Demeter is the goddess responsible for the agricultural year and for fertility) or in the cult of Dionysus, which is responsible for such an important part of Greek agriculture, like winemaking. In addition, the phallus had an apotropaic character, that is, it was considered a talisman - as we would say now, protection from the evil eye. For example, in Ancient Rome, in particular in Pompeii, we see many images of the god Priapus. Priapus is the god of fertility and the patron of gardens, and he has a characteristic iconography: he is a creature with a grotesque erect genital organ. In addition to the fact that the phallus is a clear symbol of fertility, the placement of such a Priapus in the garden also has the direct nature of a warning: do not enter my garden, otherwise punishment will await you, and punishment of a certain kind.

Priapus. Pompeian fresco. 89 BC e. - 79 BC e. Priapus - ancient greek god fertility. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; Wikimedia Commons

I repeat: such artifacts as herms or phalluses, in the cult and in general in the public space in ancient culture, apparently were not eroticized, and we should not perceive them that way. For comparison: Athena-ni-nu in the 5th century BC. e. our modern public space would seem as unusual and scandalous as the images of phalluses on their squares do to us. We cannot imagine, say, in Athens in the 5th century BC. e. a sexualized image of a half-naked or naked woman, as in modern advertising of women's underwear, which we see so often in our public space that we remain indifferent to its erotic message. Try to look at this image through the eyes of a Greek of the archaic or classical era. Having seen, say, a huge banner on a house with a half-naked seductive woman in lingerie, how would an ancient Greek read such an image? He will undoubtedly decide that this image is a cult image, that is, it is some kind of goddess. But every Greek knew perfectly well what happens to those who see the goddess in a naked and generally inappropriate form: a terrible punishment awaits him - like, for example, Acte-o-na, who was turned into a deer for spying on Artemis, and the dogs ate him. So, at the sight of such an image, a Greek would most likely be frightened, and we, who look at it every day, would be considered shameless.

It is impossible not to admit that ancient culture speaks about sexuality somehow differently than our modern European culture: sometimes more openly, and sometimes much more modestly. Nevertheless, a myth arose long ago (which continues to exist to this day) about antiquity as a completely sexually liberated culture, such a territory of complete sexual freedom. In fact, this is, of course, not the case. This idea, as always, comes from the fact that we transfer the categories of our own culture onto a culture that, although underlying the entire European civilization, is still fundamentally different from ours, with a different sexual ethics.

It must be said that not only ordinary consumers of ancient culture, but also professional researchers have been guilty of this for a long time.

Until a certain point, studies of ancient sexuality were largely biased - some of them were even published under pseudonyms. Those researchers who were generally interested in this topic either collected information about various ancient sexual practices as historical curiosities (and at the same time pursued the goal of shocking the public), or wrote such works with a moralizing purpose.

The situation changed, perhaps, only in 1976, when the first volume of Michel Foucault’s famous book “The History of Sexuality” was published. This first volume was dedicated to antiquity. Foucault, unlike his predecessors, was not interested in sexual practices and sexual acts in themselves; The history of sexuality for Foucault is not the history of sexual acts. Foucault was interested in sexuality as a purely cultural phenomenon: what is considered normal and what is a deviation in a given culture, and why this or that culture interprets certain sexual actions either as normal or abnormal. Foucault was interested in how these norms - that is, what is good and what is bad in the sexual sphere - relate to the structure and hierarchy of power in society.

So, we will talk not so much about the ancient sexual practices themselves, but about the norms and rules that are associated with them. What sexual behavior was considered acceptable in Ancient Greece and Rome, and what was considered abnormal and immoral? And also - what things could be discussed out loud and shown, and what things were politely ordered to remain silent about?

Actually, long before Foucault, it was clear that the structure of power and, so to speak, the structure of sexuality are closely related to each other. This, of course, also applies to Antiquity, where sexual, gender and political hierarchies are linked into a single system.

This system was first described by the famous antiquarian Kenneth Dover. His classic book, Homosexuality in Ancient Greece, was published in 1978, almost simultaneously with Foucault. Dover proposed a scheme for describing ancient sexuality, which was called the “penetration model”, or “penetration model”. Within the framework of this model, any sexual relationship is understood as fundamentally unequal, asymmetrical, as a game in which there is always a winner and a loser. And just as the free adult male stands at the top of the social hierarchy in Antiquity, in the same way it is implied that he stands at the top of the sexual hierarchy. That is, if in sexual relations If an adult male participates, then within the framework of this model he must necessarily play only an active, that is, a dominant, penetrating role. In this scheme, the target of penetration is always understood as a loser, that is, to some extent humiliated. And this sexual hierarchy explains many ancient norms and practices that seem strange to us.

If we talk, for example, about a woman, then the passive role was automatically assigned to her. But at the same time, one must understand that the specific norms of female sexual behavior in Greece and Rome were very different and even in Greece itself varied from one polis to another and from era to era. For example, in classical Athens, about which we know best, only a man could be a full citizen in every sense. Such a full-fledged citizen has several functions: first, military (he is the one who protects the polis); secondly, socio-political (we must remember that Athens is a direct democracy, where political process Every citizen is obliged to participate at least once in his life); and, finally, an adult male is the head of the family, or, more precisely, the so-called oikos (from the Greek oikos- "house"). The personnel of such a farm, such an oikos, is a wife in charge of the farm, children and slaves.

It is interesting that a woman, if she is a full-fledged Athenian citizen, is deprived of her rights to a greater extent than, for example, in Sparta or Ancient Rome: she, for example, does not own property, does not represent herself in court , does not participate in the political process at all (she does not vote), she does not even go to visit her husband and in general, ideally, should not appear outside her parents’ or husband’s house. Likewise, in the sexual sphere, she is not a full-fledged subject: for example, according to Athenian legislation, if a husband caught his wife with her lover, then it was the lover, who was automatically considered a seducer, who bore full legal responsibility, but not the woman . She was punished only by mandatory divorce and some other restrictions, despite the fact that a much worse fate awaited her lover - for example, her husband could kill him on the spot with impunity.

In general, in the classical era we hardly hear about marriage as a source of emotional support - what we would call a love marriage. We also don't hear much about sexuality in marriage. The exception here is Aristophanes - for example, the famous “Lysistrata”, where Greek women, led by the same Lysistrata, declare a sexual boycott on their husbands until they stop fighting with each other (this happens during the war between Athens and Sparta). Lysistrata - meaningful name: It means “disbanding an army.” However, here we must remember that the sexuality depicted by Aristophanes is a purely political allegory: it is an inversion of the power hierarchy, where the man is in charge.

Can ancient culture be called strictly patriarchal and even hostile to women?

On the one hand, yes. Already in the oldest Greek texts - the poems of Hesiod - we find the idea of ​​a woman as a kind of “inevitable evil”. Let me remind you: according to Hesiod, humanity was in some way “expelled from paradise.” The golden age, when the earth gave birth to everything itself and people knew neither death nor childbirth, is being replaced by our current deplorable state, when we must hardly obtain food for ourselves by cultivating the land, reproduce and die. And the first woman condemned us to this suffering - the same Pandora whom the gods sent to people as punishment for the stolen fire; Pan-dora, who opened the vessel with all the misfortunes. The myth of Pandora draws a direct parallel between the earth, which must be cultivated with difficulty and which takes away all the strength of a person, and the woman who must be “sowed” like earth and who is just as insatiable and takes away all the strength from a man. Pandora, by the way, meaning “all-giving” is one of the traditional epithets of the earth.

A sowing woman and “rising” phalluses. Red-figure painting. 440-430 BC e. The British Museum

In addition, the Greeks were characterized by the idea of ​​a woman as fundamentally “other,” almost like another biological species. And this idea also goes back to ancient times. For example, we find the idea that a woman is sexually insatiable and unable to control her sexual appetite both in Hesiod and in much later ancient gynecological treatises. Take, for example, the idea, which has survived to surprisingly late times, that the uterus, if it is not regularly irrigated with semen, is capable of traveling through the female body and thus driving the patient to madness. This, by the way, is where our word “hysteria” (or uterine rabies) comes from - from the Greek hystera, "uterus". Sex or childbirth were prescribed as therapy.

Yet to call ancient culture fundamentally misogynistic would be an oversimplification. Take Athens for example. For quite a long time it was believed that in Athens all women were divided into two categories: legal wives or future legal wives and prostitutes different types, and the latter were thought of as fundamentally sexually available.

Erotic scene at the symposium. Red-figure painting. Greece, around 500 BC. e. Yale University Art Gallery; Wikipedia Commons

In fact, the picture was more complex. In addition to legal wives and prostitutes who worked in official brothels or even just on the streets - they were called pornai, hence our word “pornography” - there were, on the one hand, those living in Athens, connections with which were partially legally recognized and could be no less durable than marriage. The only thing is that children born in such quasi-marriages did not receive citizenship.

On the other hand, there were so-called heterae, who cannot be identified with prostitutes. Hetaera is a completely special phenomenon, characteristic only of Greece. Hetaera was neither a prostitute nor a legal wife and had a very specific status and position. WITH Greek language the word "hetera" ( hetaira) can be translated as “girlfriend”. Unlike a wife, she, for example, could accompany a man to a symposium. A symposium is a ritualized drinking party where “decent” women do not go. And the hetaera at the symposium was an important source of entertainment, and not exclusively sexual entertainment: she could maintain an intellectual conversation, she was valued for her wit and charm. Unlike prostitutes, hetaeras did not receive direct payment for sexual services, but often received gifts or were supported by rich people and thus could themselves become very rich. The peculiarity of a hetaera is that she is her own master - or, as it was called, kurios. In particular, she could represent herself in court and own property. Moreover, a high-class hetaera could choose her own partners. Thus, the hetaera occupies a very specific ambivalent position in the ancient gender system: she is, as it were, both a woman and a man. And this is partly the reason for its special status and such enormous cultural interest in it. We have a lot of ancient evidence about the connections of famous artists or writers with hetaeras - just remember, for example, the Athenian hetaera Phryne, who served as a model for the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles for his “Aphrodite of Cnidus.” For comparison, to better explain this phenomenon: for example, these days, actors, singers and other celebrities are also partly excluded from the system of generally accepted gender norms.

Aphrodite of Knidos. Marble Roman copy from a Greek original by Praxiteles. IV century BC e. Museo nazionale romano di palazzo Altemps; Wikimedia Commons

In Rome, society was structured differently, and the attitude towards women, accordingly, was also somewhat different.

Indeed, the position of women in Greece and Rome was completely different, as the ancient authors themselves tell us with interest. For example, to the Romans, just like to us now, it seemed surprising that in Greece a husband and wife could not go on a visit or to a symposium together.

To better imagine public role and the function of women in Rome, it is enough to recall one of the fundamental myths about the emergence of the Roman state - the myth of the abduction of the Sabine women. Let me remind you: when Romulus and his comrades founded a new city, they needed wives to continue the family line. They tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the neighboring Sabine tribe on this matter, but they refused. Then they invited the Sabines to the city for a holiday and kidnapped their daughters. The Sabines were dissatisfied and went to fight with the newly minted Romans, but the young wives rushed between their husbands and fathers shouting “Don’t kill each other! It’s better for us to die than to remain orphans or widows.” So the Sabines made peace with the Romans.

It can be seen here that, unlike Greece, where a married woman was part of oikos, part of her husband’s family, in Rome she belonged to two families at once and, if they quarreled, was supposed to promote peace between them. That is, its important function was to ensure connections between two families, and marriage was a means of establishing such connections, in particular political alliances.

It is clear that in such a scheme the role of women is relatively large. Moreover, in Rome, under certain conditions, a woman could own and manage property and had the right to divorce. There was even a form of marriage in which the husband had no right to dispose of his wife’s property at all - technically, this right was reserved for her father or closest male blood relative, but in practice the woman thus received significant economic freedom.

Pompeian fresco from the wall of a lupanarium (brothel) with a sex scene. Around the 1st century AD e. Wikimedia Commons

Greater economic freedom (and political influence) also implied greater sexual independence, including from a legal point of view. So, unlike Greece, the woman herself was responsible before the law for treason. For example, under Augustus the so-called Lex Julia, or the Law on Treason, which recognized betrayal as a state matter, not a family matter, and imposed large monetary fines on both the wife and the lover. In an interesting way this August legislation, which implied state control over certain forms of sexuality, led to the emergence of a whole class of officially registered legal prostitutes; they were even supposed to wear external signs the differences are a certain form of clothing. By the way, a woman convicted of treason had to wear the same clothes of a prostitute as punishment. At the same time, pardoners, of course, themselves did not fall under this legislation on treason, which even led to curious cases. For example, a woman named Vestilla from a noble Roman family, fearing accusations of adultery, tried to register as a prostitute, but the Roman Senate quickly covered this hole in the law by prohibiting prostitution for women from the upper classes.

It is clear that with such a position of women in Rome, hetaeras, that is, courtesans with a relatively high social status, did not and could not exist - primarily because this social role was already occupied by Roman citizens, who were economically freer and had greater rights than Athenian citizens. wives.

One of the most exciting stories related not only to ancient sexuality, but also to ancient culture in general and everyday life, is homosexuality. We constantly encounter homoerotic scenes in ancient fine arts and lyrics and interpret them as evidence of either terrible ancient licentiousness or amazing ancient emancipation - it depends on our own ideas.

The problem of ancient homosexuality is one of the most difficult for our modern understanding. I'm not talking about moral difficulties - in our time, in most civilized countries, homosexuality is rightly not condemned. No, the difficulty in understanding ancient homosexuality lies for us in our concept of sexual orientation. For us, sexual orientation is the exclusive preference of a sexual partner, either one’s own or the opposite sex. Moreover, sexual orientation is an important part of our identity, our “I”. So, in order to understand ancient homosexuality (or, more precisely, ancient pederasty), we must completely abandon our concept of sexual orientation. This is not so difficult: we are well aware of cases where homosexual acts and homosexual identity are not only not connected, but also strictly separated, for example, in men's or even women's groups completely isolated from the outside world, in prisons, let's say.

But, returning to Antiquity, it is extremely significant that neither in ancient Greek nor in Latin there were the words “heterosexual” and “homosexual”. Moreover, if you asked an ancient Greek or Roman what orientation he was, he simply would not understand you, and after long explanations, he would most likely answer that it does not matter.

So, we know that in the ancient world sexual preferences in themselves were not condemned. In Rome it was simply considered a matter of taste, but in Greece the situation was more complicated. First of all, because there was a specific type of relationship between two men, which was called “pederasty.” What it is?

In Greece, starting around the 6th century BC. e., that is, in the so-called archaic era, we observe an unexpected surge of homo-erotic love poetry, despite the fact that in the earlier literature that has reached us, that is, in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, there is nothing similar. They may object to me, of course: what about Achilles and Patroclus? Indeed, in later times they were certainly seen as the ideal example of a homosexual couple. However, in the poems of Homer himself this is not the case at all. Around the same time, from about 575 BC. e., we find many images of male homosexual couples on vases, mostly of Attic production.

What is the reason for this unexpected surge of homoeroticism? To understand this, we need to look at the historical and cultural context in which this poetry and this vase painting existed. In short: in the archaic era we observe in Greece a very important social, political and cultural turning point, namely the birth of the Greek democratic polis.

The birth of the polis is at the same time an era, as it is now customary to say, of “change of elites”: if earlier the ruling class in Greece were warrior-aristocrats, then in the era of the formation of the polis they were supplanted by merchants and merchants who became rich, mainly due to trade expansion. other nouveau riche. In response to this, the aristocracy, if you will, closed ranks. How? First of all, it formed a kind of cultural opposition to these newly rich people. And just at this time such an important ancient phenomenon as the symposium became the center of aristocratic cultural life (hence, in fact, our modern word“symposium” is another matter; symposium means something much more boring than the ancient symposium).

Red-figure painting on a kylix depicting a symposium. Around 480 BC e. A kylika is an ancient Greek drink vessel with a flat shape and a short stem. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A symposium is more than a friendly party and even more than a ritualized drinking session. The symposium is the center of life of what is called “heteria” (a word of the same origin as “hetera”). Heteria is something like a friendly association or an aristocratic club. For this kind of symposium, from a certain point on, in rich houses, special rooms even began to be built: these are halls designed for approximately 14-22 people, who lie on benches opposite each other. We have corresponding images on vases of such symposiastas, lying opposite each other.

So, the symposiums were characterized by a certain ideology, conservative and, if you like, anti-democratic. Anti-democratic - in the sense of contempt for the nouveau riche. An important part of this aristocratic ideology was the cult of luxury, which distinguishes the aristocracy from the demos Demos- the civilian population of the policy. In the archaic era, demos was opposed to aristocracy; at the end of the archaic period, the aristocracy became part of the demos.. The cult of luxury also implied the cult of non-utilitarian beauty, in particular a beautiful body, and hence the aristocrats’ passion for sports and the cult of non-utilitarian sexuality; non-utilitarian - in the sense of non-reproductive. And homosexuality, as non-reproductive sexuality par excellence, was also perceived as a kind of luxury.

In science, this phenomenon is called “Greek pederasty,” or even “institute of pederasty.” The word itself comes from the Greek pais(that is, a boy, but not a child, but a sexually mature boy) and erastes, that is, literally “one who experiences sexual desire”, “loving”.

The most important aspect of Greek pederasty was the education of the young man. By attending symposiums, usually accompanied by older relatives, young men learned to behave like real men. And their lovers took part in this training.

It is very important here that in pederasty in its ideal form the roles are always very clearly distributed: this erastes- “loving”, or admirer, and eromenos, that is, “beloved,” or object of love.

A good example is the archaic Greek poet Theognis. His writings are interesting combination, on the one hand, love poetry addressed specifically to the young man, and edifying and educational poetry.

For example, Theognis addresses his beloved Kirn:

What do I care about love in words if it’s different in my heart and thoughts!
Do you love me, my friend? Is your heart true?
Either love me with a pure soul, or honestly renounce,
Become my enemy and show your enmity directly Per. Vikentia Veresaeva. 

And here is what he writes to him in other verses:

Just as calmly as I do, walk in the middle of the road,
Kirn, don't worry about where the others go Per. Solomon Apt.

Kirn, don't overdo anything. Choose the middle in everything.
You will see the same success as working hard Per. Solomon Apt.

Of course, it is impossible to explain the emergence of the institution of pederasty simply by the emergence of a symposial culture or by a general democratic turning point in the archaic era. In fact, there is still debate about the reasons for the emergence of this practice as an institution.

One influential theory argues that the very important educational element of pederasty stems from the fact that it derives from rites of youthful initiation, that is, rites of passage that mark the transition from childhood to adolescence. We know such examples from other cultures: for example, among some Melanesian peoples, homosexual acts are part of male initiation.

In Greece itself, for example in Crete, there was a ritual that clearly linked pederasty and initiation: a young man, having previously agreed with his relatives, was ritually kidnapped by his lover, as brides are still sometimes kidnapped, after which they, together with a group of comrades, went to a long hunt, and then the young man returned home with rich gifts.

So, there is a hypothesis that pederasty as education, as the training of a young man to adulthood, comes from this kind of initiation rites. Let's take, for example, the same Athens. Imagine an Athenian boy and girl, both 14-15 years old. At this time, the girl will just be married off - as a rule, to a man twice her age. However, she will not immediately move into the category of a woman: this will happen only with the birth of her first child. In the meantime, she will get accustomed to her husband’s house, get used to the new role and be raised by both the husband himself and the other women in the house.

The same kind of upbringing awaits her brother, only it will be much more difficult for him. Having become the junior partner in a homosexual couple, he finds himself hostage to often contradictory rules and imperatives. It was expected of him that, unlike his sister, from whom, of course, complete submission was required, he would, as far as possible, resist the suitors. If you look, for example, at how homosexual couples are depicted on Greek vases, you will see that the younger partner very often resists the older one, for example pushing him away; the active partner can sometimes be portrayed as excited, but the younger partner never. On the other hand, at the same time, the younger partner was expected to be ready to make an exception for the most worthy and generous (the exchange of gifts is a very important part of pederasty).

Pederastic scene in the palaestra. Red-figure painting. Greece, between 530 and 430 BC. e. In the young man's hand, presumably, is a gift from a man. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Wikimedia Commons

These rules of behavior are somewhat similar to what was expected of a young woman in our own culture quite recently: that she should under no circumstances yield to admirers, and if she yields, then only to the most worthy.

But why was such contradictory behavior required of ancient young people? Where do these rules come from?

To understand why the behavior of the love object or junior partner (the so-called eromenos) was so strictly regulated, we must remember the penetration model of ancient sexuality that I have already mentioned. A passive role in a couple is always perceived as submission and even humiliation. And since the young man was to eventually become a full citizen and head oikos, then he had to be very careful not to relegate himself to such an ambiguous and even somewhat humiliating role from an ancient point of view.

Therefore, from the point of view of Greek sexual ethics, a citizen should not act in a passive role after he reached adulthood. At the same time, we have direct evidence of homosexual relations between two men, the younger of whom was already past the appropriate age for such a relationship, but all these connections were formalized in a very specific way - and we see that for Greek sexual ethics this is an extremely tense moment. Moreover, since the passive role is fundamentally subordinate, it was assumed that the passive partner should not experience pleasure. That is why on vases the younger partners are never depicted as excited. Moreover, with regard to the sexual side of pederastic relationships, Greek writers are rather modestly silent about it, or along the way they note that the sexual aspect in such relationships is generally unimportant. People may ask me: what about Aristophanes’ rude jokes on this matter? But here the comic effect, as always, lies in the fact that from a practice where decency and modesty play a decisive role, Aristophanes deliberately rudely tears off all the covers.

A kiss between erastes and eromenos. Red-figure painting. Greece, around 480 BC. e. Musée du Louvre; Wikimedia Commons

Therefore, in Athens, pederastic relationships were perceived and described as “sublime love,” where sexuality was relegated to the background, and the kinship of souls, moral education and the young man’s ability to control himself came to the fore.

The best confirmation of this is the reasoning of the great Greek philosopher Plato about love and the sexual impulse. Actually, this is where our concept of “platonic love” comes from. Now, however, it simply means non-sexual love, but few people know that when Plato talks about sublime love and sexual impulse, he is talking specifically about homoerotic feelings. Moreover, his reasoning becomes understandable only if one has a good understanding of the Greek homoerotic discourse with its ideas of moral education, restrictions and rules.

Plato’s theory of eros, to put it simply, is structured as follows: a beautiful body—meaning the male body—causes an erotic impulse, but this impulse is sublimated: from the beautiful body it is transferred first to the beautiful soul, and then and the beautiful in itself. Thus, attraction to a beautiful material object turns into attraction to immaterial beauty. Thus, two souls, uniting in such a sublimated erotic connection, achieve moral perfection: the truth of a higher order is revealed to them.

This concept of eros, which originated within the framework of the Greek homosexual discourse, was adopted by Western culture, in particular Western Christian culture. Another thing is that in Christian culture this Platonic reasoning about homosexual eros is transformed into the unity of a man and a woman - and this unity from a purely sexual one is degenerated into a unique means of achieving the highest spiritual truth. And we see many examples of this transformed Platonic idea in European culture, in particular Dante’s sublime love for Beatrice.

All this time we have been talking about male homosexuality. Do we know anything about female homosexuality? For example, was there a female equivalent of male pederasty? Of course, here we face the same problem as with female subjectivity in general: we have practically no sources created by women, and therefore in most cases we encounter a male gaze that was not particularly interested in female homosexuality.

One famous exception is the Greek poet Sappho, also from the archaic era, who is famous for her extremely intense female homoerotic poetry. And it must be said that it was this love poetry that became the model for all subsequent love poetry in general. As for Sappho, there has long been an assumption that she was some kind of headmistress of a special girls' school and her relationships with the students, described in her poetry, are a structural analogue of what we observe around the same time in male homosexual lyrics. But in recent times this idea has been called into question. We simply do not have enough data to judge the existence of a female institution of pederasty, parallel to the male one, even in the archaic era.

In Rome there never was and could never have been such a phenomenon as pederasty.

As in Greece, in Rome the preference for persons of the same sex in itself was considered a matter of taste and was not condemned in any way. But, unlike Greece, in Rome sexual contact with a free citizen - as well as, by the way, with a free unmarried woman - was considered a crime and punished by law. Moreover, there were laws that protected matrons and immature boys even from harassment on the street. Thus, the Roman citizen was inviolable, and it is clear that in this situation institutionalized pederasty could not exist. At the same time, male and female slaves were considered automatically sexually available to their master; it is clear that prostitutes of both sexes were also available, but for money. It is interesting that, unlike Greece, the third category, closer to prostitutes, was made up of prostitutes, who, unlike Greece, had an extremely low social status in Rome and were even somewhat limited in their rights by law.

However, in Greece, too, the social significance of such an institution as pederasty faded away over time.

After approximately 450 BC. e. the number of vases with homoerotic motifs decreases sharply. We don’t know exactly what this is connected with, but we know that with the decline of the democratic polis, that is, in the Hellenistic era, pederasty as an institution largely faded away. On the one hand, pederasty ceases to be needed as a forge of exemplary citizens, on the other hand, the role of women changes in the Hellenistic era. During the campaigns of Alexander the Great, many men leave their native cities and go to fight as mercenaries; because of this, many women are left without male relatives and, of course, one way or another receive more freedom. In addition, they often become the only heirs to quite large fortunes - and rich women appear who are not hetaeras. It is significant that, starting from approximately the 4th century BC. e., we hear about women doctors for the first time. From about this moment, terracotta figurines with reading girls are found.

So, ancient sexual culture is very far from ours: for example, the demonstration of a female body in it is indecent, but a male one is absolutely acceptable, and the role in a couple has a much more serious social meaning than sexual preferences. And our perverted understanding of this culture sometimes leads to the most unexpected results.

Our interest in ancient sexual culture is by no means idle. Let me give you one example of how Plato once helped resolve an important legal dispute in an American court.

In 1993, there was a lawsuit in Colorado about discrimination based on sexual orientation - in other words, whether you can be fired from a job for being gay. One side argued that such discrimination was illegal because anti-gay attitudes were part of the Christian religious tradition and the American Constitution stated that no religious dogma could be part of government law. Therefore, the opposing side had to prove that the moral condemnation of homosexuality is part of not only the religious, but also the ethical and philosophical European tradition. So Plato unexpectedly ended up in an American court.

One side cited as evidence an excerpt from the dialogue “Laws”, where, at first glance, Plato really condemns homosexuality. But their opponents attracted powerful intellectual forces to their side in the person of Martha Nussbaum, a famous specialist in ancient philosophy, jurist, professor at the University of Chicago and an excellent expert on Plato. Nussbaum argued that her opponents simply misunderstood Plato's text, in part because they used outdated translations. In fact, in this passage Plato condemns not homosexuality, but sexuality in general, and homosexuality appears here only as an example of sexuality in its pure form, not aimed at reproduction. It must be said that Martha Nussbaum’s arguments prevailed.

You listened to the fifth lecture from the Arzamas course on the culture of antiquity. And next time we’ll talk about what the ancient Greeks and Romans considered beautiful.

The ancient Greeks elevated the beauty of a healthy body to a cult. In the era of prosperity of this state it was believed that rude physical work spoils the figure, since the muscles develop disproportionately from the same type of load. Clothing was designed to emphasize the slimness of the body. The main way to advantageously outline the silhouette was skillfully laid folds of material. Rich people devoted quite a lot of time to this process.

Initially, fabrics were made from sheep wool, then from flax. Subsequently, cotton began to be imported from Eastern countries. It was very expensive, and only very wealthy gentlemen could afford clothes made from it.

We can judge what the wardrobe of the ancient Greeks was like only from surviving architectural monuments, from drawings on dishes and walls of houses, as well as from the literary heritage.

Fibulae

A fibula is a brooch or hairpin. It was an integral accessory to the clothing of the ancient Greeks. It was used to fasten the panels of the dress, since it was not customary to sew fabrics - they were freely thrown over one or both shoulders and secured with brooches.

Fibulae were made of metal and decorated with stones, pearls, and mother-of-pearl. Patterns were made on them by graining, chasing or casting. The size of brooches varied from one centimeter - for fastening panels of a thin Ionic chiton, to a ten-centimeter disk - for fastening and decorating a man's outfit made of heavy fabric.

By the appearance of the fibula, they judged a person’s position in society and his material capabilities.

Belts

All Greeks wore belts, with the exception of dancers, for whom it prevented them from moving beautifully and constrained their movements.

The Hellenes attached great importance to the type and quality of the material from which the belt was made. It could be leather with various fasteners or ties, fabric or woven from metal rings.

The belt had to match the color of the clothing and demonstrate the status of its owner. Often not one, but several belts were tied around the waist.

Fabrics for clothing

Only the best wool was used for clothing - the fabrics were light and draped perfectly. In woolen clothes made of fine and soft fabric It’s not hot in summer, and besides, it doesn’t seam at the sides and allows the wind to cool the body. Casual women's clothing made from fine linen.

Traditional drawings

As a decoration, one side of the fabric could be embroidered with satin stitch or cross stitch, as well as a printed pattern made from thin gold plates. The most traditional patterns were palmette - a stylized image of palm leaves, honeysuckle or acanthus flower, kerikion - the rod of Hermes, rosette - a circle of a blossoming flower, meander - a continuous broken line consisting of segments located at right angles to each other, Cretan wave, beads and network.

On the dress, such a pattern was located on the side or along the upper, turning away part. The hem, as a rule, was not decorated - the horizontal line at the bottom reduces height and distorts proportions. The vertical placement of the pattern makes the person grow taller, and the stripe at shoulder or chest level visually expands this part of the body.

Color

The color of the dress in the culture of Ancient Greece was especially important. Clothes were dyed with pigments of plant and animal origin. Clothing was considered the most prestigious white, because lightening wool and flax was a long and labor-intensive process.

On special occasions, rich men dressed in purple robes. This pigment was extracted from the shells of nautilus mollusks. A cheaper analogue of this color was obtained from the flowers of madder, safflower or some lichens.

Dark green, black and gray colors meant mourning. Slaves also wore clothes in bland colors.

Women's costume in Ancient Greece was different bright colors yellow, red and blue colors. Green, but only light shade, was also acceptable for everyday wear.

Chiton

Nowadays, a chiton is sometimes understood as any loose dress of a straight silhouette with vertical folds on the shoulders. This is only a semblance of a real Greek chiton, which was a universal garment for Greeks of both sexes and all classes. Translated from Greek word"chiton" means "clothing".

Depending on the purpose of the chiton, the requirements for its length, width and drapery of folds varied. Gradually, the original, primitive tunic became more complex, as a result, other types of clothing with new names appeared on its basis.

Warriors wore short, hip-length tunics, while clergy, officials and tragic actors wore long ones.

Women made themselves tunics of medium length, the most flattering for their figure. The width of the cloth depended on the thickness of its owner’s wallet and the quality of the fabric. The thinnest panels reached two meters in width. This made it possible to create very beautiful draperies on the shoulders, chest and waist.

To give the figure a sculptural appearance, small weights (coins or flat stones) were sewn into the corners and along the edges of the chiton. They created additional vertical lines. In this way it was possible to emphasize the bulges individual parts body and hide figure flaws.

A chiton is a rectangular piece of fabric, which is cleaved at the shoulders with brooches and tied at the waist with a belt.

The seam was made only at the bottom of the chiton - an unturned hem was a sign of mourning, and also revealed belonging to the lower class.

Dorian chiton

The Dorian chiton is clothing of the first period of antiquity and the progenitor of all subsequent modifications. For a long time it remained the only clothing worn by women in Sparta. This type of short chiton is a piece of fabric measuring 2 m by 1.8 m.

The Dorian chiton is a single piece of fabric folded in half. The fold is on the left side, and the edges of the fabric are on the right and, accordingly, on the bottom and top. The points on the shoulders are fastened with brooches at a distance of approximately 30-50 cm from each other - so that a small cascade of material is formed on the chest, but the fabric does not fall off the shoulders. Loose pieces of fabric hang under the arms at the sides. A belt is tied at the waist.

Sometimes the upper edge of the fabric was turned back several tens of centimeters - then the result was something like a blouse, cape or loose collar, like a collar.

Ionian chiton

The Ionian chiton was also among the items of women's wardrobe. It appeared later than the Dorian.

The Ionic dress consisted of two panels of fabric. Their minimum width was two arm lengths to the wrist and shoulder width. The length depended on the woman's height. The Ionian chiton was below the knees. It was worn with a belt, making a big slouch. Also, the upper edge, about 50-70 centimeters, sometimes bent back. In any case, the length of the cut into two panels of such a chiton should be about 4 meters, and the width - about 2 m.

The panels of the chiton from the shoulders to the elbows were fastened with brooches. In these pins, the fabric was gathered in folds - beautiful draperies were obtained, especially if the fabric was thin enough. A belt decorated with gold threads and tassels was tied around the waist.

Peplos, hlaina and diplax

Peplos - clothing of Greek women. It was worn over a chiton. The length of the peplos is slightly longer than the length of the chiton. The fabric is coarser and has a border on the sides and top edge, the color is richer and deeper. The purpose of peplos was not only to protect from bad weather - it was used as a bedding for rest, placed on the bottom of a cart, and used as a curtain or canopy. In some legends, the goddesses' peplos were attached to the masts of ships as sails.

Hlaina - shortened peplos. It is an equilateral rectangle and allows you to see the lower chiton. The chlaina was draped in the likeness of the Dorian tunic, but was worn without a belt.

In the cold season, women wrapped themselves in diplax - a large woolen scarf. They covered the head like a hood.

Himation

It is impossible to imagine the costume of Ancient Greece without a himation. This is a man's cloak worn over a chiton. The himation was never fastened with brooches, but was laid in deep folds on the shoulders. This was done by specially trained slaves. The himation implied sparing movements and weak gestures. The folds that fell apart during the conversation indicated the speaker’s poor upbringing and were a sign of bad taste. To keep the himation more firmly on the shoulders, small lead rings were sewn along its edge.

Himation is a mandatory accessory for representatives of the upper class, therefore appearance This item of clothing was given great importance. Only the most expensive and heaviest fabrics were taken, dyed with natural purple, and the border was trimmed with a wide strip of gold embroidery.

The width of the himation is 1.7 m, and the length is 4 m. One long edge was sometimes made rounded.

Chlamys

Chlamys, or chlamys - a man's cloak. Unlike the himation, it is quite short and was intended for young men no older than 20 years old. Chlamis is an integral part of warriors' clothing. It was used both as a cape and as a bedding for sleeping during rest stops.

The shape of the chlamys resembles an oval or rectangle with cut corners. It was thrown over the shoulders and fastened with a large fibula on the chest. In another case, they were passed under the armpit of the left hand and fastened on the right shoulder, leaving right hand free.

Clothes began to be worn everywhere after the tunic passed into the category of underwear.

Exomis

For everyday home wear, the ancient Greeks used short capes, such as chitons, called exomis. Warriors and free citizens wore exomis with several folds extending from the shoulder and fixed brooches.

It was indecent to appear in public wearing exomis, since this clothing was considered part of the wardrobe of the poor and was worn for work, and the culture of Ancient Greece was such that simple physical labor aimed at fulfilling utilitarian needs was despised.

Peasants, artisans and slaves made exomis from sheep skins or coarse fabrics. Both hands remained free in it, which gave room for movement. It was often worn as a loincloth.

Shoes

Greek shoes were very diverse. Scientists have counted 94 types of women's shoes alone. And this despite the fact that the ancient inhabitants of the Pyrenees wore shoes only outside the house.

The most common were carbatine sandals. They were a piece of thick cowhide, cut to the shape of the foot, and having small holes around the entire perimeter for laces, with which the carbatines were firmly tied to the legs.

The famous high Greek sandals, buskins, were originally footwear for the nobility, and then became theatrical accessories. Their high cork or wooden soles made the actors more visible to spectators from the back rows.

On antique vases you can see gods wearing sandals with thick leather soles and small sides around the perimeter of the feet. These are endromids. They were very comfortable as they were cut to fit the shape of the foot. The fingers in them were open. The lace reached almost to the knees and was decorated with pendants.

Crepides were also made of leather, but were laced lower than endromids.

In addition to leather shoes, the Greeks wore soft felt boots. They were intended for the cold season.

Wealthy women wore low shoes, reminiscent of modern moccasins.

Hats

In Ancient Greece, appearance was given great importance. Various wreaths of laurel leaves, olive, myrtle, pine branches, ivy, celery and flowers had symbolic meaning and were worn on special occasions.

The Greeks rarely wore headdresses, and slaves were not allowed to wear them at all.

Craftsmen wore felt caps - pilos, peasants, leather - kune, and merchants stood out with low hats with round or square brims - petas. The god Hermes, the patron of trade, is often depicted wearing a petasa tied with ribbons under his chin.

Women needed hats less than men, since they spent most of their time at home, but when they went on a trip, they put on a petas. If it was necessary to go outside during the hottest part of the day, they protected their heads and faces with wide-brimmed straw hats - folies. The rest of the time, the head was protected with the edge of a peplos or a thin scarf - a calyptra.

Decorations

If we can judge the clothing of the ancient Greeks only from images and descriptions, then Jewelry and the accessories are very well preserved. Museums of ancient art, in particular, in one of the halls of the State Hermitage, display collections found during excavations of Greek settlements.

The inhabitants of Hellas loved to decorate themselves with bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings and wreaths. They were made from gold, silver, pearls and semi-precious stones.

In Sparta, accessories were treated more utilitarianly. In this area of ​​Greece, men were forbidden to adorn themselves with anything other than military armor.

The heritage of antiquity still inspires artists to create new collections of clothing and shoes. Greek costume, patterns, silhouettes and accessories never cease to amaze with their beauty and grace. Great respect is given to the skill of the ancients to perform very delicate work, being very limited in technical means.