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Title: No title
Author: Helen McClees, - To be updated
Language: English
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AND ROMANS AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS ***
[Illustration: THE DAILY LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS]
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
OF ART
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE
GREEKS AND ROMANS
AS ILLUSTRATED IN
THE CLASSICAL COLLECTIONS
BY
HELEN MCCLEES, PH. D.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
MCMXXIV
COPYRIGHT
BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
OF ART, 1924
CONTENTS
PAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS vii
INTRODUCTION xiii
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
I. RELIGION 3
II. THE DRAMA 13
III. HOUSES AND FURNITURE 19
IV. OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN 32
V. CHILDREN AND EDUCATION 40
VI. DRESS AND TOILET 47
VII. AMUSEMENTS, MUSIC, AND DANCING 68
VIII. ARMS AND ARMOR 76
IX. ATHLETICS 89
X. RACES AND RIDING 98
XI. GLADIATORS 106
XII. TRADES AND CRAFTS 109
XIII. BURIAL-CUSTOMS 121
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
COVER DESIGN: ADAPTATION OF WALL-PAINTING IN CUBICULUM FROM
BOSCOREALE. Eighth Room.
VIGNETTE ON TITLE-PAGE: DEPARTURE OF A WARRIOR, FROM A
LEKYTHOS. Case G, Fifth Room.
INTRODUCTION
HEAD-BAND: DESIGN FROM A ROMAN TABLE IN THE CUBICULUM.
Eighth Room xv
TAIL-PIECE: OSCILLUM. Case 1 xvii
CHAPTER I
HEAD-BAND: GENII SACRIFICING, FROM AN ARRETINE BOWL. Case
G, Eighth Room 3
1. PRAYING YOUTH (?) 4
2. MAN SALUTING A STATUE OF ATHENA 5
3. MAN CARRYING A PIG TO BE SACRIFICED 3
4. VOTIVE TABLE 6
5. VOTIVE PLAQUE 6
6. TERRACOTTA HERM 7
7. WARRIORS MAKING A TREATY (?) 7
8. CHARMS OF COLORED GLASS 7
9. LAR 8
10. ROMAN PRIEST 9
11. CAMILLUS 10
12. STATUE OF CYBELE ON ITS CAR 11
13. SACRIFICIAL PROCESSION 11
14. SISTRUM 12
CHAPTER II
HEAD-BAND: PLAN OF THE THEATRE OF SEGESTA, REDRAWN FROM
LALOUX, L’ARCHITECTURE GRECQUE, p. 233, fig. 217 13
15. TRAGIC MASK 14
16. SLAVE IN OLD COMEDY 14
17. THEATRE AT EPIDAURUS 15
18. ACTOR OF MIMES 16
19. ACTOR IN NEW COMEDY 17
20. COMIC ACTOR AS HERAKLES 17
TAIL-PIECE: TERRACOTTA MASK OF A SATYR. Case 1 18
CHAPTER III
HEAD-BAND: HOUSE OF SALLUST, REDRAWN FROM MAU-KELSEY,
POMPEII, PUBLISHED BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, p. 287,
fig. 136 19
21. ROMAN WALL-PAINTING 20
22. CUBICULUM 21
23. MOSAIC PICTURE 22
24. OLD MAN SEATED ON A KLISMOS 23
25. BRONZE CAULDRON 24
26. GREEK TABLE-WARE OF PAINTED TERRACOTTA 25
27. BRONZE PATERA 26
28. BRONZE WINE-JUG 27
29. BRONZE JUG 27
30. BRONZE BEAKER 27
31. BRONZE LADLE FOR WINE 28
32. BRONZE WINE-STRAINER 28
33. ROMAN SILVER CUP 29
34. ROMAN SILVER SPOONS 29
35. BRONZE CANDELABRUM 30
36. BRONZE LAMP ON A STAND 31
TAIL-PIECE: CAMPANIAN PLATE FOR FISH. Case Q, Sixth Room 31
CHAPTER IV
HEAD-BAND: WOMEN WORKING WOOL, FROM AN EPINETRON. Case 2 32
37. WOMAN EMBROIDERING OR MAKING A NET 32
38. ONOS OR EPINETRON 33
39. WOMAN CARDING WOOL 33
40. EMBROIDERED CLOTHING 34
41. GREEK COUNTRY-WOMAN SPINNING 35
42. BAKING BREAD IN A PRIMITIVE OVEN 36
43. WOMEN WINNOWING AND GRINDING CORN 36
44. WOMEN AT A WELL-HOUSE IN ATHENS 37
45. MARRIAGE-VASE 38
TAIL-PIECE: WOMAN SPINNING, FROM A PYXIS. Case A, Fourth Room 39
CHAPTER V
HEAD-BAND: BOYS GOING TO SCHOOL, FROM A KYLIX. Case 3 40
46. GOLD BULLA 40
47. OLD NURSE HOLDING A BABY 41
48. TERRACOTTA FEEDING BOTTLE 41
49. TOY HORSE ON WHEELS 42
50. TOMB LEKYTHOS. CHILD DRAWING A CART 42
51. GIRLS PLAYING BALL 43
52. BOY ROLLING A HOOP 43
53. WOMEN WHIPPING TOPS 44
54. STYLUS 44
55. EPHEDRISMOS GAME 45
56. BOY WITH A WRITING TABLET 45
57. INK-POT 46
TAIL-PIECE: JOINTED TERRACOTTA DOLL. Case 3 46
CHAPTER VI
HEAD-BAND: FIBULA. Gold Room 47
58. DIAGRAM OF DORIC CHITON, REPRODUCED FROM BRITISH MUSEUM,
A GUIDE TO THE EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATING GREEK AND ROMAN
LIFE, 2d edition, fig. 129 47
59. AMAZONS IN MEN’S IONIC CHITONS, REPRODUCED FROM FURTWÄNGLER
UND REICHHOLD, GRIECHISCHE VASENMALEREI, I, pl. 82 48
60. EARLY CHITONS 49
61. WOMAN’S DORIC CHITON OF THE FIFTH CENTURY 50
62. WOMAN IN IONIC CHITON 51
63. DORIC CHITON WITHOUT GIRDLE 52
64. TERRACOTTA STATUETTE. LADY IN HIMATION AND HAT 53
65. TERRACOTTA STATUETTE. LADY IN HIMATION 53
66. TERRACOTTA STATUETTE. MAN IN RIDING-CLOAK AND HAT 53
67. MAN’S CHITON 54
68. AKROPOLIS MAIDEN IN IONIC CHITON AND HIMATION 55
69. GREEK SANDAL 56
70. GREEK JEWELRY 57
71. WOMEN’S COIFFURES, REPRODUCED FROM ABRAHAMS, GREEK
DRESS, fig. 45 58
72. STRIGIL 59
73. RAZOR 60
74. ALABASTRON 60
75. ARYBALLOS 61
76. GLASS BOTTLE 61
77. SILVER PYXIS 62
78. TERRACOTTA PYXIS 62
79. SPATULA 63
80. DIPPING-ROD 63
81. GREEK MIRROR ON A STAND 64
82. ETRUSCAN MIRROR 65
83. GREEK MIRROR AND COVER 65
TAIL-PIECE: DIONYSOS WEARING THE HIMATION, FROM A
KRATER. Case J, Fourth Room 67
CHAPTER VII
HEAD-BAND: SYMPOSIUM, FROM A KRATER. Case X, Fourth Room 68
84. SYMPOSIUM, REPRODUCED FROM FURTWÄNGLER UND REICHHOLD, I,
pl. 73. 69
85. KOTTABOS-STAND 70
86. GLASS ASTRAGALS 71
87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS 71
88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE 72
89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE CASTANETS 72
90. APOLLO WITH A KITHARA 73
91. TERRACOTTA FIGURINE. WOMAN DANCING 74
92. TERRACOTTA FIGURINE. WOMAN DANCING 75
TAIL-PIECE: GIRL DANCING, FROM A KYLIX. Case G, Fifth Room 75
CHAPTER VIII
HEAD-BAND: COMBAT, FROM A KYLIX. Case K, Fourth Room 76
93. GREEK FOOT-SOLDIER, REPRODUCED FROM DIE BRONZEN AUS
DODONA, pl. 11 76
94. ITALIC HELMET 77
95. ITALIC HELMET WITH METAL CREST 77
96. CAP-SHAPED HELMET 77
97. “JOCKEY-CAP” HELMET 77
98. CORINTHIAN HELMET 77
99. ITALIC ARMORED BELT 78
100. PAIR OF GREAVES 78
101. ITALIC CUIRASS 79
102. GREEK CUIRASS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY 80
103. WARRIOR CARRYING A SHIELD 81
104. PERSIAN FIGHTING WITH A MACHAIRA 82
105. JAVELIN-HEAD 83
106. SPEAR-HEAD 83
107. DAGGER-BLADE WITH HOOKED TANG 83
108. LEAF-SHAPED DAGGER-BLADE 83
109. BRONZE SWORD 83
110. ARROW-HEADS 84
111. AMAZON WITH BATTLE-AXE AND WICKER SHIELD 85
112. LAMP. VICTORY WITH A TROPHY 87
TAIL-PIECE: ATTIC HELMET. Case 4 88
CHAPTER IX
HEAD-BAND: PANKRATIASTS, FROM A SKYPHOS. Case 4 89
113. JUMPER WITH HALTERES 90
114. DISKOS-THROWER 91
115. ATHLETE THROWING A JAVELIN 92
116. WRESTLERS 92
117. SCENE FROM THE PANKRATION 93
118. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA 94
119. YOUTH BINDING ON A FILLET 95
TAIL-PIECE: VOTIVE DISK, REDRAWN FROM JÜTHNER, DIE
ANTIKEN TURNGERÄTHE, p. 27, fig. 20 97
CHAPTER X
HEAD-BAND: HORSEMEN, FROM A KRATER. Case X, Fourth Room 98
120. BRONZE CHARIOT 99
121. RACING CARS ON SYRACUSAN COINS 100
122. LAMP. SCENE FROM THE CIRCUS 100
123. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA. CHARIOT RACE 100
124. BIT USED IN TRAINING HORSES 102
125. HORSE’S MUZZLE 102
126. YOUNG HORSEMAN 103
127. BRONZE BIT 104
TAIL-PIECE: HORSEMAN, BRONZE STATUETTE. Case B, Third Room 105
CHAPTER XI
HEAD-BAND: GLADIATORIAL COMBATS, FROM A GLASS CUP. Case 3 106
128. SAMNITE GLADIATOR 107
129. THRACIAN GLADIATOR 107
TAIL-PIECE: HOPLOMACHUS, FROM A TERRACOTTA LAMP. Case 5 108
CHAPTER XII
HEAD-BAND: ROMAN STEELYARD. Case 1 109
130. BRONZE FARMYARD GROUP 110
131. GREEK FARMER PLOUGHING 111
132. TERRACOTTA MODEL OF A CART 112
133. TERRACOTTA FROM CYPRUS. DONKEY WITH PANNIERS 112
134. DONKEYS CARRYING JARS IN PANNIERS, 1922 113
135. KEY. EARLY TYPE 114
136. LOCK-PLATE 114
137. KEY. LATER TYPE 114
138. WAR-VESSELS. VASE PAINTING 115
139. TERRACOTTA BOAT 115
140. GOLD-BEATER’S BLOCK 116
141. UNFINISHED POTTERY CUP 117
142. ANCIENT MOULD AND MODERN RELIEF 117
143. DIKAST’S TICKET 118
144. FORKED PROBE 119
145. SPATULAE 119
TAIL-PIECE: TERRACOTTA GOAT. Case B2, Third Room 120
CHAPTER XIII
HEAD-BAND: FUNERAL SCENE FROM A DIPYLON VASE. Case L,
Second Room 121
146. MOURNERS AT A BIER. TERRACOTTA RELIEF 122
147. POET ON HIS BIER (?). TERRACOTTA PLATE 122
148. DIPYLON VASE 123
149. ATHENIAN TOMB LEKYTHOI 124
150. MARBLE LEKYTHOS 125
151. ETRUSCAN FOCOLARE 126
152. MONUMENT OF SOSTRATE 127
153. ETRUSCAN URN FOR ASHES 128
154. ETRUSCAN URN 129
155. ETRUSCAN URN 129
156. ROMAN GRAVE MONUMENT 130
TAIL-PIECE: AKROTERION, SCULPTURE GALLERY, No. 5A 131
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION
This handbook is intended to serve as a guide to those objects in the
Classical Collection which illustrate the daily life of the Greeks and
Romans. Some of these have been brought together as a special exhibition
in Cases 1 to 5 in the Fifth Room, while others which it has not been
possible to move are referred to in their respective positions. Many of
these antiquities are among the most valued possessions of the Museum,
while others are entirely lacking in artistic qualities and would
scarcely attract the visitor’s attention, yet placed in their proper
relations they are found to be full of unsuspected interest.
Investigations of the sites of ancient cities, settlements, and burial
places, especially during the last fifty years, have brought to light
objects of the most varied kinds which allow us to know, as was never
before possible, the appearance and manner of life, the tools, utensils,
weapons, and toys of the Greeks and Romans. Any one who will take up
an old translation of an author such as the elder Pliny, Xenophon, or
Martial, and compare it with a modern version will see at once the
difference in this particular. The earlier translator was often at a loss
when confronted with allusions to every-day life and consequently either
did not express clearly the meaning of his original or even entirely
misrepresented it. But quite apart from a correct interpretation of the
works of ancient writers, the study of private antiquities enables us to
form a mental picture of these people and their surroundings, the actors
in the theatre, the citizens gathered in the assembly or at a religious
festival, the houses from which they came, and the work they left behind;
and as a result, to see the world with their eyes, to comprehend their
aims and actions, and to compare them more intelligently with our own.
The greater part of these objects were not very valuable at the time they
were made; they were the ordinary possessions of ordinary persons. Yet
one sees on all sides evidence of the skill, careful workmanship, and
artistic feeling ungrudgingly spent in making simple, common articles
for every-day use. In our own time the situation is very different; to
the average person beauty and utility have little or no relation to each
other, and he consequently provides for his home useful and necessary
utensils which have no beauty, and so far as he is able adds “ornaments”
which have no utility and very frequently, it must be said, no real
beauty. Again, the period in which we are living has not produced any
definite style, either in architecture or in the arts and crafts, though
there has been much careful copying and adapting of earlier ideas; but
the products of Greek and Roman artists and craftsmen have “style,”
not as a result of striving for an effect, but because each workman
received the traditional schooling in his craft and, having practised
it with satisfaction in work well done, tried to add something to the
store of knowledge before handing it on to the next generation. Such
considerations alone would make the study of the every-day utensils of
classical times a valuable one in the present day.
No attempt has been made in this handbook to treat the subject
exhaustively; it is intended merely to provide such explanation and
commentary as will be helpful toward an understanding of the antiquities.
In consequence the length of the sections has been determined by the
amount of material available and does not necessarily correspond to the
relative importance of the various subjects.
[Illustration]
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS
[Illustration]
I
RELIGION
CASE 1
The religion of the Greek and Roman peoples was composed of many
elements, and presents throughout their history a great variety of cults
and observances. Religious tenets were not defined, and no priestly
hierarchy attempted to coerce the people in their beliefs or actions. A
Greek or a Roman was not under the necessity of worshipping the gods,
though he might incur the anger of his fellow-citizens by outraging
their feelings. To the ordinary man or woman, however, the service of
the gods was a daily duty and each important event of human life had its
appropriate observance. The head of every family was its priest, and the
children his assistants in carrying out the worship of the divine beings
who guarded the house and fields and all the living creatures therein.
Similarly the great gods of the city were served by the priests and
priestesses appointed to represent the city, conceived of as one great
family. Each city had its recurring festivals, its rest days sacredly
kept, and its days of commemoration of the dead.
Public worship in Greece and Italy consisted of prayers and hymns, and
of sacrifices offered both within the temples and shrines and in other
places, such as groves and springs, which were held to be sacred. The
temples were built and adorned with all possible care, and were the pride
of the community. An amphora (on the bottom of Case S in the Fourth Room)
decorated with a religious scene shows a common type of altar. It is
shaped rather like a pedestal with an architectural moulding and “horns”
on either side. A miniature terracotta shrine from Cyprus (on the right
side of the top shelf in Case 1), made for household use, gives us an
idea of the shape of the larger ones which held a statue at crossroads
and street corners. Incense, a frequent accompaniment of worship, was
burned in a covered vessel, often provided with a high stand, such as the
incense burner painted on a small oinochoë in Case G in the Fifth Room;
or a little altar was used for the purpose. An example from Cyprus, which
still shows traces of fire, stands on the top shelf of Case 1. A marble
lamp from a temple is in Case G in the Third Room. It was made to be set
in a support, probably a bronze tripod, and was filled with oil in which
a wick floated.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. PRAYING YOUTH (?)]
In prayer the worshipper looked upward and raised both hands. This
attitude is perhaps represented in a bronze statuette, probably a votive
offering, in Case D in the Fifth Room (fig. 1). A small wine-jug (Case 1,
middle shelf) is decorated with a scene no doubt very common in Athens;
before a statue of Athena raised on a low column stands a man saluting
the goddess by kissing his fingers and raising them toward her (fig. 2).
A bronze votive statuette in Case D in the Fourth Room is making the same
gesture.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. MAN SALUTING A STATUE OF ATHENA]
[Illustration: FIG. 3. MAN CARRYING A PIG TO BE SACRIFICED]
[Illustration: FIG. 4. VOTIVE TABLE]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. VOTIVE PLAQUE]
The universal custom of offering to a divinity gifts in supplication
and thanksgiving has many interesting illustrations in the collection.
A remnant of the ancient religion of Crete is the die for moulding
miniature bronze axes in Case B in the First Room. The little bronze
figure of a man carrying a pig in Case C2 in the Third Room served as
a memorial of a burnt sacrifice (fig. 3). The terracotta warriors from
Cyprus (Case 1 and the wall-cases in the corridor), and the Italic
bronze warriors (Case 3 and Case J in the Third Room) were probably
thank-offerings for a victorious home-coming. The group of terracotta
figures holding one another’s hands gives a rude picture of a ring-dance
such as was performed in honor of Aphrodite in Cyprus (Case 1, top
shelf). The painted terracotta face above this shelf is an example of
the many little masks called “oscilla” which were hung by cords in
sanctuaries or on the branches of trees outside (see tail-piece, p.
xvii). They seem to have been a substitute for the worshipper when he was
obliged to be away about his daily occupation. Several other examples
will be found in wall-cases in the corridor. Fourteen miniature bronze
greaves in Case 4 were probably dedications, perhaps made by soldiers
after a battle. Food and drink were the simplest and commonest gifts,
but were often beyond the means of the worshipper. If this were true, he
gave a representation in some cheap material of the offering he wished
to make, thus expressing pressing his good-will. In Case 1 are three
little tables with articles of food in relief upon the surface. We see a
ham, a whole boar, some cakes, fruit, and various dishes of food (fig.
4). Near these tables is a little tray with several cakes represented in
relief upon it, a substitute for the cakes which were placed on tables
in the temples, like the shew-bread of the Hebrews. The group of vases
connected by a ring was used for offering small portions of liquid,
probably oil, wine, honey, or milk. Gratitude for the cure of disease was
often exhibited by dedicating a representation of the affected part. On
the top shelf at the left are terracotta plaques showing eyes, eyes and
mouth, and an ear (fig. 5). Other examples are in Cases 47 and 75 in the
Cesnola Collection. The manufacture and sale of such objects formed an
industry in ancient times, and the records of the temple of Asklepios at
Athens which are still preserved contain long lists of them.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. TERRACOTTA HERM]
[Illustration: FIG. 7. WARRIORS MAKING A TREATY (?)]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. CHARMS OF COLORED GLASS]
The ceremonies and sacrifices in temples were few compared to the
frequent occasions for private and family worship. No meal was eaten
without offering a portion of food and drink to the gods, and statuettes
and symbols of divinities were kept in various rooms of the house and
near the house-door. The rude bust of Hermes on a pillar (Case 1, middle
shelf) is of the same type as the much larger pillars which in Athens
were placed near house-doors, in schools, and in the market-place (fig.
6). It was the mutilation of these images which caused such consternation
immediately before the sailing of Nikias on the disastrous Sicilian
expedition in 415 B.C.
[Illustration: FIG 9. LAR]
An interesting terracotta relief in Case 4 represents two warriors
clasping hands (fig. 7). Perhaps it may be regarded as a votive offering
made to commemorate a treaty or an alliance, either of which with the
Greeks and also the Romans was an agreement made in the sight of the gods
and accompanied by sacrifices. Readers of the Anabasis will remember the
treaty made by the Greeks and the Persians after Cyrus’s death (II, ii,
8, 9), when the sword-blades and spear-heads were dipped in the blood of
the victims caught in a shield, and the leaders on both sides gave their
right hands as a pledge of fidelity.
The superstitious and fearful aspect of ancient religion is represented
by the grotesque faces called apotropaia, “turners away,” which were
thought to avert misfortune. They were worn especially by children, and
large ones of various materials were often fastened up in workshops and
houses. A number of small examples in glass are in Case C in the Third
Room (fig. 8).
Perhaps the first divinities we think of when we turn to the native
Roman religion are the Lares, the guardians of house and field. The Lar
was represented as a youth holding a horn of plenty and a patera, a
shallow bowl used in sacrificing (fig. 9). Two of these figures stood
side by side near the hearth in the principal room of the early Roman
house, but at a later period they were placed in a little shrine usually
adjoining the atrium. A statuette of rather careless workmanship stands
on the middle shelf in Case 1 and a much better example in Case J in the
Eighth Room. A fine statuette of the Imperial period represents a priest
with his toga drawn up over his head in preparation for sacrificing, in
accordance with the custom which Virgil mentions in the Aeneid: “Veil
thine hair with a purple garment for covering, that no hostile face at
thy divine worship may meet thee amid the holy fires and make void the
omens” (III, vv. 405ff. Mackail) (Case J in the Eighth Room, fig. 10). A
life-size statue of a camillus, a boy assistant at religious rites, is in
this room (fig. 11). The office of camillus was an honorable one bestowed
upon the young sons of distinguished families.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. ROMAN PRIEST]
We have several interesting objects related to special cults. A goddess
revered by both Greeks and Romans was Tyche or Fortuna. A small bronze
statuette (Seventh Room, Case H 2) represents the Fortune of Antioch
seated on a rock, crowned with turrets, and holding in her hand a sheaf
of grain. Fortuna had many temples in Rome, where she was worshipped
under different titles. The popular belief in her power is attested by
Caesar, who tells of the confidence felt by his men in him and in his
success because they believed him to be a favorite of Fortune. A rather
rude statuette of this divinity stands on the second shelf of Case 1.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. CAMILLUS]
The worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis gradually spread from Egypt into
Asia Minor and thence into Greece and Rome. The bronze sistrum or rattle
was used in her rites, and she is often represented holding it in her
hand (Case 1, fig. 14).
An especially interesting memorial of an Eastern cult established in Rome
is the statuette of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, on her processional
car drawn by lions (Case M in the Eighth Room, fig. 12). The worship of
Cybele, a very ancient one, was introduced into Rome during the Second
Punic War at a time of great danger and anxiety. Our statuette represents
not the goddess herself but her cult statue, and probably commemorates
one of the annual festivals at which the image on its car was taken to
the river Almo to receive a ritual bath. The god-companion of Cybele,
Attis, was not worshipped at Rome before the time of Claudius, though his
cult was diffused over many parts of the East. A little terracotta from
Cyprus shows him in Phrygian dress on a horse (Case 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 12. STATUE OF CYBELE ON ITS CAR]
[Illustration: FIG. 13. SACRIFICIAL PROCESSION]
A glass relief (on the tray above the middle shelf) gives a realistic
picture of a Roman sacrifice (fig. 13); an ox is being led through the
portico of a temple by four men carrying knives and an axe. A priestess
walks before them with veiled head, holding a box containing incense,
meal, or other articles used at sacrifices.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. SISTRUM]
[Illustration]
II
THE DRAMA
CASE 1
Dramatic performances in Greece were a part of the worship of the
wine-god Dionysos, and in consequence attendance in the theatre at Athens
was a religious duty as well as a pleasure. The audience was composed
of the citizens, both men and women, and visitors from other states and
cities. In early times the playwright acted in his own play, but later
the profession of actor was distinct from that of poet. Women’s parts
were taken by men.
Plays were performed by daylight in the open air, in theatres so
constructed that most of the audience was at a considerable distance from
the actors. These circumstances naturally had a great effect upon the
conventions of the theatre and the manner of acting, as effects must be
broad, characters must be typical rather than individual, and facial play
was impossible (fig. 17). Early in the history of the Greek drama masks
for the actors were introduced, and continued in use for both tragedy
and comedy. They were usually made of linen stiffened with clay and
painted, though cork and wood were also used. The pupils of the eyes were
perforated so that the actor could see, and the mouth was always open. In
Case 1 are two terracotta masks, possibly made for use, one of a satyr
(see tail-piece, p. 18), the other of a young woman, and two little masks
representing comic characters. In the same room above Case 4 is a large
tragic mask of marble (fig. 15). This fine piece of decorative work is
modeled after the masks worn by the heroes of the tragic stage. Above the
tragic mask rose a projection called onkos which increased the apparent
height of the wearer. For the same purpose a shoe with a very thick
sole, the kothornos, was worn; the height of onkos and kothornos varying
with the importance of the character. The dress of the tragic actor
corresponded in a general way with that of every-day life, but the chiton
was long, and the costumes were frequently bright in color and decorated
elaborately with woven or embroidered bands.
[Illustration: FIG. 15. TRAGIC MASK]
[Illustration: FIG. 16. SLAVE IN OLD COMEDY]
[Illustration: FIG. 17. THEATRE AT EPIDAURUS]
[Illustration: FIG. 18. ACTOR OF MIMES]
A group of terracotta statuettes from Athens (Sixth Room, Case L) gives
a vivid picture of the actors of the Old Comedy, that of Aristophanes and
his contemporaries. By a convention of the stage, all comic actors, even
those who played young women’s parts, were grotesquely padded, and over
the padding male characters wore an elastic woolen covering much like
the modern jersey, which is represented by dots in the statuettes. The
man’s chiton was always ridiculously short. Women wore the long chiton
and himation. On examining these figures we see that they include certain
stock characters which were used over and over by playwrights. The figure
on the left hand in the lowest row represents an old man, probably
an irascible old father. His mask is made so as to present a kindly
expression on one side and an angry one on the other. The actor turned
to the audience the side which expressed his feelings at the moment. The
statuette at the left of the top row seems to be of the same general
type. The right-hand figure in the top row is Herakles (fig. 20); that
on the right hand of the lowest row is probably Odysseus, both favorite
comic characters. Another represents a slave who has stolen a purse and
has taken refuge at an altar upon which he sits weighing his pelf in both
hands (fig. 16). Besides these there are a young woman and a middle-aged
matron, an old nurse with a baby, and a street vendor with a basket. The
scheming slave, another stock character of ancient comedy, stands in a
thoughtful attitude at the left hand of the second row from the top.
In the Seventh Room (Case H 2) is a bronze statuette of an actor in the
New Comedy (fig. 19). The ridiculous dress of the earlier period has been
discarded for a fringed himation, but the mask is still worn. This actor
seems to be declaiming a passage “full of sound and fury” accompanied by
sweeping gestures.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. ACTOR IN NEW COMEDY]
In the same case is a statuette of an actor of mimes or pantomimes, in
itself a masterpiece of the grotesque (fig. 18). These performances were
generally satires upon contemporary life, and were immensely popular in
Greece and Italy, being sometimes provided as entertainment for guests
after dinner. The actors did not wear masks and probably relied much upon
gestures and facial play for their effects.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. COMIC ACTOR AS HERAKLES]
In Rome as well as in Athens the drama was connected with religious
festivals and the funerals of the great, but it encountered much
opposition from the more old-fashioned moralists and was never so popular
as were grosser amusements. The actors were frequently slaves, though
citizens engaged in this profession in increasing numbers under the late
Republic and the Empire, but their occupation deprived them of certain
civil rights and affected their social standing; while at Athens parts in
both tragedies and comedies were taken by citizens, who lost nothing in
public estimation by so doing. This in itself shows the marked difference
in the Greek and Roman attitudes. Roman tragedy was closely modeled
upon the Athenian, and the plays of Menander and his contemporaries,
translated and adapted by Plautus and Terence, became Roman comedy, from
which the classic comedy of modern Europe is derived. More popular,
however, were the farces and pantomimes of various kinds, in which the
native influence was strong, the dialogue and gestures being largely
extemporaneous, thus affording an opportunity to a clever actor for
displaying all his skill.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
III
HOUSES AND FURNITURE
CASES 2 AND 5
Though the Greek and the Roman house differed considerably in detail, in
a general way the two were similar. For Americans the simplest comparison
to make would be with the Spanish type of dwelling in California
and other parts of the Southwest, since all three have the common
characteristic of looking in, rather than out. The exterior presented
a blank wall, usually of brick, broken by a door and a few windows. An
open courtyard formed the center of the Greek house, and this manner of
building was borrowed by the Romans as their wealth increased and larger
and pleasanter houses were desired. The Roman house, which grew by the
addition of rooms to the original single-room hut, had a large opening in
the roof of the principal room or atrium, to provide light and allow the
smoke from the hearth to escape. Under the opening was a basin, called
impluvium, into which fell the rain-water from the roof. These features
were retained even after the atrium was used only as a reception room,
the household work and cooking being done in a separate kitchen.
[Illustration: FIG. 21. ROMAN WALL-PAINTING]
[Illustration: FIG. 22. CUBICULUM]
Houses were usually built of sun-dried brick on a stone foundation. The
roofs were often flat and were sometimes covered with hardened mud, but
tile roofs were also common. Marble for columns and other decorative
features was introduced into Rome in the later part of the Republican
period and colored marbles were used freely by the rich Romans of the
Empire. Walls were covered with stucco, which was frequently painted.
There was no wall-paper, of course, and pictures were painted directly
on the walls. Fashions in decoration changed as they do at present,
though more slowly. The wall-paintings from a villa near Boscoreale, in
the Eighth Room, illustrate several types in use in Italy in the first
century A.D. The earliest style imitated columns, marble panels, or
other ornamental features employed in buildings. Arabesques and fanciful
combinations of foliage, birds, animals, and masks came into use
later. Mythological and genre scenes, as the lady with the kithara (fig.
21) and the group of a man and a woman seated side by side, required a
skilful painter and were naturally reserved for the principal rooms.
In the cubiculum (fig. 22) another style has been employed, in which
buildings, arches, porticoes, and gardens are combined in a way which,
while of course somewhat fanciful, still probably represents the general
appearance of the streets and houses of Pompeii and other cities of the
time. Stucco reliefs, of which there are several graceful examples in the
Museum, were used in Greek houses of the Hellenistic period as well as in
Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. MOSAIC PICTURE]
Floors in early times were of hardened earth, paving stones, or plaster.
In the fifth century pebbles set in cement came into use in Greece,
and from this kind of floor mosaic, plain and patterned, was derived.
Pictures or decorative designs made of fine glass mosaic were also used
as wall decorations. Three examples are on the tops of Cases 1 and 2
(fig. 23).
[Illustration: FIG. 24. OLD MAN SEATED ON A KLISMOS]
The Greek and Roman furniture which has come down to us is necessarily
small in amount and fragmentary because, like most modern furniture,
it was made of wood and consequently has been destroyed by damp. There
remain, however, some fairly complete pieces, and a considerable
number of metal fittings and casings, as well as some models and many
illustrations from vases. Among the objects from Cyprus in wall-cases
in the corridor are two bronze tripods, and three ornaments consisting
of goats’ feet and bulls’ heads from another. The bronze lions’ paws
were feet for a large chair or chest. We have also a little terracotta
chair with a diminutive figure in it and a three-legged table of the
kind used to set beside a dining-couch, both from Cyprus, as well as a
round table on three legs, of much later date (Case 2). Two lekythoi
in Case K in the Fourth Room, decorated with interior scenes, show
chairs of a very graceful and comfortable type, the Greek klismos, and
the same kind of chair is seen on the grave-monument of a lady in the
Sculpture Gallery (No. 4), and on a large amphora on a pedestal in the
Fifth Room (fig. 24). The lady playing a kithara in the wall-painting
in the Eighth Room is seated in a large armchair, the thronos. In Case
5 is a bronze casing of beautiful work for a piece of furniture, and in
Case 2 a bronze chair-leg and an ornament terminating in the head of a
young bullock. Two tripods and some bronze mountings from Cyprus will be
found in wall-cases in the corridor. In the cubiculum from Boscoreale is
a table of marble and bronze. The bronze rim which surrounds the marble
top is inlaid with silver and niello in a beautiful pattern of palmettes
and rosette ornaments. A couch, probably for dining (wrongly restored as
a seat), and a footstool stand in the corridor between the Eighth and
Ninth Rooms. Bedsteads, which were similar to this couch in shape, were
merely frames on which thongs were stretched, like the old-fashioned
corded beds, the interlaced leather bands acting as springs. The wooden
frames were frequently decorated with bronze fittings, and in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods inlay and mountings of silver, gold, ivory,
and tortoise-shell were employed for the rich. Couches and beds were
usually supplied with a raised head-rest, often finished with bronze
animal-heads, such as the mule-heads in Case A in the Seventh Room and
Case L in the Eighth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 25. BRONZE CAULDRON]
[Illustration: FIG. 26. GREEK TABLE-WARE OF PAINTED TERRACOTTA]
Clothing was kept in chests, which were well adapted to the large
pieces of cloth composing a costume. A good illustration of a chest
may be seen in Case W in the Fourth Room, on an amphora decorated with
a scene from the story of Danaë and Perseus, and in Case 2 there is a
miniature chest of white stone from which the cover has been lost.
[Illustration: FIG. 27. BRONZE PATERA]
Household utensils, since they were made of metal or pottery, exist in
considerable numbers. Cooking was usually done over an open fire, though
stoves of a simple type came into use in the Hellenistic and Roman
periods. The bronze cauldrons used for boiling (Case S in the Third Room
and wall-cases in-the corridor) were valued highly, and were offered
frequently as prizes in athletic contests (fig. 25). At the funeral games
of Patroklos (Iliad XXIII, vv. 267-268) Achilles gives a ‘bronze cauldron
untouched by fire’ as a prize for the chariot race, and records of later
contests prove that the custom was a common one. An amphora in Case Y
in the Fourth Room is decorated with the figure of a youth, evidently a
victor in the games, carrying away upon his shoulders a cauldron which
he has won. The metal hook in Case N in the Seventh Room was used for
drawing pieces of meat from the cauldron. Pails, finely made and
decorated, especially as to the handles and their attachments, probably
served some purpose at table, as, for example, to hold cold water or snow
in which a vessel of wine was placed to cool.
[Illustration: FIG. 28. BRONZE WINE-JUG]
[Illustration: FIG. 29. BRONZE JUG]
[Illustration: FIG. 30. BRONZE BEAKER]
[Illustration: FIG. 31. BRONZE LADLE FOR WINE]
[Illustration: FIG. 32. BRONZE WINE-STRAINER]
The pottery in the various rooms of the collection shows the kinds of
dishes in use in Greek and Italian houses. There are cups of different
shapes, pitchers and jugs for water, wine, and other liquids, kraters
(large bowls for mixing water and wine), plates for food, and lekythoi
(oil-cruets) (fig. 26). The modern china, that is, high-fired pottery
covered with a vitreous glaze, was not known, and glass did not become
common until the Imperial period. In the Eighth Room and the corridor
are many examples of the glass vessels of that time, some plain, others
with ornaments in relief, and still others of colored glass in patterns
of remarkable beauty (Cases N and O in the Eighth Room). Much of the
plain glass has become iridescent owing to exposure to damp in graves.
The pottery in museum collections is naturally the finer product of
the workshop; receptacles for storing and for kitchen use were of
undecorated clay and more carelessly made. In the Cesnola Collection on
the tops of Cases 58-63 are some of the tall jars, called pithoi by the
Greeks and dolia by the Romans, which were used for storing and exporting
wine, grain, and many other articles, taking the place of the casks,
barrels, and boxes, and the paper bags and cartons of modern times. The
pointed ends were driven into earthen floors.
[Illustration: FIG. 33. ROMAN SILVER CUP]
[Illustration: FIG. 34. ROMAN SILVER SPOONS]
Another piece of table-ware which should be mentioned is a special plate
for fish, made in Italy, which had a depression in the center for holding
the sauce. These plates are decorated with interesting and surprisingly
accurate drawings of fish (Case Q in the Sixth Room, tail-piece, p. 31).
In Case E in the Third Room is a bronze table service of Greek work from
an Etruscan tomb, and in Case O in the same room are bronze jars and
jugs of various fine shapes (figs. 27-30), and ladles for dipping wine
(fig. 31). In Case A in the Fourth Room is a wine-strainer (fig. 32). The
remarkably beautiful handles from vessels in these cases are a further
proof of the taste and care expended upon household utensils. Silver
table services were not common among the Greeks, but silver and even gold
dishes were used by wealthy Romans. In Case C in the Eighth Room are four
cups of Roman date (fig. 33) with a ladle and a little jug or cup with a
spout.
Food was usually cut into convenient pieces in the kitchen and eaten with
the fingers, but spoons were used to a considerable extent by the Romans.
Several bronze spoons are exhibited in Case 5, and there are some silver
spoons of various shapes in the case with the silver cups in the Eighth
Room (fig. 34).
The habit of rising and going to bed early which prevailed in Greece
and Italy is easily understood when we see the meagre arrangements for
lighting which they possessed. In the street torches were carried, and
they were also used in the house in early times. A bronze torch-holder
of the late sixth century from Cyprus in the corridor and a terracotta
example in Case 2 appear to have been made so that they could be set on a
table. The Romans and Etruscans made candles of pitch and also wax ones
very similar to our own, but the Greeks were not acquainted with them
until they were introduced by the Romans. The iron candelabrum in Case S
in the Third Room was designed to hold candles on the prickets around the
top. Lamps were commonly of terracotta or bronze. Olive oil was burnt in
them with a wick of flax, but at best the light must have been poor and
flickering. Candelabra were commonly made of wood, but handsomer ones
were of bronze. A fine Etruscan candelabrum stands in the Fifth Room. It
was probably furnished with hooks or other attachments for hanging lamps,
or with prickets for candles (fig. 35). A group of lamps of various
shapes is shown in Case 2 (fig. 36).
[Illustration: FIG. 35. BRONZE CANDELABRUM]
[Illustration: FIG. 36. BRONZE LAMP ON A STAND]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IV
OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN
CASES 2, 3, AND 5
[Illustration: FIG. 37. WOMAN EMBROIDERING OR MAKING A NET]
The home in ancient times, especially the country house, was a
manufactory on a small scale, like many American homes of a century ago.
Most of the clothing for the family was made there, and consequently the
mistress of the house must understand wool-working in every stage and
the making of linen cloth, and must also be able to teach and direct
the slave women. Wool was often bought in the raw state or even in the
fleece, which necessitated cleansing it, certainly a disagreeable task.
The Syracusan lady in the Fifteenth Idyll of Theokritos scolds because
her husband has bought five dirty fleeces of poor quality—“work upon
work” for her. For making the roves a pottery shield, called epinetron
or onos, was placed on the knee and the fibers rubbed over it. An
interesting example, decorated with drawings of women at work (see
head-band, p. 32), has the upper surface covered with a scale pattern
which furnished the slightly roughened surface necessary for making the
roves (Case 2, top shelf, fig. 38). The covering, however, was sometimes
dispensed with; a finely decorated toilet-box in Case A in the Fourth
Room has on one side a drawing of a woman carding over her bare knee
(fig. 39). This box also shows the next stage in the making of cloth,
the spinning, for which distaff and spindle were used (see tail-piece,
p. 39). A small weight, the spindle-whorl, usually of terracotta, was
attached to the thread below the spindle to increase the twisting motion.
An example is in Case 5. This primitive method of spinning is still in
use among the Greek country-folk, witness a photograph taken in 1922
(fig. 41).
[Illustration: FIG. 38. ONOS OR EPINETRON]
[Illustration: FIG. 39. WOMAN CARDING WOOL]
[Illustration: FIG. 40. EMBROIDERED CLOTHING]
The loom used in Greece and Italy was upright, consisting of two posts
with a cross-bar. The threads of the warp, alternately long and short,
were held by terracotta weights tied to the lower ends. A loom-weight
from Crete is marked with the owner’s name, Kaleneika, wife or daughter
of Teriphos (Case 5).
[Illustration: FIG. 41. GREEK COUNTRY-WOMAN SPINNING]
Cloth was woven in the size desired for a particular garment, so that
no cutting was necessary and consequently there were no edges to hem.
Sewing was therefore restricted to seams, of which few were required, but
a great deal of time and skill could be devoted to embroidered ornament
upon fine garments. The earlier fashion, seen on black-figured vases,
was to cover the cloth with patterns, but later only borders were used,
or bands of figures. On an oinochoë of the fifth century, in Case C
in the Fifth Room, are two ladies perfuming clothes. The garments and
head-dresses they are wearing and the clothes they are folding are worked
with beautiful borders in the wave pattern and ornaments in the form
of conventionalized flowers (fig. 40). Besides providing fine apparel
for themselves and their families, women also expended their skill on
garments which they offered to the goddesses: the treasuries of Athena
and of Artemis at Athens contained chests full of many-colored robes
offered by worshippers (fig. 37). Naturally in the course of time various
industries sprang up which contributed manufactured products to the
household, but spinning and weaving continued to be domestic occupations,
at least to provide clothing for the slaves. Some conservative families
in Rome prided themselves upon wearing garments made at home; the Emperor
Augustus is said to have worn, except on special occasions, the handiwork
of the ladies of his family as an example of simplicity in a period of
general extravagance.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. BAKING BREAD IN A PRIMITIVE OVEN]
[Illustration: FIG. 43. WOMEN WINNOWING AND GRINDING CORN]
The preparation of food likewise required the housewife’s direction,
though the master of the house, or in large establishments a trusted
steward, attended to the marketing. Two small terracottas from Cyprus on
the bottom of Case 3 illustrate the making of bread by very primitive
methods. In the first (fig. 43), the woman at the left is winnowing
grain with a sieve, which she holds, and a winnowing-fan shaped like
a shovel, which lies by her side. The other woman (whose head is
unfortunately missing) is grinding the corn on a saddle-quern; she draws
the upper millstone back and forth over the lower, which is provided with
side boards to prevent the meal from falling off—a hard day’s work, one
would say. The other terracotta represents a primitive method of baking
bread. A clay oven like a huge bowl was built up by hand in a convenient
place. The usual fuel, dried grasses, was placed in and around it and
after the oven became heated and the fire had died down, the housewife
set the flat loaves around the inside to bake (fig. 42).
[Illustration: FIG. 44. WOMEN AT A WELL-HOUSE IN ATHENS]
Another task often represented on vases is the drawing and carrying of
water. In many places the public well-houses were the principal source of
supply, as the piping of water into dwellings was unusual in Greece until
Roman times. A hydria in Case 2 shows a group of women carrying away
their jars on their heads from a public well-house (fig. 44).
[Illustration: FIG. 45. MARRIAGE-VASE]
In Athens, and probably more or less throughout the Greek world, a
woman’s life was rather monotonous. Ladies did not go out unattended,
and indeed were not expected to go out at all without good reason. A
wife did not receive her husband’s guests or take part in his social
life; but women were included in family gatherings such as weddings and
dinners after the birth of children, they made visits to women relatives
and friends, and shared in the frequent religious festivals, which at
Athens included the theatre. In the earlier vase paintings there are
comparatively few figures of women, and such as appear are usually
goddesses or accessory persons in mythical scenes; but with the gradual
change to subjects taken from every-day life in the later sixth and the
early fifth century, we begin to see women about their usual occupations,
or in groups talking with each other or with men. Much of the later
Athenian pottery is decorated with charming scenes from the life of
women, showing them with their children, at their toilet, busy with
embroidery, or playing with pets. The younger ones seem to have enjoyed
some games which we have relegated to childhood, such as spinning tops
(see fig. 53). On the marriage-vases we see the bride being dressed by
her friends and servants, or receiving presents on the day after the
wedding, the traditional occasion for the presentation of gifts. Two of
these vases are in Case B in the Fifth Room (fig. 45), and a perfume vase
in Case Q is decorated with a similar scene. The usual presents seem to
have been bands and ribbons for the hair, perfumes, jewelry, and pets,
especially birds.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
V
CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
CASES 2 AND 3
Little babies were tightly bound in swaddling clothes soon after birth,
and the mother, in anxiety for her child’s safety, usually fastened an
amulet or charm of some kind around its neck to keep away unfriendly
spirits. The grotesque faces of colored glass previously mentioned (p.
8) may have served this purpose. Roman children wore the bulla, a case
of leather or gold, according to the means of the parents, containing a
charm. A large gold bulla of Etruscan workmanship is in a case at the
left side of the Gold Room (fig. 46). The baby became the charge of an
old and trusted slave-woman such as the kind old nurse represented in a
terracotta statuette on the middle shelf of Case 3. Another of the same
type is in Case K in the Sixth Room (fig. 47). The prettily decorated jug
with a spout is a feeding-bottle (fig. 48).
[Illustration: FIG. 46. GOLD BULLA]
[Illustration: FIG. 47. OLD NURSE HOLDING A BABY]
[Illustration: FIG. 48. TERRACOTTA FEEDING-BOTTLE]
Greek and Roman children played with toys much like those of the present
day, but they were simple and inexpensive. Rattles for babies were made
of terracotta with a few pebbles enclosed (Case 3, middle shelf). An
interesting toy for a small child is the terracotta horse from Cyprus
with large jars in its panniers such as those carried by real horses for
taking provisions to and from market (Case 2, top shelf, fig. 49). Carts
were favorite playthings; a small oinochoë in Case 3 shows a boy driving
two goats harnessed to a chariot, and on a white lekythos painted for
a child’s grave (Case F in the Fifth Room), a little boy is going to
Charon’s boat for his journey over the Styx, drawing his toy cart (fig.
50). Of course, Greek and Roman children kept house with their dolls, and
charming miniature vases were made for them, some for the doll’s table
and others for her toilet and wedding. These vases, which are decorated
with scenes of children at play, were given, it is thought, as presents
on a festival day called Choes, “Jugs.” A number of different types are
in Case G in the Fifth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 49. TOY HORSE ON WHEELS]
Dolls were made of wax and clay. The two seated terracotta dolls without
joints in Case L in the Seventh Room were found in graves at Tarentum in
Southern Italy. Another made of bone has jointed arms and could easily be
dressed (Case 3, tail-piece, p. 46). These dolls were originally painted
in bright colors, which have been destroyed by time.
[Illustration: FIG. 50. TOMB LEKYTHOS. CHILD DRAWING A CART]
Rolling hoops, contrary to modern ideas, seems to have been a boys’
sport. A boy with a hoop may be seen on a vase in Case J in the Fifth
Room (fig. 52). Mothers and nurses swung small children in swings, as
in the scene on a vase from Southern Italy (Case P, Sixth Room), and
older girls also enjoyed this pastime. As part of a game or perhaps as
forfeit, girls sometimes carried one another on their backs. A terracotta
statuette represents two girls playing ephedrismos, as this game was
called (Case 3, fig. 55). Young women and girls, as well as boys, played
with whipping-tops, as is shown on a lekythos on the same shelf (fig.
53), and on one side of a toilet-box two girls are playing a game
of ball with a wicket (fig. 51). Children also played hide-and-seek,
tug-of-war, and many games with beans, nuts, pebbles, small coins, and
the astragals described in the section on Amusements (pp. 68-69).
[Illustration: FIG. 51. GIRLS PLAYING BALL]
At about six years of age Greek boys were sent to school, while the girls
remained at home to learn from their mothers how to spin and weave, and
to read a little and keep accounts. Their education was of the simplest
kind and ceased very early.
[Illustration: FIG. 52. BOY ROLLING A HOOP]
[Illustration: FIG. 53. WOMEN WHIPPING TOPS]
[Illustration: FIG. 54. STYLUS]
The first school to which a boy went was that of the letter-teacher,
who taught reading, writing, and simple arithmetic. A kylix in Case 3
(see head-band, p. 40) is decorated with figures of schoolboys, one of
whom holds a roll of manuscript, and another a writing tablet. These
tablets were thin pieces of wood covered with wax and fastened together
with cords (fig. 56). A pointed stylus (fig. 54) was used for writing,
the blunt end being turned around when it was necessary to erase by
smoothing the wax[1]. After three or four years in the letter-school
the boys went to the music teacher, who taught them to sing and to play
the lyre, and in connection with the music they learned many selections
from the great poets. Training in the palaistra or wrestling-school was
begun very early, and was usually continued until the boy was old enough
to be called into the military service of the state. These lessons will
be described in the section on athletics, as the sports of the palaistra
were in general the same as those of the men’s gymnasium. In addition to
the subjects already mentioned, many boys, during the fifth century and
later, studied geometry, rhetoric, and philosophy.
[1] Several very interesting objects illustrating Greek writing
and writing-materials are exhibited in the case devoted to
learning in the Seventh Egyptian Room. They include a wooden
tablet covered with wax, several short letters on potsherds—a
cheap and common writing-material—and fragments of the Iliad
and the Odyssey on papyrus, the usual substance on which books
were written, dating from the third century B.C. The reed pens
in this case are of the kind employed for writing on papyrus.
[Illustration: FIG. 55. EPHEDRISMOS GAME]
[Illustration: FIG. 56. BOY WITH A WRITING TABLET]
[Illustration: FIG. 57. INK-POT]
In Italy, Greek ideas of education were generally adopted; boys learned
the Greek language and studied the Greek and Roman poets. A little
geography and history were taught, and arithmetic occupied much time,
for the Roman system of weights, measures, and coins was difficult and
inconvenient. Besides the schools for elementary subjects there were
special classes for the study of rhetoric and philosophy. The children
of rich or noble families were often educated at home by Greek tutors,
the girls and boys together, and among the humbler people they went to
the same school for a time. In general the education of girls was similar
to that of boys, so far as it went, and sometimes in wealthy families was
continued after marriage. Many ladies knew the Greek poets well and wrote
verses themselves. Music occupied much of their time and they learned to
dance for recreation and as a means of giving pleasure to their families
and friends.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VI
DRESS AND TOILET
CASES 2, 3, AND 5
[Illustration: FIG. 58. DIAGRAM OF DORIC CHITON]
Greek dress, both for men and women, consisted of two portions, a garment
for the house and a wrap to be worn over it. Men, from the time of the
Homeric poems downwards, wore a “chiton,” rectangular in shape and
somewhat wider than the body, closed on the sides and across the top
except for openings left for the head and arms. A short woolen chiton
was the usual dress for soldiers, workmen, and poor persons, while the
nobles of the Homeric poems seem to have worn linen chitons reaching to
the feet. Over this a wrap, either rectangular or curved on one side, was
arranged in various ways. The earliest representations show men wearing a
wrap with one curved edge, and apparently doubled like a shawl. This type
of dress may be seen in vase paintings in the Third Room; for example,
the figure of Dionysos on a stamnos (No. GR 564 in Case R), and the same
god on a large amphora (No. 12.198.4) in that case.
[Illustration: FIG. 59. AMAZONS IN MEN’S IONIC CHITONS]
The earliest garment for women which we know of was a chiton of wool
without sewing. This was a large rectangular piece of cloth considerably
wider and longer than the body. It was folded through the middle
lengthwise, so that one side was closed and the other open. The top,
again, was generally folded over, this hanging portion being called
“apoptygma.” Long pins inserted with the points upwards, or fibulae (see
head-band, p. 47), were used to fasten the double edge on the shoulders,
and a girdle was usually worn to hold the edges of the open side in place
(fig. 58). If the chiton were still too long, part of the cloth was drawn
up through the girdle into a blouse called “kolpos.” The heavy woolen
chiton may be seen in the drawing of three nymphs on an amphora (No. GR
549) in Case K in the Third Room. From these early representations in
art, it seems that clothing for both men and women was at first rather
narrow and was often covered with woven or embroidered patterns (fig. 60).
During the seventh and sixth centuries the rich and artistic Ionian
cities had a great influence on the customs of Greece, and from them the
ladies of Athens adopted the linen chiton, which was wider and was sewed
on the sides. The additional width was sometimes used to form sleeves by
catching the two pieces together at the top in three or four places, with
sewing, buttons, or small pins. Long sleeves sewn in were occasionally
worn, but were exceptional rather than customary, so that artists often
represent barbarians with sleeves to distinguish them from Greeks.
On a kotyle in Case C in the Fifth Room is a woman wearing a spotted
chiton with long, close-fitting sleeves. At this period men as well as
women at times wore the apoptygma and kolpos, but the man’s chiton was
generally short (fig. 59). On two kylikes on the bottom of Case L in the
Fourth Room (Nos. 12.231 and GR1120) women are represented in the linen
chiton (fig. 62). After the Persian Wars, as the result of the strong
reaction against Eastern fashions, men and women both adopted the woolen
Doric chiton again, and for men it remained the universal dress, being
now short and without apoptygma and kolpos. Still, the adoption of the
Doric chiton did not imply a violent change, for working people had worn
it continuously and it was the usual dress for young girls. Old men,
priests, charioteers, and officials on public occasions continued to
wear the long Ionic chiton, and both were in use by ladies at the same
period. It should be added that at this time the two types were often
worn together, the Ionic forming an undergarment with short sleeves,
and the Doric, a sleeveless gown. This costume is frequently seen on
grave-reliefs, but our only example is an engraving of a Maenad on a
bronze mirror in Case C in the Sixth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 60. EARLY CHITONS]
[Illustration: FIG. 61. WOMAN’S DORIC CHITON OF THE V CENTURY]
[Illustration: FIG. 62. WOMAN IN IONIC CHITON]
The woman’s Doric chiton of this time may be seen in the statue of
Eirene, No. 15 in the Sculpture Gallery (fig. 61), and it is worn without
a girdle by the young girl on a gravestone (No. 21, fig. 63). Here the
open side shows plainly. A drawing of Zeus on a krater on the bottom
of Case O in the Fourth Room, and a young hunter on a krater on the
left side of the first shelf show the man’s chiton (fig. 67). The Ionic
chiton is illustrated by the statue of a goddess, No. 19 in the Sculpture
Gallery. Metal buttons to represent the sleeve fastenings were inserted
in the marble.
[Illustration: FIG. 63. DORIC CHITON WITHOUT GIRDLE]
[Illustration: FIG. 64. LADY IN HIMATION AND HAT]
[Illustration: FIG. 65. LADY IN HIMATION]
[Illustration: FIG. 66. MAN IN RIDING-CLOAK AND HAT]
The usual outer wrap, called himation, was a large oblong, rectangular
piece of woolen cloth, and was practically the same for both sexes. In
the seventh and sixth centuries there were various ways of arranging it;
as a shawl, or as a scarf fastened on one shoulder. The archaic statue of
a woman, No. 2 in the Sculpture Gallery, wears it doubled and fastened
on one shoulder over an Ionic chiton of soft, crinkled linen (fig. 68).
Gradually a simpler and more beautiful arrangement was adopted; the
himation was laid across the back with one corner over the left shoulder,
then folded around the front of the body, passing either over or under
the right arm according to the wearer’s wish, and the end thrown over
the left shoulder, from which it hung down the back, kept in place by a
weight in the corner. On a krater (No. 16.72) on the bottom of Case J
in the Fourth Room, the god Dionysos is wearing the himation arranged
in this way (see tail-piece, p. 67), and the cast of the so-called
Lateran Sophokles (No. 775 in the Gallery of Casts) shows the himation
at its best. Ladies often drew it up over their heads like a veil. The
terracotta statuettes in the Sixth Room illustrate the variety of ways
in which the wrap could be draped (figs. 64, 65). Besides the himation
there were cloaks of more convenient dimensions for riding, hunting,
or traveling. These were variously named but were all unsewn pieces of
cloth, rectangular or curved on one side, and were usually pinned on
one shoulder. A terracotta (No. 06.1118) in Case G in the Sixth Room
represents a traveler in chiton and riding-cloak (fig. 66), and the same
cloak is worn by a warrior on the large amphora on a pedestal in the
Fifth Room (see fig. 103).
[Illustration: FIG. 67. MAN’S CHITON]
Head-coverings were worn only by travelers, riders, or working-men. A hat
with a wide brim, called “petasos,” was the usual traveler’s head-gear.
It was made in a variety of shapes, the brim being sometimes broader at
back and front, sometimes at the sides. Another form had a circular brim
which turned up. This may be seen on three terracotta statuettes (Case 2,
and Case G in the Sixth Room). A cap, called “pilos,” was worn by smiths,
sailors, and working-men in general. There is a man wearing a pilos
on a cup on the top shelf of Case S in the Fourth Room, and a warrior
with the same hat will be found on a small hydria on the first shelf of
Case Q in the Fifth Room. Some head-coverings which may be either caps
or small hats with rolled brims, are represented in several terracotta
statuettes of boys in Case G in the Sixth Room. Women wore the petasos
for traveling, and they also used a kind of sun-hat, called “tholia,”
with a pointed crown and broad brim, made of straw and fastened by a
ribbon. Several examples of this stiff and ungraceful hat may be seen on
terracotta statuettes in Case 2, and in Case G in the Sixth Room (see
fig. 64).
[Illustration: FIG. 68. AKROPOLIS MAIDEN IN IONIC CHITON AND HIMATION]
Shoes were of two principal types: sandals with straps, and high shoes or
boots for hunting and traveling. The Greeks valued finely made shoes, and
dandies sometimes invented new fashions which were called by their names,
as “Alkibiades shoes.” A terracotta foot from Cyprus wearing a sandal
and another painted black are on the middle shelf of Case 2. On a krater
in Case O in the Fourth Room Hermes wears high laced boots with a tongue
rising above the laces, and a stamnos on the bottom of Case E shows the
hunter Eos in boots. The bronze statuette of the philosopher Hermarchos
in the Seventh Room wears sandals which are worked out in detail (fig.
69), and an idea of the thickness of the soles may be gained from those
worn by the woman on a stele, No. 4 in the Sculpture Gallery. The number
and arrangement of the straps which held the sandal in place were various
and they were sometimes broad enough to form what was practically a shoe.
Boots were at times made with the leg-covering composed of leather bands
resembling modern puttees. Women wore sandals or low shoes. Black was the
usual color for foot-coverings, but gay colors were worn by women and
young men. The warm climate and custom permitted people often to dispense
with shoes in the house, and working-men went barefoot.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. GREEK SANDAL]
[Illustration: FIG. 70. GREEK JEWELRY]
The hair was worn long by men until the fifth century, and the Spartans
and Athenian gentlemen who admired Spartan ways continued the fashion.
It was sometimes allowed to fall on the shoulders in curls or braids,
but was more frequently braided in two plaits and wound around the head,
or made into a sort of roll at the back and fastened by a gold pin. In
the sixth century men wore pointed beards without moustaches, but later
it became customary to shave the entire face, though short beards and
moustaches were worn by older men. A warrior arming, on an amphora on the
bottom of Case 4, has a pointed beard and long hair. His young squire,
who stands behind him, is beardless but his hair is long and curling.
The lyre-player on a large amphora on Pedestal R3 in the Third Room has
long hair in a knot at the back, held in place by a band. A somewhat
similar arrangement is seen in the bronze statuette of Apollo in Case
C2 in the same room. The fashion of plaited hair wound around the head
is illustrated by a terracotta relief of Phrixos on the ram’s back in
Case E in the Fourth Room. In the fifth century short hair was usual
for both young and old men; young men did not wear beards but older men
frequently wore short beards with moustaches. A moustache without a beard
was regarded as the mark of the barbarian. The marble heads of two young
men, Nos. 12 and 14 in the Sculpture Gallery, and the athlete’s head
on Pedestal H in the Sixth Room show the fashion for young men, and a
comparison of the vases and small bronzes in the Third Room with those
in the Fourth Room will make clear the gradual change of style from
elaboration to simplicity.
[Illustration: FIG. 71. WOMEN’S COIFFURES]
The styles of women’s hair-dressing can be best understood by looking
at the statues, vases, and terracottas in the collection. A variety of
ornamental kerchiefs was worn, especially a very pretty band called
sphendone, “sling,” from its shape (fig. 71). On the bottom of Case J in
the Fifth Room is a large stamnos decorated with groups of women dressed
in the Ionic and Doric chitons and wearing various kinds of head-dresses.
Many of the terracottas in the Sixth Room and the head of a young
goddess, No. 7 in the Sculpture Gallery, illustrate the “melon” coiffure
which became the mode in the fourth century.
Fashions in dress were the same in general throughout the Greek world,
although of course there were local peculiarities. In Sparta boys and men
often wore only a small wrap without a chiton, and young men commonly
went barefoot. The women wore the Doric chiton.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. STRIGIL]
The jewelry in use included necklaces and bracelets, rings for the
ears and fingers, and pins for the hair and clothes. The Doric chiton
originally required two very large pins, which were inserted with the
points upwards, but they went out of use in the sixth century when the
Ionic chiton came into fashion and were not worn with the later Doric
chiton. The fibula or safety-pin was used throughout the Greek and Roman
world. A group of these pins of various types is exhibited in Case D in
the Second Room. The fibula illustrated in the head-band is in the Gold
Room. Greek jewelry of the fifth and fourth centuries was frequently of
great beauty. Precious stones were used but seldom until the Hellenistic
period, but the excellence of Greek workmanship has rarely been equalled
by other craftsmen. The Greek gentleman permitted himself only a handsome
ring which was useful as a seal, and the artistic value of these engraved
seal rings of gold or of gold set with a semi-precious stone has made
them favorites with collectors for many centuries. The rings and gems in
cases in the rooms of the Classical Wing, and the beautiful jewelry in
the Gold Room are proofs of the skill of Greek workmen and the fine taste
of their patrons (fig. 70).
[Illustration: FIG. 73. RAZOR]
[Illustration: FIG. 74. ALABASTRON]
Roman dress was similar to that of Greece in its principal
characteristics. The clothing of women was the same as that of the Greek
lady of the Hellenistic age represented in the terracotta statuettes. The
Ionic chiton, made usually of wool instead of linen, and called stola,
was worn in the house, but the married woman’s stola had a wide piece
like a flounce sewn on at the bottom. For the street the himation, called
by the Romans palla, was worn over it. The Roman citizen wore a white
woolen tunic like the Greek chiton, but it was usually provided with
short sleeves. Senators, knights, and free-born children had this tunic
ornamented with purple stripes running from each shoulder to the bottom,
both front and back. In the statue of a camillus in the Eighth Room the
stripes were inlaid in silver, of which traces remain. Over this was worn
the toga, corresponding to the Greek himation and arranged in the same
general way. The toga, however, was usually larger than the himation and
was semicircular on the lower edge. For senators, knights, and children
it was ornamented with a broad purple stripe following the straight edge.
Shoes and sandals of various kinds were in use; a special kind of high
shoe called calceus was always worn with the toga, and the tunic, toga,
and calceus formed the regulation dress for citizens in public. The
toga, being a very heavy, cumbersome garment, was not worn for traveling
or active work, and for these purposes there were many small wraps and
longer cloaks of various shapes.
[Illustration: FIG. 75. ARYBALLOS]
[Illustration: FIG. 76. GLASS BOTTLE]
Short hair was universally worn by men in Rome. Under the Republic
women’s hair was simply arranged, but throughout the Imperial period
a variety of styles prevailed at different times, most of which were
conspicuous for their bad taste and so elaborate that the desired effect
was produced by wearing wigs and wire supports. Some of the better styles
may be seen on the portraits in the Sculpture Gallery, and on the heads
of a girl and a woman on pedestals in the Eighth Room. During most of
their history the Romans did not wear beards or moustaches, but under the
Empire fashion fluctuated, following the style favored by the reigning
emperor. After the time of Trajan beards were usual.
[Illustration: FIG. 77. SILVER PYXIS]
[Illustration: FIG. 78. TERRACOTTA PYXIS]
Roman ladies were fond of ornaments and wore a great many of them. Large
sums of money were expended on precious stones and on shoes and other
garments embroidered with pearls. During the Republican period the Roman
wore a gold ring as the badge of his citizenship, but in the Imperial
period, with the increase of luxurious bad taste, dandies sometimes
covered all the joints of their fingers with rings.
Requisites for the toilet do not differ greatly from one period to
another, since the purposes for which they were intended remain
practically the same; so we find much that seems familiar among those
of the Greeks and Romans. Probably the oldest article in this group is
a razor with a crescent-shaped blade, made in Italy in the early Iron
Age. The shape seems to have been a common one (fig. 73). Tweezers, of
which an example is shown in Case 5, were used for removing superfluous
hair. An article of daily use in ancient times, though we have no modern
utensil to correspond with it, is the strigil or flesh-scraper (Case
5, fig. 72). It was used especially by athletes after exercise, to
remove the dust and sand of the wrestling-ground, so that the strigil,
oil-flask, and sponge became in Greece a kind of symbol for the athlete’s
life, which was, practically speaking, the life of all well-to-do young
men. On a gravestone, No. 7 in the Sculpture Gallery, the dead youth is
represented with a strigil in his hand, while his little slave holds his
towel and oil-flask. Both men and women used strigils in the bath for
scraping off the fuller’s earth or lye powder used as soap. A silver
strigil was included in the tomb furniture of an Etruscan lady which is
exhibited in Case F in the Sixth Room. There is an example in glass of
Roman date in Case 5.
[Illustration: FIG. 79. SPATULA]
[Illustration: FIG. 80. DIPPING-ROD]
It was customary among the Greeks and Romans to rub the body with oil
after the bath. The small jar called aryballos (Case G in the Fifth
Room, fig. 75) and the taller alabastron (Case 2, and Case A in the
Fourth Room, fig. 74) were used for holding oil and perfumes for toilet
use. Some small glass toilet bottles in Case J in the Third Room are so
charming in shape and coloring as to make a modern woman envious (fig.
76). In the Gold Room are two crystal scent bottles from Cyprus, one of
which has a gold stopper. The toilet box or pyxis held ointment, rouge,
face or tooth powders, or small toilet articles or ornaments. These
charming boxes were made of metal, as the silver box in Case F in the
Sixth Room (fig. 77), or of painted terracotta. The latter are often
triumphs of the potter’s and vase painter’s art; for example, the white
pyxis in Case V in the Fourth Room (fig. 78) and the red-figured pyxis in
Case A in the same room, with its interesting drawings of women working
wool (compare fig. 39). Others of a variety of shapes and decoration will
be found in Cases C and G in the Fifth Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 81. GREEK MIRROR ON A STAND]
[Illustration: FIG. 82. ETRUSCAN MIRROR]
[Illustration: FIG. 83. GREEK MIRROR AND COVER]
The bronze boxes known as cistae are Etruscan. Some of those which have
been found in tombs are very large and are elegantly decorated with
engraved scenes. They seem to have been a kind of dressing-case, for
holding all of a lady’s toilet equipment. A small one was included in the
tomb furniture of an Etruscan woman which is shown in Case F in the Sixth
Room.
Bronze spatulae were useful in a variety of ways for mixing and applying
the cosmetics which were employed so constantly by Greek and Roman ladies
(fig. 79). An instrument corresponding to our medicine droppers are the
dipping-rods of bronze or glass. They could be inserted into bottles or
jars to take out a small quantity of liquid. A disk about half way up the
rod kept it from slipping into the bottle (fig. 80). Examples of both
utensils will be found in Case 5.
Ancient mirrors were as inferior to the modern in power to reflect as
they are superior in beauty. Disks of highly polished metal, usually
bronze, were employed for this purpose, for the process of making a
mirror by backing a sheet of glass is not older than the fourteenth
century. Sometimes the mirror consists of a simple disk, plain or
ornamented on one side with an engraving or a design in relief, or again
it is made in one piece with a long handle or with a short tang to be
inserted into a bone or ivory handle, or it is provided with a ring.
The disk is often protected with a cover which bears the principal
decoration. Etruscan mirrors most frequently have handles but no covers,
and are decorated with engraved scenes, usually taken from Greek
mythology (fig. 82). Greek mirrors are of two types: either a simple disk
without a handle, fitting into a cover, usually ornamented with a relief
(fig. 83), or a disk supported on a stand, often in the form of a human
figure (fig. 81). In Case A in the Fourth Room are two fine examples
of the latter, two stands from which the mirrors have been lost, and a
mirror with a cover decorated with a woman’s head in relief. Another
charming stand of Etruscan workmanship is in Case H in the Third Room.
In Case A in the Fifth Room are four very beautiful Greek mirrors of the
fourth century, and in Case C in the Sixth Room are examples of both
Greek and Etruscan types. A pretty terracotta statuette of a lady using
a mirror is in Case G in the same room; she is arranging her hair while
balancing her mirror on her knee.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VII
AMUSEMENTS, MUSIC, AND DANCING
CASES 1, 3, AND 5
As at the present time, festivities frequently centered around dining. In
Greece, many dinners were given by men to their friends, followed by the
symposium, at which the guests drank wine mixed with water, told jests,
sang, and often watched hired performers, such as jugglers, tumblers,
and dancers. A kylix in Case E in the Fourth Room is decorated with a
scene from a symposium (fig. 84). The special game for this occasion was
“kottabos,” which was played with the aid of a bronze contrivance like
a candelabrum, of which an example stands in the Fifth Room (fig. 85).
The players held their cups by one handle and tried to throw a small
quantity of liquid on the bronze disk at the top of the shaft, so that
it fell down with a ringing sound. The game was also played by throwing
the liquid into nutshells or small saucers floating in a krater full of
water, so as to make them sink. Many games of chance were known to the
Greeks and Romans. Perhaps the most popular were those played with the
knucklebones (astragaloi) of sheep and goats. They could be used like
dice, and also like “jacks,” being thrown up and caught on the back of
the hand. A toilet box on the middle shelf of Case 3 (fig. 87) shows
three women playing, one of whom has an astragal on the back of her hand.
The knob on the cover of the box is appropriately made in the same form.
Nine very small examples of glass are in Case 1 (fig. 86). The invention
of draughts was ascribed to Palamedes, one of the heroes of the Trojan
War, a story which at least proves that they were played in Greece in
very early times. Nuts and coins were also used as counters in various
games, and games of dice were played in various ways. Astragals could be
used as dice, and had the advantage of needing no marks, as the sides
were naturally different.
[Illustration: FIG. 84. SYMPOSIUM]
The musical instruments in use were the lyre and kithara and the flute,
with some other less common varieties of stringed instruments. The
kithara, the instrument of professional musicians, had a sounding-board
and hollow arms of wood. The strings extended from the “yoke,” a
cross-piece connecting the arms, to the sounding-board. The kithara
was usually played standing, and was hung by a band to the performer’s
shoulders. He played with both hands, using the plectron or “pick” in his
right. A rather rude terracotta from Cyprus in Case 1 represents a woman
with a kithara, a terracotta statuette of Eros with a kithara is in Case
K in the Seventh Room, and a wall-painting in the Eighth Room represents
a lady playing one (see fig. 21). Kithara players in festal costume at
the public games are represented on three vases in the collection (Case
K in the Third Room and Cases E and Y in the Fourth Room). Another
illustration is on an amphora on the bottom of Case P in the Fifth
Room, where Apollo, the god of music, stands before an altar holding
his favorite instrument (fig. 90). The best representation, however, is
the kithara held by a gold siren who forms the pendant of an earring
exhibited in the Gold Room. The details of construction are fully worked
out and the attachment of the strings can be clearly seen. Those used at
public festivals were often richly ornamented with carving and inlay of
semi-precious stones.
[Illustration: FIG. 85. KOTTABOS-STAND]
[Illustration: FIG. 86. GLASS ASTRAGALS]
[Illustration: FIG. 87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS]
The lyre was the usual instrument of the amateur. Boys learned to play
it at school, and gentlemen were expected to be able to accompany
themselves upon it at symposia. Its sounding-board was made of the shell
of a tortoise covered on one side with wood. The upright pieces, curved
outward and in again toward the top, were sometimes made of the horns
of animals. It had a yoke near the ends of the uprights, and a bridge
on the sounding-board. The strings, of sheep’s guts or sinews, varied
in number from three to eleven at different periods, but seven was the
usual number in the fifth century. The plectron was generally used in
playing both instruments. Several good illustrations of the lyre may be
seen in the Museum collection. A satyr with a lyre decorates an amphora
on the shelf in Case J in the Fourth Room. On the bottom of Case O is an
amphora showing Kephalos with a lyre (fig. 88), and on the shelf above a
boy singing to the lyre will be seen in the interior of a kylix. A man
holding a lyre, probably a guest at a symposium, decorates the inside
of a kylix in Case E. An interesting little bronze figure in Case C 2
in the Third Room represents a musician in festival dress with the same
instrument. The statuette was probably a votive offering for success in a
contest.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE]
[Illustration: FIG. 89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE CASTANETS]
[Illustration: FIG. 90. APOLLO WITH A KITHARA]
The ancient flute differed from the modern in being played at the end,
and in having a vibrating reed as a mouthpiece. The tone was shrill.
Flutes were always played in pairs, and a kind of bandage was often worn
by the player to support their weight. This can be seen on the psykter
in Case 4 and on a terracotta statuette from Cyprus in Case 1. Flute
music had a very wide use. It accompanied the voice in solo or chorus,
and the kithara at public contests; it was employed in the theatre at
Athens and at Rome, and was used to guide and accompany the exercises
of the palaistra. The flute furnished music for dancers, and in Rome it
was played at funerals. Meals were served and work such as the kneading
of bread in bakeries was done to its music. Flute-cases are often
represented in interior scenes in Greek vase paintings, as on the inside
of a kylix in Case O in the Fourth Room, showing a boy playing the lyre,
and on a lekythos in Case K in that room where a woman is playing the
same instrument. Another instrument was the syrinx or Pan’s pipe, made
of reeds arranged in graduated lengths, fastened together with cords and
wax. It was especially the shepherd’s companion in his long, solitary
days with his flocks. The little faun which forms the pendant of the
bracelet in Case K 2 in the Seventh Room is playing the syrinx. Cymbals
were used principally at religious ceremonies of an orgiastic type. There
are two pairs in the collection, one being marked with the owner’s name,
Kallisthenia (Case 5 and Case C 2 in the Sixth Room). Dancing formed a
part of worship in ancient times. The rude clay groups of men and women
dancing in a ring illustrate a feature of the worship of Aphrodite in
Cyprus (Case 1). In Greece boys were taught the exercises preliminary
to a dancer’s training as a part of their physical education, and the
many public festivals gave opportunity for large numbers to progress
further. Professional dancers, both boys and girls, were employed to
furnish entertainment at symposia. On a kylix on the bottom of Case L
in the Fourth Room is a girl dancing and playing the castanets, while a
young man looks on (fig. 89). Women of good family danced at home for
amusement, and at domestic festivals. The character of Greek dancing was
largely mimetic, the movements of the arms and the use of the drapery
being very important (see tail-piece, p. 75). The terracotta dancers in
Case L in the Seventh Room and another in Case 1 are good illustrations
of this (figs. 91-92). The Romans in early times practised religious
dancing. The processions of the Salii or priests of Mars, and of the
Arval Brothers are the best-known examples of such ritual performances.
Dancing as an amusement, however, they adopted from the Greeks in its
period of decadence, and consequently the sterner moralists opposed it.
Under the early Empire it nevertheless grew very fashionable. Girls and
women of noble family learned to dance as an accomplishment, and even men
of high rank danced, though at the cost of their dignity. Professional
dancers were greatly sought after and admired.
[Illustration: FIG. 91. WOMAN DANCING]
[Illustration: FIG. 92. WOMAN DANCING]
Our representations of pet animals are all on articles of Greek
manufacture. An old gentleman walking with his sharp-nosed Melitean dog
decorates the interior of the kylix by Hegesiboulos in Case K in the
Fourth Room. Cocks and quails were kept for fighting by boys and young
men. Ganymede on an amphora in Case J in the Fifth Room carries his
cock on his arm (see fig. 52). Quails, cranes, small birds, and rabbits
were also household favorites. On the perfume vases in Cases Q and C in
the Fifth Room, quails, cranes, and a rabbit appear among the groups of
women. Cats were probably introduced from the East or from Egypt in the
late sixth or the early fifth century, but they were rare and seemed to
have been looked upon as curiosities rather than as pets. The goose was
perhaps the commonest pet and children are often represented playing with
one. Some small boys with two goats harnessed to a little chariot appear
on the oinochoë in Case Y in the Fourth Room.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VIII
ARMS AND ARMOR
CASES 3, 4, AND 5
The Greek soldier did not wear a full suit of armor such as that of
the medieval knight; the hoplite or fully armed infantryman wore only
a helmet, a cuirass, and greaves for protecting the shins. Such an
equipment may be seen in the statuette of a warrior of about 500 B.C. of
which the original was found at Dodona (top shelf of Case 3, fig. 93).
The Romans adopted this armor from the Greeks, with minor changes and
variations, but very little Roman armor has come down to our times, since
it was almost entirely of iron and has rusted away in the earth where it
was buried.
[Illustration: FIG. 93. GREEK FOOT-SOLDIER] [Illustration: FIG. 94.
ITALIC HELMET]
[Illustration: FIG. 95. ITALIC HELMET WITH METAL CREST]
[Illustration: FIG. 96. CAP-SHAPED HELMET]
[Illustration: FIG. 97. “JOCKEY-CAP” HELMET]
[Illustration: FIG. 98. CORINTHIAN HELMET]
[Illustration: FIG. 99. ITALIC ARMORED BELT]
[Illustration: FIG. 100. PAIR OF GREAVES]
The earliest Greek helmets were of the type called Corinthian because
Athena is represented in this helmet on the coins of Corinth. It formed
a complete covering for the head, having openings only for the eyes and
mouth. A nose-piece extends downward from the top. Holes for attaching a
leather or cloth lining may be seen along the edges of our three oldest
examples in Case H 2 in the Second Room. In the later helmets (Case J
in the Third Room and Case 4, fig. 98), the shape has improved and the
workmanship is finer. These helmets must have been worn over a cap, as
there are no holes for sewing in the lining. One example (No. 1530 in
Case J in the Third Room) has three small loops for attaching the crest,
which was generally made of horsehair. When not in battle the wearer
pushed the helmet back until the front rested on his forehead.
[Illustration: FIG. 101. ITALIC CUIRASS]
The Corinthian helmet had the great disadvantage of covering the ears
and its shape probably caused it to be easily displaced. An improved
form known as the Attic appears during the sixth century. This helmet,
of which No. 1535 in Case 4 is an early example, was lighter than the
Corinthian, fitted the head better, and had openings for the ears (see
tail-piece, p. 88). The cheek-pieces were often provided with hinges and
could be turned upwards and away from the face; on the large amphora
on a pedestal in the Fifth Room a young warrior is holding a beautiful
Attic helmet with cheek-pieces which seem to be hinged (see fig. 103). An
example with immovable cheek-pieces in the form of rams’ heads is in Case
C 2 in the Sixth Room. Both the Corinthian and the Attic helmet continued
in use at the same time, but the Attic type gradually superseded the
other. Two helmets (Case 4 and Case C 2 in the Sixth Room) shaped like
the pilos or felt cap worn by workmen show a Greek type of the fifth and
fourth centuries. One of them (No. 1541) has holes for attaching a crest
(fig. 96). The other helmets in the collection are Italic or Etruscan. An
Italian helmet reinforced by bands in relief (No. 1558 in Case N in the
Seventh Room) is of the same type as those in the British Museum which
were found on the battle-field of Cannae (figs. 94, 95, 97).
[Illustration: FIG. 102. GREEK CUIRASS OF THE V CENTURY]
[Illustration: FIG. 103. WARRIOR CARRYING A SHIELD]
The earliest Greek cuirass consisted of two curved bronze plates laced
together at the sides. It reached to the waist and turned up around the
edges so as not to hurt the wearer. The Dodona statuette shows this
cuirass, and an Italic example in Case A in the Second Room belongs to
the same general type, though it is longer and the lower part is slightly
curved out to follow the line of the hips (fig. 101). This heavy and
uncomfortable piece of armor was superseded in Greece in the fifth
century by a cuirass made of leather or cloth upon which bronze scales
were sewn. It was provided with shoulder-straps and a cloth or leather
kilt reinforced with strips of metal hung below the corselet proper. A
warrior on a krater on the bottom of Case S in the Fourth Room shows this
type well (fig. 102). The earlier cuirass continued to be used in Italy,
but in an improved form; the bronze plates, being moulded to follow the
curves of the body, made a more comfortable as well as a beautiful piece
of armor. Two examples, one with the lower part broken away, are in
Case C 2 in the Sixth Room. In some parts of Italy a substitute for the
cuirass was found in the use of a breastplate made of leather on which
bronze disks were sewn. An armored belt accompanied the breastplate. On a
krater from South Italy in Case Q in the Sixth Room is a warrior wearing
such a belt, and an example is shown in Case 4. The small holes along the
edges are for sewing in a lining (fig. 99).
Greaves were characteristic features of a Greek soldier’s equipment. The
pair of greaves in Case J in the Third Room will show how their shape and
elasticity caused them to stay in place on the leg (fig. 100). The greave
in Case 4 has holes along the edges for sewing in a lining. On the upper
part of a loutrophoros in Case J in the Fourth Room is a warrior wearing
greaves of which the lining can be seen in a ridge around the foot.
[Illustration: FIG. 104. PERSIAN FIGHTING WITH A MACHAIRA]
[Illustration: FIG. 105. JAVELIN-HEAD]
[Illustration: FIG. 106. SPEAR-HEAD]
[Illustration: FIG. 107. DAGGER-BLADE WITH HOOKED TANG]
[Illustration: FIG. 108. LEAF-SHAPED DAGGER-BLADE]
[Illustration: FIG. 109. BRONZE SWORD]
[Illustration: FIG. 110. ARROW-HEADS]
Shields were a necessary part of the defensive armor of ancient times,
but remains of them are very scanty. Scenes of arming and of combat,
however, are so frequent in Greek and Roman art that we are acquainted
with their general appearance. Greek shields were usually circular
or oval in shape, and made of wooden frames covered with hides and
reinforced with bronze. The rim and a large boss in the center were
the most essential metal parts, but the entire surface might be covered
with bronze, or plates of various forms arranged upon it. The large
bronze plates in Case 5 and in Case B in the Second Room seem to have
been parts of shields. When using the shield as a defense the warrior
thrust his left arm through the Loops in the inside, one of which was
close to the rim at the left and another usually near the center of the
shield; he held a third, which probably was stouter than the others, in
his hand. The loops on the rim are shown in a painting on the amphora
which stands on the pedestal in the Fifth Room, as well as the strap
extending from side to side by which it was suspended around the wearer’s
neck on the march (fig. 103). The Dodona warrior carries the so-called
Boeotian shield which has depressions in the middle of each side. Various
explanations are given of the origin of this form; a probable one is
that it results from stretching a hide over an oval frame on which the
top and bottom were fastened firmly while the sides were left free and
were naturally drawn in by the pull from both ends. Another possibility
is that the shield was cut out at the sides to provide peep-holes. Roman
shields were rectangular and curved around at the sides to protect the
wearer’s body. Only the boss and the rim were made of metal. The shield
of the Greek soldier bore the device of his state, as the Koppa of
Corinth, which was painted on the shields of her citizen-warriors; and
the Roman soldier carried the sign of his legion in the same fashion.
Interesting devices, frequently animals’ heads, were adopted like coats
of arms by Greek nobles, and many of these can be seen on vases of the
sixth century. An amphora on the bottom of Case 4 shows shields decorated
with the heads of a bull and a boar.
[Illustration: FIG. 111. AMAZON WITH BATTLE-AXE AND WICKER SHIELD]
The ancient warrior’s weapons were the dagger, sword, spear, javelin,
bow, and sling. The weapons in the Classical Collection cannot strictly
be called Greek or Roman because they were made at a remote period before
the Greek and Roman states came into existence, but they are interesting
in that they show the types from which later weapons were developed, and
often there is very little difference between the early types and their
descendants. The oldest cutting weapons are the bronze dagger-blades
from Cyprus, and those from Crete in Case D 2 in the First Room. They
were fitted into wooden or bone handles. A Cretan dagger-blade with an
engraved design still holds the three dowels which fastened the haft. The
tangs of the Cypriote blades are prolonged or hooked to prevent the blade
from loosening in its socket (figs. 107-108). Spear-heads also were at
first made to be inserted in the shaft, but later fitted over it. They
have a slit on one side of the socket, probably to give elasticity (figs.
105-106). The bronze butt-spikes were used to fix the spear in the ground
during halts. Examples of these weapons are in Case 4 and the wall-cases
in the corridor.
The swords in the collection date from the Bronze or early Iron Age and
so are pre-classical. The fine bronze sword (Case 4, No. 1460) belongs
to an early Italian type (fig. 109), and the sword and sheath (No. 1461
in Case A in the Second Room) is also Italian. An iron sword from Cyprus
(No. 1462 in the corridor) preserves the form of the bronze swords of the
late Mycenaean period, as the early iron-workers at first imitated the
shapes of bronze weapons. The pin in the shape of a sword illustrates the
type in use during the fifth century in Greece (Case 4). The machaira
which Xenophon often mentions had a curved blade and was especially
useful as a cutting weapon for cavalry. A good illustration of this shape
may be seen in a painting on an amphora in Case N in the Fourth Room
representing a Greek and a Persian fighting. The Persian holds a machaira
ready for the down-stroke (fig. 104). Roman swords were broad and flat.
They were designed for thrusting, and were carried by common soldiers and
officers.
The foot-soldier wearing helmet, cuirass, and greaves, and armed with
sword, spear, and shield, that is, the familiar hoplite and legionary,
formed the most important part of the Greek and Roman armies. Cavalry
and light-armed infantry, however, who used the javelin, the bow, or the
sling, became gradually more prominent as their importance was perceived
in the wars with Eastern peoples and barbarous tribes. The use of the
bow and the sling was taught in the palaistra at Athens, as a practical
training for warfare, but ability in this direction was not rated very
highly. Certain nations were especially skilful with these weapons and
served as mercenaries to other states; both Xenophon and Caesar mention
the Cretan archers, and Caesar speaks of slingers from the Balearic Isles
who served under him in Gaul. The arrow-heads exhibited are Cypriote,
but No. 4786 is Hellenic in type (Case 4, fig. 110).
Greek artists frequently represented the Amazons of legend in a dress
similar to that of the Persians of their own day, and from such paintings
on vases in the collection we find illustrations of various articles of
dress and of weapons mentioned by Xenophon. On a polychrome lekythos in
Case M in the Fourth Room is an Amazon shooting with a sling. Two spears
are stuck in the ground beside her. An oinochoë in Case K in the Fifth
Room shows three Amazons in their long trousers and tight-fitting sleeves
covered with a pattern. One of them carries a battle-axe and two hold
shields of plaited wicker-work, probably of the same sort as those which
furnished fuel to cook the Greek soldiers’ breakfast on the morning after
the battle of Cunaxa (Anabasis II, 1, 6) (fig. 111). Two large kraters
in the Fourth Room decorated with combats of Greeks and Amazons show
costumes and arms of the same type and a war chariot of the kind used by
the Greeks.
[Illustration: FIG. 112. LAMP. VICTORY WITH A TROPHY]
An interesting custom was that of setting up a trophy after a victory; a
tree-trunk to which a cross-piece had been fastened was arrayed in armor
taken from the battle-field, and remained standing there until destroyed
by time or taken by the enemy. A terracotta lamp from Cyprus in Case 5
is decorated with a symbolic device representing Victory holding a trophy
at an altar between two Lares militares, the protecting deities of the
Roman state (fig. 112).
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IX
ATHLETICS
CASES 3 AND 4
The strength, agility, and symmetry of the body were valued in the
highest degree by the Greeks, and with them physical training occupied a
much larger place than has been the case among other peoples. Athletics
were closely connected with religion, since contests were held as a part
of the funeral and memorial rites of heroes, and likewise of the worship
of the gods. They also had an important practical end; Greek armies were
always levies of citizens, and since there was no considerable length
of time during which the Greek states were at peace before the period
of Roman domination, the safety of the state depended to a great extent
upon the training of its citizens. Gymnastic games and exercises were
continued throughout the greater part of a man’s life, contributing to
good health and physical development no less than to recreation.
This interest in athletics can be traced back to very early times in
the Boxer Vase from Crete dated in the sixteenth century B.C. (a
reproduction of this vase is in Case J in the First Room) and the scenes
of bull-leaping and the ivory leapers from Knossos (reproductions on the
south wall of the First Room and in Case H 2). The Homeric poems contain
many references to athletics, as the funeral games of Patroklos in the
Twenty-third Book of the Iliad, the games among the Phaeacians in which
Odysseus took part (Odyssey VII), and Odysseus’ encounter with the beggar
(Odyssey XVIII, vv. 15ff.); but at this time sports were unorganized
and no rules had as yet been devised for them. The seventh century was
especially the period of organization during which the great festivals
became fixed in time and in the number and kind of contests, and by 570
B.C. the four great Panhellenic festivals—the Olympian, the Pythian, the
Isthmian, and the Nemean—were established.
[Illustration: FIG. 113. JUMPER WITH HALTERES]
[Illustration: FIG. 114. DISKOS-THROWER]
There are a large number of vases, especially those of the late sixth and
early fifth centuries, ornamented with scenes from the wrestling-schools
and gymnasia. The place is indicated by the objects hung on the walls,
such as jumping-weights, a diskos, or an oil-flask and a strigil for
removing sand and oil. The trainer is usually present, represented
as a mature man, wearing a himation and carrying a forked rod. The
flute-player in a long, spotted robe often accompanies the exercises or
plays for the jumper.
[Illustration: FIG. 115. ATHLETE THROWING A JAVELIN]
[Illustration: FIG. 116. WRESTLERS]
The principal athletic contests were foot-races of various distances,
including the torch-race, which corresponded to the modern relay race,
broad jumping, throwing the diskos and the javelin, wrestling, and
boxing. There were also the pentathlon (five contests), which consisted
of the jump, the foot-race, throwing the diskos and the javelin, and
wrestling; and the pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing.
[Illustration: FIG. 117. SCENE FROM THE PANKRATION]
For jumping, weights called halteres were used; on the black-figured
lekythos on the middle shelf of Case 4 decorated with a scene of
athletes practising, two of the number hold halteres, the drawing being
sufficiently detailed to show the shape well. On the psykter and a vase
fragment on the same shelf are jumpers at the take-off (fig. 113), and a
boy preparing for a jump decorates the interior of a kylix on the lower
shelf in Case P in the Fifth Room.
A foot-race is represented on one of the Panathenaic amphorai in the
Third Room (Case N), and the cast of a bronze statuette in Tübingen shows
a contestant in the race for hoplites (heavy-armed foot-soldiers), at the
starting-line (top shelf of Case 3). The shield which he carried on his
left arm has been broken away.
Throwing the diskos was one of the oldest Greek sports. The object
was to throw it as far as possible, as in putting the shot. So many
representations of this sport have come down to us in statues, vase
paintings, coins, and gems, that it is possible to work out the
successive movements of the throw. The principle seems to have been
always the same, though individuals were allowed certain differences in
style. A bronze statuette in Case B in the Fourth Room (fig. 114) shows
one stance; the athlete is about to swing the diskos down from the left
to the right hand. The position preliminary to the swing downwards to the
side, the athlete now holding the diskos in both hands, may be seen on
the lekythos in Case 4; and one of the figures on the psykter is in the
same position. The well-known statue by Myron, of which a cast stands in
Gallery 22, shows the position just preliminary to the throw, an instant
before the diskos leaves the hand.
[Illustration: FIG. 118. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA]
The art of fighting in heavy armor, hoplomachy, was taught to Greek
boys by a special master as part of their athletic training. A most
interesting scene of this kind decorates the shoulder of a hydria of the
late sixth or early fifth century where two men armed with helmet and
shield are fencing with spears to the music of a flute-player (Case Y in
the Fourth Room). Plato alludes more than once to the attention given to
this branch of physical training in his day, and the prestige enjoyed by
teachers of the art.
[Illustration: FIG. 119. YOUTH BINDING ON A FILLET]
Throwing the javelin also had a practical value as preparation for
warfare and was one of the commonest sports of the palaistra. In the
pentathlon it was thrown for distance only, but there were competitions
in throwing at a target at the Panathenaea and, no doubt, on other
occasions. A thong, fastened near the center of gravity, and twisted
around the hardwood shaft, acted like the rifling of a gun in insuring
greater accuracy. One of the figures on the black-figured lekythos is
preparing to throw a javelin, and the artist has represented the thong
in such a way that the method of using it can easily be understood. The
thrower holds the shaft in his hand with the first and second fingers
inserted into loops in the end of the thong. As he throws, the thong
unwinds, giving the missile a whirling motion (fig. 115).
The use of the bow and the sling, as has been said in the section on
Armor, was also taught in the palaistra at Athens.
The pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, was one of the
most popular Greek sports. In it ground-wrestling and hitting were
allowed. Two scenes from the pankration are represented on a skyphos in
Case 4. On one side the winner has thrown his opponent backward and is
about to strike him, while the other holds up his hand, probably as a
signal of defeat (fig. 116). On the other side the combatants have their
hands covered with the thongs which served as boxing-gloves. The man on
the ground has thrown the other by a neck-hold (see head-band, p. 89).
There are two boxers in the group of athletes on a krater on the top
shelf of Case Q in the Fifth Room, and a boxing scene is represented on
one of the Panathenaic amphorai.
The value of the prizes given for athletic skill varied greatly, from the
wreath of olive at Olympia and the parsley leaves of Nemea to articles of
considerable value and, in a few cases, even money. At the Panathenaea
the prizes were jars of oil in greater or less numbers, and the painted
vases known as Panathenaic amphorai. Probably only one of these was given
to a victor. They bear on one side a picture of the contest in which the
vase was won, and on the other, the figure of Athena with an inscription,
“From the games at Athens” (fig. 118). When the prize took the form of a
wreath, the victor first bound a fillet or band of wool around his head
and upon this the official in charge of the games placed the wreath. The
act of tying the fillet was often represented by Greek sculptors; the
most famous example is, of course, the Polykleitan statue known as the
Diadoumenos, of which a cast stands in Gallery 22. The beautiful bronze
statuette in Case D in the Sixth Room has the same motive (fig. 119),
and on the psykter in Case 4 a boy who holds in his hands the palms
signifying victory is being crowned by an official.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
X
RACES AND RIDING
CASE 5
In the Homeric period cavalry was not employed in battle, but princes
and nobles drove about the field in chariots from which they descended
to fight. The bodies of these chariots were just large enough for the
warrior and his driver to stand side by side, since lightness and
quickness of movement were essential. The chariot in the Third Room
(fig. 120) is of the type in use among the Etruscans; the Greek type in
the earliest pictures which we have is more open and slightly different
in shape. An excellent representation of the Greek chariot may be seen
on a large amphora on Pedestal R 3 in the same room, and this drawing
also shows the light harness in use and the method of arranging it.
War-chariots were used on occasion for racing, as at the funeral games of
Patroklos in the Twenty-third Book of the Iliad; and at a later period,
when nobles no longer rode to battle and armies of citizens were the
rule in Greece, the chariot remained as a racing vehicle. The principal
feature of the Olympic games from the year 680 B.C. was the chariot race
for four horses, and a victory in this event brought much-coveted renown
to the owner of the horses and his city. The Greeks of Italy and Sicily
were devoted to this sport, their interest being reflected in their coin
types, of which the finest are the Syracusan (fig. 121). Some examples
will be found in the Ward Collection in the Gold Room.
[Illustration: FIG. 120. BRONZE CHARIOT]
[Illustration: FIG. 121. RACING CARS ON SYRACUSAN COINS]
[Illustration: FIG. 122. LAMP. SCENE FROM THE CIRCUS]
A very beautiful bronze statue found at Delphi, no doubt a dedication
after a victory, represents a young charioteer in the long white chiton
which was his traditional dress (Cast No. 462 in Gallery 22), and a
fragment of a relief from the Mausoleum (Cast No. 741 on the east wall
of Gallery 25) shows another with flying hair and garment as he strains
forward toward the goal. One of the Panathenaic amphorai in the Third
Room was a prize in a chariot race at Athens, as we know from the drawing
on one side (fig. 123). Another event in the games at Athens was a race
for two horses harnessed to a little cart in which the driver sat, but
this contest was never so important as the race for four horses. At other
games the chariot was the vehicle used for two horses as well as for
four. These sports were naturally very costly, and under the Roman rule
they gradually died out in Greece as races in the circus in Rome and
other Italian cities took their place. Chariot races were the earliest
of the free shows at Rome and were always the most popular, the great
attraction of the circus being not the speed of the race, but its danger.
Some clay lamps from Cyprus are decorated with reliefs of chariots and
horses, showing how the passion for racing spread over the Roman world
(Case 5, fig. 122).
[Illustration: FIG. 123. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA CHARIOT RACE]
[Illustration: FIG. 124. BIT USED IN TRAINING HORSES]
[Illustration: FIG. 125. HORSE’S MUZZLE]
Riding was the usual mode of travel in Greece, as it is still in many
parts of that mountainous country; and, while carts and carriages of
various kinds gradually came into service among the Romans, in Italy,
too, the horse was the commonest means of travel. But although the
Greeks and Romans were good horsemen, they were probably not the equals
of the best modern riders, owing to the fact that they had no saddles and
no stirrups. As a result of the absence of stirrups, able-bodied persons
mounted with the help of a spear or staff, while old men were handed up
by slaves. Women rode only upon a pillion, and probably not very often
in that way. The custom of nailing metal shoes upon the hoofs of horses
was not known, but shoes made of metal, leather, or rushes were adjusted
before passing over a specially bad road, and could later be removed
when no longer needed. Two bits are shown on the bottom of Case 4. One
is quite simple, consisting of two bars joined by a double link, which
probably belongs to the sixth century, though no doubt this type was in
use for a long period (fig. 127); the other, probably of the fifth or
fourth century, is very severe. Xenophon in his treatise on Horsemanship
(X, 6) describes this variety and explains its use in training horses
(fig. 124). Branding was practised even for valuable animals. On a small
amphora in Case C in the Fifth Room decorated with a picture of the
Sun in his chariot, one of the horses is branded with a sun surrounded
by rays. It was customary to muzzle horses when they were taken out
for exercise or for some other purpose without a bridle. Probably the
muzzles were usually made of leather, but bronze was employed on special
occasions or by the wealthy. Two bronze muzzles, one of a simple, the
other of a more elaborate form, are exhibited (Case 4, fig. 125).
[Illustration: FIG. 126. YOUNG HORSEMAN]
[Illustration: FIG. 127. BRONZE BIT]
Greek boys received lessons in riding in the course of their athletic
training, which was, of course, a preliminary military training as well.
In Attica a troop of ephebes, young men in military service, patrolled
the borders as a mounted guard. The decoration on a krater in Case P in
the Fifth Room and a relief in Case A in the Sixth Room represent members
of this troop in their short cloaks fastened on the shoulder and their
broad-brimmed hats. The fine relief, No. 13 in the Sculpture Gallery,
also represents an ephebe (fig. 126) or one of the Diaskouri in this
guise. Hunting deer and boars from horseback was a favorite sport which
required skill in the rider, and riding-races of various types were a
feature of the games. One of the Panathenaic amphorai was a prize for a
horse-race at Athens, as the decoration shows.
The bronze statuette of a horse at the head of the main staircase allows
us to see the type of animal bred in Greece, and is at the same time a
work of the greatest spirit and delicacy.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XI
GLADIATORS
CASES 3 AND 5
Combats of gladiators formed part of the funeral rites of the Etruscans,
and in Campania they were offered as entertainment to guests at feasts.
The Romans adopted the custom from their neighbors, the first public show
of gladiators taking place in 264 B.C. For six centuries they continued
to be a favorite amusement in Italy and the provinces, until Honorius
made them illegal in 404 A.D. The great popularity of the sport is proved
by the frequency with which it was represented on articles of common use,
such as vases, dishes, lamps, seal-rings, and in sculpture, mosaic, and
painting for the decoration of walls.
In early times the combatants were prisoners of war who fought with
their own arms and equipment for the entertainment of their conquerors,
and later, when men were recruited in other ways, the arms of the early
enemies of Rome were in a great measure retained as belonging especially
to this sport. Gladiators received a careful training in schools kept
for the purpose. They were divided into several classes, according to
their weapons and manner of fighting, and were called by the name of the
peoples whose arms they had adopted. They usually fought in pairs, each
from a different class, though occasionally a number engaged in a mêlée.
The most important class was the Samnites, who wore a helmet, one greave,
a guard on the right arm, and fought with sword and shield. The lamps
from Cyprus in Case 5, Nos. 2639, 2642, 2643, are decorated with figures
of Samnites in relief (fig. 128). The Thracian was distinguished by a
dagger which was curved or bent at right angles. He wore two greaves with
leather coverings for the thighs, and an arm-guard, and carried a little
shield (lamp No. 2636, fig. 129). The hoplomachus seems to have been a
variety of Samnite who had a large shield, and was generally paired with
the Thracian (lamp No. 2637, see tail-piece, p. 108). Another class not
illustrated was the retiarius (net-thrower), equipped with a dagger, a
trident, and a large net in which he tried to envelop his adversary, the
secutor (follower), who was armed like a Samnite.
[Illustration: FIG. 128. SAMNITE GLADIATOR]
[Illustration: FIG. 129. THRACIAN GLADIATOR]
A combat between a Samnite and a Thracian decorates one of the lamps (No.
2641). Another (No. 2647) shows a wounded Samnite on one knee. On a third
(No. 2644) a Thracian has brought his opponent to the ground, and by
holding up his thumb, seems to signify that he will spare him, or perhaps
asks permission of the spectators to do so. A fourth lamp (No. 2651) is
decorated with two swords and two pairs of greaves. Four gladiatorial
combats appear in relief upon a glass cup, made in Gaul in the second
century A.D., which is on the top shelf of Case 3 (see head-band, p.
106). The names of the combatants are placed over their heads, so we may
suppose that they represent actual gladiators who were famous in their
day. Gamus, a Samnite, stands over Merops, who is lying on the ground and
holding up his thumb to ask mercy from the spectators. Next come Calamus,
a Samnite, paired with Hermes, a Thracian, then another pair of Samnite
and Thracian, Tetraites and Prudes. The latter has lost his little
shield. In the fourth combat Spiculus is victorious over Columbus.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XII
TRADES AND CRAFTS
CASES 1, 3, AND 5
In this division is assembled a series of miscellaneous objects
illustrating trades and crafts, political life, agriculture, and other
occupations.
The processes of agriculture and craftsmanship in Greece and Italy were
much like those of Europe and America a century ago, before mechanical
devices became common. Cultivation of grains, the olive, and the grape
has been practised in Aegean lands from prehistoric times. A bronze
farmyard group in Case 3 shows the animals and utensils most necessary
to a farmer, and though Roman, will serve as an illustration of Greek
life as well. The animals include two bulls, two cows, a pig and a sow,
a ram and a ewe (fig. 130). There are also two double yokes, a cart, and
a plough. The plough-tail has been lost, but a hole shows the place of
attachment. The remainder is in one piece, though the joints of the rude
wooden original are carefully represented, the pole which is fastened to
the yoke being attached to the share-beam by pegs and the share-beam
to the share by thongs or ropes. This primitive wooden plough is still
used in Greece today (fig. 131). The cart is merely a platform with a
front-board and tail-board, mounted on solid wheels. A terracotta cart
from Cyprus, though of the early Iron Age, is much like the Roman cart
(fig. 132). A small bronze sickle with indented edge from Cyprus belongs
to a type common in Minoan Crete (Case 5). The bronze shepherd’s crooks
in the same case recall the important place held by the care of sheep and
goats in ancient country life. A stone model of a sheep-fold in Case 40
in the Cesnola Collection, containing sheep and a drinking-trough, was
intended as a votive offering, probably for increase of flocks.
[Illustration: FIG. 130. BRONZE FARMYARD GROUP]
[Illustration: FIG. 131. GREEK FARMER PLOUGHING]
The cultivation of the vine and wine-making for domestic use were a
part of the yearly routine on the farms of Greece and Italy, while the
finer kinds of wine were a valuable article of commerce. The only object
in the collection which illustrates wine-making is an Arretine bowl in
Case G2 in the Eighth Room, decorated with figures of satyrs gathering
and treading grapes. The process of getting rural produce to market is
represented by two terracotta figures of donkeys with panniers whose
counterparts can be seen in Greece at the present day (figs. 133-134).
The conformation of Greece and Italy, and the numerous islands of the
Mediterranean compelled the inhabitants to accustom themselves to
seafaring from the earliest times. A vase painting and some clay boats
from Cyprus are valuable illustrations of the type of ship in use in
the sixth century. A black-figured krater of that date in Case 1 has
three long boats or war vessels painted inside the mouth. These vessels
were propelled by oars, as the method of fighting made speed essential
to them, though a sail was used when the wind was favorable. Two of the
ships have eleven oars on a side, and the third has nine. The steersman
sits in the stern with one or two steering paddles. The forecastle is
surmounted by a high stem-post, and between the stern and the forecastle
runs a railing or bulwark. The bow projects in the form of an animal’s
head, probably a fish or a boar, and a large eye is painted just above
the water-line. The edge of the krater has been injured so that the
sail has disappeared, but the single mast can be seen, as well as the
sheets and halyards. A ship of this kind regularly has a square sail and
halyards, brailing-ropes, braces, and sheets. Above the stern projects an
ornament rather like the tail of a bird. It was this that was taken by
the enemy as a trophy (fig. 138). The clay boats from Cyprus in the same
case are of a type frequently found in sixth-century graves in Amathus.
Two of them represent merchant vessels, as is shown by their breadth and
deep hulls. The largest has strakes along the water-line which held the
“under-girding” of ropes used to prevent the planks from springing in
stormy weather, and large cat-heads at the bows to receive the anchor.
The helmsman sits in the stern with his two steering-oars. Of the two
other boats the smallest is a row-boat, and the other has a deck and a
small deck-house (fig. 139).
[Illustration: FIG. 132. TERRACOTTA MODEL OF A CART]
[Illustration: FIG. 133. TERRACOTTA FROM CYPRUS. DONKEY WITH PANNIERS]
A rude relief on a stone slab from Cyprus (Case 1) is a votive offering
for rescue from an accident in quarrying or mining. Above is Apollo
seated before an altar. Below, a man is hastening to help another who
is standing in front of a large mass of rock or earth. Between them a
pickaxe lies on the ground. Probably the relief represents a dangerous
fall of rock or earth. The inscription runs: “Diithemis dedicated it to
the god Apollo, in good fortune.”
[Illustration: FIG. 134. DONKEYS CARRYING JARS IN PANNIERS, 1922]
Very few wooden objects have survived from ancient times, but examples
of the tools used in making them and of metal fittings remain. The
axe-blades from Cyprus in Case 5 and in wall-cases in the corridor are
of almost pure copper. These blades were inserted in a haft or lashed to
a handle. In Case B in the First Room are four double axes from Crete
of the second millennium B.C., and in Case A in the Fifth Room another
of much later date. Handles were inserted between the two blades, as in
the modern hammer. The chisels, awl, nails, and hinges in Case 5 are
Cypriote. In Case B in the First Room are chisels and an awl, and in Case
D 2 several knives, from Crete. They are especially interesting in that
they are well preserved and of excellent workmanship.
The keys exhibited in Case 5 (figs. 135 and 137) are of three types. The
earlier one is shown with the bolt to which it belongs. The key when
inserted into the bolt pushed upward with its teeth a series of pegs
which fitted into holes in the bolt and took their place. It could then
be used as a handle to pull the bolt backward. The second consists of a
plate provided with notches which lifted a series of tumblers and allowed
the bolt to be shot. The third key belongs to the type in use today, and
as such keys have been found in Pompeii, they must have been known before
79 A.D. The lock-plate is perhaps from a strong-box (fig. 136).
[Illustration: FIG. 135. KEY EARLY TYPE]
[Illustration: FIG. 136. LOCK-PLATE]
[Illustration: FIG. 137. KEY LATER TYPE]
Only the balance seems to have been known to the Greeks, but the Romans
made use of the steelyard also. The example shown in Case 1 does not
differ from those of modern times. The hooks and chains at the end of
the rod were used for suspending the articles to be weighed. Three other
hooks, of which two are preserved on movable rings, were for hanging the
steelyard. Each is attached to a different side. When the steelyard was
hung by the hook nearest to the graduated bar, articles up to twelve
pounds could be weighed by sliding the weights along the bar. The second
side of the bar weighs articles of from five pounds to twenty-two; the
third, articles of from twenty to fifty-eight pounds. The large weight is
made of lead covered with bronze, and weighs two pounds, while the small
weight is entirely of bronze and weighs one ounce (see head-band, p. 109.)
[Illustration: FIG. 138. WAR-VESSELS. VASE PAINTING]
[Illustration: FIG. 139. TERRACOTTA BOAT]
There are a number of objects illustrating various industrial processes
in the collection. A fragment of a pottery cup of the red-figured
technique shows the stage at which the figure is outlined with a
broad band of black paint, in order to make a red silhouette, but the
background has not yet been filled in with black (fig. 141). Several
moulds for making terracotta reliefs are shown with modern impressions
made from them; they represent the lower part of a young man’s figure
(Case A in the Fifth Room, fig. 142), a grotesque of a man, a Medusa
head, and a number of symbols, perhaps for stamping sacred cakes. Another
mould, unfortunately fragmentary, is a chimaera or a goat, a fine and
spirited figure (Case B in the Seventh Room). In Cases C and G2 in the
Eighth Room are examples of Arretine ware, the most beautiful pottery
of ancient Italy. There are also ancient moulds with modern bowls made
from them. Several of the moulds are signed by the makers and by the
owner of the workshop. A small stone mould for casting gold ornaments
of the Late Minoan period is in Case B in the First Room. It has two
dies representing animals, one a bull and the other probably an ibex.
The gold-beater’s block in Case 5 was used for making small ornaments
when many of the same kind were needed. A thin sheet of metal was laid
on the die, covered with wax or lead, and then beaten into the die with
a hammer. There are twenty-two dies on this block belonging in style
to the Roman period. Some gold ornaments used for borders among the
Roman jewelry in the Gold Room were probably made in this way, but such
mechanical devices do not seem to have been employed in making Greek
jewelry of the best period (fig. 140).
[Illustration: FIG. 140. GOLD-BEATER’S BLOCK]
[Illustration: FIG. 141. UNFINISHED POTTERY CUP]
[Illustration: FIG. 142. ANCIENT MOULD AND MODERN RELIEF]
The earliest traders of the Mediterranean lands practised barter, and
in the Homeric poems we find cattle and bronze utensils frequently
mentioned as standards of value. In the later part of the eighth century
or the early part of the seventh, coinage originated in Asia Minor, the
earliest coins being merely rough lumps of metal with striations on the
reverse made by the roughened surface of a punch. In the process of
manufacture a flat blank of metal was placed red hot on a die, a punch
was then held upon the reverse of the blank, and struck with a hammer.
As no “collar” was employed, the metal of course spread at the edges,
making the coin only roughly circular. With the advance of art the coin
types received the attention of the best artists and craftsmen, and in
consequence the value of Greek coins, both as original works of art and
as historical documents, cannot be exaggerated. Roman coins, while not
often beautiful, are an important source of information relative to
political and economic conditions. These facts may be noted with regard
to the practical side of ancient coinage; Greek coins are not dated, they
will not stack, and marks of value are more often absent than present.
The earlier Roman coins resembled the Greek in these features, but,
later, marks of value were added and the date indicated.
[Illustration: FIG. 143. DIKAST’S TICKET]
A number of small bronze instruments in Case 5 may have been part of a
physician’s or pharmacist’s case. They include several probes, one being
double (fig. 144), spatulae (fig. 145), spoon-probes, and two scalpels or
bistouries. The spatulae were used for preparing and spreading ointments,
and also by painters in mixing colors.
The dikast’s ticket gives us a glimpse of Greek city life. It is the
ticket of a juryman, Epikrates, entitling him to sit in the ninth court
at Athens, of which there were ten in all, and to draw three obols a day,
about ten cents, a “living wage,” however (fig. 143).
The statuette of a negro boy in Case C in the Seventh Room is a reminder
of the important part taken by slave labor in ancient times. This was
much greater among the Romans than in Greece. Slaves were sometimes
captives taken in war, or their descendants, but were more frequently
acquired through trade. Their condition was much better in Greece than in
Rome. On the grave stele of a young man in the Sculpture Gallery (No. 7)
a little slave stands beside his master.
[Illustration: FIG. 144. FORKED PROBE]
[Illustration: FIG. 145. SPATULAE]
These are, of course, domestic or personal servants, but slaves formed a
large part of the laboring class in Greece, and the proportion was still
greater in Rome in the later Republican period and under the Empire. They
worked on the farms, in the factories, and, most dangerous occupation of
all, in the mines and quarries, as well as in the workshops of skilled
artisans and as clerks and copyists in private and public offices.
There are many proofs of the existence of an extended and active commerce
in the Mediterranean world, but none is more convincing than to note
the far-distant places in which Athenian pottery has been found. The
cities and tombs of Italy have furnished many of the most beautiful
specimens, but vases have been found in Asia Minor, Egypt, the islands of
the Aegean, and the Crimea. A specimen of ancient advertising appears on
three glass cups signed by the maker Ennion, a Sidonian (Case H in the
Eighth Room). One was found in Cyprus, a second near Venice, and a third
near Nazareth. Each bears the maker’s signature and the words, “Let the
buyer remember.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XIII
BURIAL-CUSTOMS
GREECE. The inhabitants of Mycenae and other prehistoric sites did not
burn their dead, so far as we know, but buried them with the belongings
which they had used and valued in life. Members of rich or princely
families were often decked with gold ornaments and diadems, and the face
covered with a gold mask moulded to resemble the features. Reproductions
of some of the objects found in graves at Mycenae are in Case T in the
First Room, and in the center of the same room is a reproduction of a
stone sarcophagus from Hagia Triada in Crete, decorated with painted
scenes representing a funerary sacrifice.
The people of the Homeric poems burned their dead and buried the ashes
beneath a mound. Both ways of disposing of the body continued in common
use in Greece, the choice resting with the family of the deceased.
Cremation was more costly than burial, and so was practised less
frequently by the poorer classes. At all periods both Greeks and Romans
attached great importance to the proper performance of funeral rites, as
they were believed to affect the happiness of the soul in the world of
the dead.
[Illustration: FIG. 146. MOURNERS AT A BIER. TERRACOTTA RELIEF]
[Illustration: FIG. 147. POET ON HIS BIER (?) TERRACOTTA PLATE]
The body was prepared for burial by the women of the family, who anointed
it with oil and perfumes, and clothed it in the dress of common life,
usually of white. A wreath of flowers, or of laurel, olive, or ivy was
placed on the head, or in its stead a wreath of gold leaves. Before the
funeral the dead was laid on a couch in the central hall of the house,
with his feet toward the house door. His relatives and friends came to
pay their last respects, and the funeral dirge was sung. An interesting
terracotta relief from Attica on the north wall of the Second Room
represents such an occasion. The women standing by the bier are tearing
their hair as they raise their voices in the lament (fig. 146). The same
scene is frequent on certain kinds of Greek pottery, notably the great
Dipylon vases of the eighth century B.C., which were used as grave
monuments. There are two Dipylon vases in the Second Room in Cases G and
L (fig. 148). On the upper band of each is a scene showing a dead man on
a bier surrounded by his family (see head-band, p. 121). An interesting
plate in Case K in the same room is decorated with a scene which seems to
represent a poet on a funeral couch with a wreath about his head and his
lyre hanging on the wall above (fig. 147).
[Illustration: FIG. 148. DIPYLON VASE]
[Illustration: FIG. 149. ATHENIAN TOMB LEKYTHOI]
The greatest number of funeral scenes are found on the white Athenian
lekythoi of the fifth century and later, which were made to be placed
about the bier, in the tomb, or around the monument. One of those in Case
L in the Fifth Room is painted in colors with a scene of mourners beside
a funeral couch, treated in a later style. Other typical scenes are the
farewell of the dead to his family as if for a long journey, and the care
of the tomb by surviving relatives. Most of the vases in Cases L and
F in the Fifth Room are decorated with variations of these two themes
(fig. 149). Early in the morning of the second or third day after death
the body was carried on the couch out of the city gates for burial or
cremation. The funeral procession is represented on the lower bands of
the Dipylon vases, or it may be that the horses and chariots are intended
to suggest the funeral games, which were celebrated in early times after
the death of a man of rank.
[Illustration: FIG. 150. MARBLE LEKYTHOS]
[Illustration: FIG. 151. ETRUSCAN FOCOLARE]
The loutrophoros is a vase associated especially with the funeral
procession. These long-necked jars were used in the marriage ceremonies
to bring water for the ceremonial bath of the bridegroom and the bride;
and in the case of the death of a betrothed person, a loutrophoros was
carried in the funeral procession and set up on the grave. One of these
vases will be found in Case R in the Third Room. If the body was disposed
of by cremation the ashes were placed in a jar, usually of stone or
pottery. In Cases P, R, and T in the Seventh Room are a number of pottery
jars which were used to hold the ashes of Greeks who died at Alexandria.
Some of them are marked with the name of the deceased and the position
of the jar in the cemetery. It was usual to erect tombs along the roads
leading from the city gates, the sculptured tablets bordering the highway
on either side, interspersed with trees, and sometimes accompanied by
stone seats erected by families for the use of those members who came to
tend the graves. Greek grave monuments are frequently very beautiful,
and are characterized by fine taste and restraint in the expression of
feeling, as well as by the absence of painful or shocking suggestion.
There are a number of examples in the Sculpture Gallery. The marble
lekythos is an example of a common type of monument (fig. 150). Another
form is the lofty tablet with painted or sculptured akroterion (see
tail-piece, p. 131), such as Nos. 6 and 5A in the Sculpture Gallery
and the stele in the Third Room. Examples of tablets with sculptured
figures are Nos. 4, 7, 10, 30, and 59 in the Sculpture Gallery and the
stele of a young man in the Sixth Room. On these monuments the dead
is represented alone in a quiet pose, with some article or utensil
suggesting his favorite occupation or manner of life; or as taking leave
of his family (fig. 152). In Rooms 21, 22, and 23 in the Gallery of
Casts are reproductions of some of the most beautiful and best known of
the Greek grave stelai. Several painted stones from the cemetery near
Alexandria will be found in two cases in the Vestibule. The Cesnola
Collection contains a number of Cypriote grave monuments inscribed with
Greek formulas of farewell. These are in Cases 6 to 12, 14, and 15 in the
corridor.
[Illustration: FIG. 152. MONUMENT OF SOSTRATE]
[Illustration: FIG. 153. ETRUSCAN URN FOR ASHES]
The custom, followed by the inhabitants of Greece and Italy for many
centuries, of placing in tombs articles used in daily life, has preserved
large numbers of objects which would otherwise have perished. The dead
was surrounded by the belongings he had valued; the warrior had his arms,
the woman her ornaments, mirror, and toilet boxes, and the child his
toys. An idea of the prevalence of the custom may be formed by looking
through the collection with this fact in mind. The greater part of the
Greek pottery now in existence was found in tombs, not only in Greece
but in Italy and in many other parts of the Mediterranean world. The
bronze chariot and the utensils in Case S in the Third Room were the tomb
furniture of an Etruscan noble. The beautiful bronze table service in
Case E in the same room, and the table service of black-glazed pottery
in Case G in the Seventh Room were also found in tombs. In Case F in
the Sixth Room are the toilet articles and utensils buried in the grave
of an Etruscan lady, the terracotta figurines in the Sixth and Seventh
Rooms were made to be placed in graves, and many separate objects in the
collection have been preserved in the same manner.
ITALY. The earliest inhabitants of Italy did not practise cremation,
but this custom was introduced in prehistoric times, both cremation and
burial continuing in use contemporaneously.
[Illustration: FIG. 154. ETRUSCAN URN]
[Illustration: FIG. 155. ETRUSCAN URN]
The Etruscans placed the ashes of the dead in jars with smaller vases
and ornaments and buried them in pits; or for the wealthy, tomb-chambers
were built and arranged to resemble rooms in the houses of the living,
the cinerary urns being set in niches, or the bodies being laid out on
biers. Their urns in the earlier periods were frequently made in a very
rude imitation of a human being with portrait head, and were often placed
in terracotta chairs. Two examples are in Case N in the Second Room (fig.
153). Curious trays of dishes, probably used for offerings to the dead
and known as “focolari,” are not uncommonly found in tombs. Examples
are in Cases R and Q in the Second Room (fig. 151). In later times
rectangular stone boxes, sculptured or painted, with a reclining figure
of the deceased on the cover, were used. There are several of these urns
in the Seventh Room, in Cases N and P and on Pedestals E and U (figs.
154-155).
[Illustration: FIG. 156. ROMAN GRAVE MONUMENT]
The Romans burned their dead, with some exceptions. A few of the ancient
families, notably the Cornelii, kept to the older fashion of burial, and
it was customary even when a body was cremated to take one small portion
of bone, called the “os resectum” from the ashes and bury it. The very
poor, slaves, and outcasts were buried in graves made to hold a number of
bodies, often with little care or respect. Roman funeral customs, so far
as we know them, were very similar to those of Greece. Glass urns were in
common use in the western part of the Roman world from the first to the
third century A.D. One still contains fragments of bone and ashes. Under
the Empire the custom of burial became frequent among the well-to-do,
as is evidenced by the large and costly stone sarcophagi of the period.
There are two Roman sarcophagi, Nos. 36 and 46 in the Sculpture Gallery,
and a large one from Tarsus in the Vestibule. The relief on the south
wall of the Sculpture Gallery representing the death of Meleager (No.
38A) once decorated a sarcophagus. These sculptured scenes are rarely
connected with death, but are usually mythical or fanciful. A grave
monument on the west wall of the Eighth Room, representing a young
man and his wife, is interesting in that this form of portrait relief
within a box-like frame is thought to have been derived from the wax
death-masks, “imagines,” enclosed in boxes, which adorned the hall of the
Roman noble (fig. 156). In the Sculpture Gallery is a stone cippus or
monument (No. 43), erected to a mother and her two sons, and decorated
with portraits in relief.
[Illustration]
INDEX
A
ACTORS, costume of tragic, 14;
in Old Comedy, 14, 16-17;
in New Comedy, 17;
of mimes, 17;
social status of, 17, 18
ALABASTRON, 64
ALTAR, 4
AMAZON, 87
AMULET, 8, 40
ANIMALS, domestic, 109, 110;
_see_ Pets
APOPTYGMA, 48, 49-50
APOTROPAION, _see_ Amulet
ARROW-HEAD, 87
ARYBALLOS, 63-64
ASTRAGALS, 43, 68
ATTIS, 11
AWL, 113
AXE, die for votive, 5;
battle-, 87, 113
B
BALL, game of, 42-43
BEARD, 56, 58, 62
BELT, armored, 81-82
BIT, horse’s, 102, 104
BOAT, 111-112
BOXING, 89, 92, 96
BOW, 86
BRANDING, 104
BREAD-MAKING, 36-37
BREASTPLATE, 81
BULLA, 40
BUTT-SPIKE, 85-86
C
CAKE, votive, 6
CAMILLUS, 9, 61
CANDELABRUM, 31
CANDLES, 30-31
CAP, 54-55
CARDING, 32, 33
CART, 109, 110;
toy, 41
CAULDRON, 26
CHAIR, 23, 24
CHARIOT, 98, 100-101, 128
CHARIOTEER, 100-101
CHEST, 24, 26
CHISEL, 113
CHITON, 47, 48, 49, 50
CIRCUS, 101
CISTA, 64, 66
COINS, 116-118
COLANDER, _see_ Wine-strainer
COMMERCE, 119-120
COOKING, 26, 37
COUCH, 24
CUIRASS, 80-81
CUP, 28, 30;
unfinished, 115
CURES, offerings for, 6-7
CYBELE, 10-11
CYMBALS, 73
D
DAGGER-BLADES, 85
DANCING, 5-6, 73-74
DIE, for axes, 5;
_see_ Mould
DIKAST, _see_ Juryman
DIPPING-ROD, 66
DISKOS, 92, 93-94
DISTAFF, 33
DOLL, 42
E
EMBROIDERY, 34-35
EPHEDRISMOS, game of, 42
EPINETRON, 32-33
F
FEEDING-BOTTLE, 40
FIBULA, 48, 59
FISH-PLATE, 29
FLUTE, 72-73, 92, 94
FOCOLARE, 129-130
FORTUNA, 9-10
FURNITURE, 22-24, 25
G
GAME, 39, 42-43, 68
GLASS, relief, 11-12;
vessels, 28, 64, 108, 120
GRAVE-MONUMENTS, 122, 124, 126, 128, 131
GREAVES, miniature, 6, 82, 107, 108
GRINDING GRAIN, 37
H
HAIR, arrangement of, 56, 58-59, 61-62
HALTERES, _see_ Jumping-weights
HAT, 54-55
HELMET, 76-80
HERMS, 7-8
HIMATION, 52, 54, 60
HOOK, for meat, 26
HOOP, 42
HOPLOMACHY, 94
HOPLOMACHUS GLADIATOR, 107
HORSE, toy, 41
I
INCENSE-BURNER, 4
ISIS, 10
J
JAVELIN, 86, 94, 96
JEWELRY, 59-60, 62
JUMP, 92, 93
JUMPING-WEIGHTS, 93
JURYMAN’S TICKET, 118
K
KEY, 113-114
KITHARA, 69-70;
in wall-painting, 24
KOLPOS, 48, 49-50
KOTTABOS, 68
L
LADLE, 30
LAMP, 4, 31, 87, 101, 107-108
LAR, 9, 87
LOOM, 34
LOOM-WEIGHT, 34
LOUTROPHOROS, 125
LYRE, 69, 70-72
M
MASK, actor’s, 14
MIRROR, 50, 66-67
MOSAIC, 22
MOULD, for relief, 115-116;
jeweler’s, 116;
_see_ Die
MOUSTACHE, 56, 58
MUSIC, 45, 46
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, 24, 69-73
MUZZLE, horse’s, 104
N
NURSE, 40
O
ONKOS, 14
ONOS, 32-33
OSCILLUM, 6
OVEN, 37
P
PAIL, 26, 28
PALLA, 60
PANKRATION, 93, 96
PENTATHLON, 92
PETS, 41, 75
PHYSICIAN’S INSTRUMENTS, 118
PILOS, _see_ Cap
PLOUGH, 109-110
POTTERY, 28-29, 119-120, 128
PRAYER, _see_ Worshipper
PRIEST, Roman, 9
PRIZES, at games, 96-97
Q
QUARRYING or MINING (?), relief, 112
R
RACE, foot, 92, 93
RAZOR, 63
RIDING, 101-102, 104-105
RING-DANCE, 5-6
S
SACRIFICE, on glass relief, 11-12
SAFETY-PIN, _see_ Fibula
SARCOPHAGUS, 130-131
SCHOOL, 43-46
SEWING, 34-35
SHEEPFOLD, votive, 110
SHIELD, 82, 84-85, 87, 107
SHOES, 55-56, 61;
for horses, 102;
of tragic actor, 14
SHRINE, miniature, 4
SICKLE, 110
SISTRUM, 10
SLAVE, 118-119
SLEEVES, 49-50, 60
SLING, 86-87
SPATULA, 66, 118
SPEAR-HEAD, 85
SPINDLE, 33-34
SPINDLE-WHORL, 34
SPINNING, 33, 34, 36
SPOON, 30
STEELYARD, 114-115
STOLA, 60
STRIGIL, 63
STRIPE, on tunic and toga, 60-61
STUCCO, 20;
reliefs, 22
STYLUS, 44
SWING, 42
SWORD, 86
SYMPOSIUM, 68
SYRINX, 73
T
TABLE, votive, 6, 24
TABLE-SERVICE, bronze, 29-30, 128
TOGA, 61
TOILET-BOX, 33, 42-43, 64
TOMB-FURNITURE, 63, 66, 128-129
TOP, whipping, 38-39, 42
TORCH-HOLDER, 30
TOYS, 41-43
TRAINER, 90, 92
TRIPOD, 24
TROPHY, 87
TWEEZERS, 63
TYCHE, 9
V
VASES, 28, 35, 37-38, 44, 47-48, 55, 63-64, 93, 94, 96, 101, 105,
111, 125-126;
marriage, 39;
perfume, 39;
ring, 6;
toy, 41
VICTOR, 97
VOTIVE OFFERING, 4, 5, 6, 110, 112;
for treaty (?), 8
W
WALL-DECORATIONS, 20, 22
WEAVING, 34, 36
WELL-HOUSE, 37-38
WINE-MAKING, 110
WINE-STRAINER, 30
WINNOWING, 36-37
WOOL-WORKING, 32-34
WORSHIPPER, attitude of, 4;
saluting statue, 4-5
WRESTLING, 92
WRITING, 44
OF THIS BOOK
ONE THOUSAND COPIES
WERE PRINTED
JANUARY, MCMXXIV
ONE THOUSAND ADDITIONAL COPIES
WITH CORRECTIONS WERE PRINTED
JUNE, MCMXXIV
[Illustration]
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