n the street consisted, beyond the
customary veil, chiefly of different contrivances for holding together
their plentiful hair. We mentioned before, that the himation was
sometimes pulled over the back of the head like a veil. But at a very
early period Greek women wore much shorter or longer veils, which
covered the face up to the eyes, and fell over the neck and back in
large folds, so as to cover, if necessary, the whole upper part of the
body. The care bestowed on the hair was naturally still greater
amongst women than amongst men. Cut shows a number of heads of
Athenian women, taken from an old painting of Pompeii. These, and the
numerous heads represented in sculptures and gems, give an idea of the
exquisite taste of these head-dresses. At the same time, it must be
confessed that most modern fashions, even the ugly ones, have their
models, if not in Greek, at least in Roman antiquity. The combing of
the hair over the back in wavy lines was undoubtedly much in favor. A
simple ribbon tied round the head, in that case, connected the front
with the back hair. This arrangement we meet with in the maidens of
the Parthenon frieze and in a bust of Niobe. On older monuments, for
instance, in the group of the Graces on the triangular altar in the
Louvre, the front hair is arranged in small ringlets, while the back
hair partly falls smoothly over the neck, and partly is made into long
curls hanging down to the shoulders. It was also not unusual to comb
back the front hair over the temples and ears, and tie it, together
with the back hair, into a graceful knot. Here, also, the
above-mentioned ribbon was used. It consisted of a stripe of cloth or
leather, frequently adorned, where it rested on the forehead, with a
plaque of metal formed like a frontal. This stephane appears on
monuments mostly in the hair of goddesses; the ribbon belonging to it,
in that case, takes the form of a broad metal circle destined no more
to hold together, but to decorate the hair. This is the case in a bust
of Here in the Villa Ludovisi, in the statue of the same goddess in
the Vatican, and in a statue of Aphrodite found at Capua. Besides this
another ornamented tie of cloth or leather was used by the Greeks,
broad in the centre and growing narrower towards both ends. Its shape
had great similarity to the sling. It was either put with its broader
side on the front of the head, the ends, with ribbons tied to them,
being covered by the thick black hair