nowledge of their advanced and most singular art comes out
of their tombs, in which the warrior was laid with all his arms and
his horse and his precious possessions, splendidly clothed according
to his degree--in the belief that he would need them again in a future
world.

This northern tradition was so long-lived, that Frederick Casimir, a
knight of the Teutonic Order, was buried with his sword and his horse
at Treves, in 1781.[49]

Greek embroideries we can perfectly appreciate, by studying Hope's
"Costumes of the Ancients," and the works of Millingen and others;
also the fictile vases in the British Museum and elsewhere. On these
are depicted the Hellenic gods, the wars, and the home life of the
Greeks. The worked or woven patterns on their draperies are infinitely
varied, and range over many centuries of design, and they are almost
always beautiful. It is melancholy to have to confess that in this, as
in all their art, the Greek taste is inimitable; yet we may profit by
the lessons it teaches us. These are: variety without redundancy;
grace without affectation; simplicity without poverty; the
appropriate, the harmonious, and the serene, rather than that which is
astonishing, painful, or awe-inspiring. These principles were carried
into the smallest arts, and we can trace them in the shaping of a cup
or the decoration of a mantle, as in the frieze of the Parthenon.

Homer makes constant mention of the women's work. Penelope's web is
oftenest quoted. This was a shroud for her Father-in-law. Ulysses
brought home a large collection of fine embroidered garments,
contributed by his fair hostesses during his travels.

Pallas Athene patronized the craft of the embroiderers; and the sacred
peplos which robed her statue, and was renewed every year, was
embroidered by noble maidens, under the superintendence of a
priestess of her temple. It represented the battles of the gods and
the giants (fig. 4), till the portraits of living men were profanely
introduced into the design. The new peplos was carried to the temple,
floating like a flag, in procession through the city.

The goddess to whom the Greeks gave the protection of this art was
wise as well as accomplished, and knew that it was good for women
reverently to approach art by painting with their needles. She always
was seen in embroidered garments, and worked as well as wove them
herself. She appeared to Ulysses in the steading of Eumoeus, the
swineherd, as a "woman