love of beauty led to love of dress. Numerous
epithets point to this characteristic of Homeric ladies; as "with
beautiful peplus," "well-girdled," "with beautiful zone," "with
beautiful veil," "with beautiful sandal," and the like; and care in
dressing the hair is seen in such phrases as "with goodly locks," "with
glossy locks."

The Homeric poems describe for us the dress of the AEolico-Ionians down
to the ninth or eighth centuries before Christ, and it differs in many
important particulars from that of the classical period as seen in the
Parthenon marbles.

The women wore only one outer garment, the peplus, brought to Hellas
from Asia by the Aryans, which garment the Dorian women continued to
wear until a late period. The peplus in its simplest form consisted of
an oblong piece of the primitive homemade woollen cloth, unshapen and
unsewn, open at the sides, and fastened on the shoulders by _fibulae_,
and bound by a girdle; but, undoubtedly, as worn by Homeric princesses
it assumed a much more regular pattern and was richly embroidered. The
pharos was probably a linen garment of Egyptian origin, which was
sometimes worn instead of the peplus. Thus the nymph Calypso "donned a
great shining pharos, light of woof and gracious, and about her waist
she cast a fair golden girdle, and a veil withal on her head." Both
these garments left the arms bare, and, while frequently of some length
behind, as seen in the epithet "the robe-trailing Trojan dames," were
short enough in front to allow the feet to appear.

As the peplus was open at the sides, the girdle was the second most
important article of feminine attire. This was frequently of gold, as in
Calypso's case, and adorned with tassels, as was Hera's girdle with its
hundred tassels "of pure gold, all deftly woven, and each one worth an
hundred oxen." But the girdle of girdles was the magic cestus of golden
Aphrodite, which Hera borrowed in order to captivate Zeus. The tightened
girdle made the dress full over the bosom, so that the epithet
"deep-bosomed"--that is, with full, swelling bosom--became frequent.
Another characteristic article of dress was the _kredemnon_, a kind of
veil, of linen or of silk, in color generally white, though at times
dark blue. It was worn over the head, and allowed to fall down the back
and the sides of the head, leaving the face uncovered. There was no
garment, like a cloak, to be worn over the peplus. For freer movement
women would cast off