the mantle-like _kredemnon_, which answered all the
purposes of a shawl. Thus Nausicaa and her companions, when preparing
for the game of ball, "cast off their tires and began the song," and
Hecuba, in her violent grief, "tore her hair and cast from her the
shining veil." There were also metal ornaments for the head, the
_stephane_, or coronal, and the _ampyx_, a headband or frontlet. The
_kekryphalos_ was probably a caplike net, bound by a woven band;
Andromache "shook off from her head the bright attire thereof, the net,
and woven band." Other feminine ornaments were: the _isthmion_, a
necklace, fitting close to the neck; the _hormos_, a long chain,
sometimes of gold and amber, hanging from the nape of the neck over the
breast; and _peronae_, or brooches, and ear-rings of various shapes,
either globular, spiral, or in the form of a cup, Helen, for example,
"set ear-rings in her pierced ear, ear-rings of three drops and
glistening; therefrom shone grace abundant."

To embrace in one general description these various articles of feminine
attire, "we may think of Helen as arrayed in a colored peplus, richly
embroidered and perfumed, the corners of which were drawn tightly over
the shoulders and fastened together by the _perone_. The waist was
closely encircled by the zone, which was, no doubt, of rich material
and design. Over her bosom hung the _hormos_ of dark red amber set in
gold. Her hair hung down in artificial plaits, and on her head was the
high, stiff _kekryphalos_, of which we have spoken above, bound in the
middle by the _plekte anadesme_. Over the forehead was the shining
_ampyx_, or tiara, of gold; and from the top of the head fell the
_kredemnon_, or veil, over the shoulders and back, affording a quiet
foil to the glitter of gold and jewels."

Such is the picture of the Heroic Age as drawn for us by Homer. It is a
bright picture in the main, though the treatment of the widows and the
captive maidens throws on it dark shadows. But when we become acquainted
with the heroines of this age, and study their characters in the
environment in which Homer places them, we shall be all the more
impressed with the high status maintained by the gentler sex at the dawn
of Greek civilization.

Before treating of the heroines of Homer, however, let us briefly notice
the maidens and matrons of Greek mythology who do not figure so
conspicuously in the Chronicles of the Trojan War, but who have won a
permanent place in art