will appear with chitons worked with brilliant embroidery along the
borders, and with splendid himatia of some single clear hue--violet,
red, purple, blue, or yellow. As for the costume of the groom at
a wedding, it is far indeed from the "conventional black" of more
degenerate days. He may well wear a purple-edged white chiton of
fine Milesian wool, a brilliant scarlet himation, sandals with blue
thongs and clasps of gold, and a chaplet of myrtle and violets.
His intended bride is led out to him in even more dazzling array.
Her white sandal-thongs are embroidered with emeralds, rubies, and
pearls. Around her neck is a necklace of gold richly set,--and
she has magnificent golden armlets and pearl eardrops. Her hair
is fragrant with Oriental nard, and is bound by a purple fillet
and a chaplet of roses. Her ungloved fingers shine with jewels
and rings. Her main costume is of a delicate saffron, and over it
all, like a cloud, floats the silvery tissue of the nuptial veil.

[*]"The chiton became the mirror of the body," said the late writer
Achilles Tatius.

[+]No doubt farmers and artisans either wore garments of a
non-committal brown, or, more probably, let their originally white
costume get utterly dirty.


38. Greek Toilet Frivolities.--From the standpoint of inherent
fitness and beauty, this Athenian costume is the noblest ever seen
by the world. Naturally there are ill-advised creatures who do
not share the good taste of their fellows, or who try to deceive
the world and themselves as to the ravages of that arch-enemy of
the Hellene,--Old Age. Athenian women especially (though the men