35 



ON THE ANTIQUE GREEK DRE8S FOR 

 WOMEN. 1 



SOME ladies about to take part in private theatricals, required 

 antique Greek dresses, and the task of providing these, which 

 seemed easy at first, grew in difficulty as the ambition arose 

 among us to produce a dress which should not be a mere piece 

 of theatrical millinery, but should represent, as nearly as 

 possible, the actual dress worn two thousand years ago by women 

 in Athens. 



Smith's Dictionary gives little more than the names %i,T(0v, 

 SwrAofo, and TreVAos 1 , applied to the tunic or under-garment, 

 the mantle covering the shoulders, 

 and the loose shawl or scarf arranged 

 as suited the taste of the wearer. 

 1 Hope's Costumes ' offers some infor- 

 mation as to the mantle, which he 

 calls a bib, but none as to the make 

 of the tunic. The limited circle of 

 scholars, artists, critics, and costu- 

 miers known to me had little accu- 

 rate knowledge to impart ; but every 

 difficulty met with in getting accu- 

 rate information turned the hunt for a real Greek tunic into 

 a hobby. Experiments with sheets and lay-figures, at first, 

 and, later, with shawls and real women, led at last to so 

 satisfactory a result that the whole party thought it would be 

 well worth while to write down what we had discovered with 

 some labour. No doubt the facts must be known to some 

 artists and sculptors, but they are not readily accessible, and 



1 From the Art Journal, January 1874. 



