MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE GREEKS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF THEODOR PANOFKA. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE SCHARF. TAKEN CHIEFLY FROM GREEK FICTILE VASES. LONDON : T. C. NEWBY, MORTIMER STREET. 1849. J. BILLING, PRINTER AND STKKEOTYPKR, WOKING, SUBBKY. PREFACE. The little work here presented to the reader in an English form, was originally communicated to the Wissenschaftlicher Verein of Berlin, in two successive memoirs, in the years 1842 and 1844, and subsequently, published under the title, Grieckinnen und Griechen nach Antiken, Berlin, 1844. Its author, M. Panofka, to whom Greek Archaeology is indebted for much valuable research, as well as for many ingenious speculations, has especially devoted him- self to the study of Greek Fictile Vases, and has, in several treatises, shown how this class of works of art may be applied in illustration of ancient life and manners. The publication which has been here chosen for translation is rather popular than learned, — distinguished not so much for novelty of research, as for the manner in which materials col- lected by the cumulative industry of former scholars have been brought together from remote sources, and so combined with the evidence of works of art, as to present them in a new and unexpected point of view. Such a mode of treatment is eminently graphic. Many facts and details which fail to strike the mind, as they occur to us in a disconnected form, and at intervals in a course of reading, become interesting when disengaged from the mass of eru- dition in which they have been involved, and brought in juxtaposition with pictorial representa- tion ; the appeal to the eye enlivens and confirms the mental perception ; and even those who want time or opportunity to become acquainted with the Greeks through the medium of their literature, and who have few sympathies with classical thought and feeling, can still study the image of society preserved to us in Greek art, and can thus become cognizant of that mar- vellous grace and beauty which pervaded ancient Greek life, and was associated with its humblest and most familiar incidents. PREFACE. iv It is by this more graphic and popular character, by this readier appeal to more generally diffused sympathies, that the Griechinnen und Griechen of M. Panofka, is distinguished from more elaborate publications, such as the Charikles of Professor Becker, recently translated by Mr. Metcalfe,— a work remarkable for profound and well digested research, but which cannot be considered to exhaust the subject of Greek manners, because it deals, for the most part, with such evidence as can be deduced from literature only. The combination of the facts thus obtained with the collateral illustration afforded by works of art is a further labour, which is peculiarly the province of the archaeologist ; yet, though the British Museum possesses in its Greek antiquities, and particularly in its Fictile Vases, ample materials for carrying out such researches, these collections have as yet been but little studied in connection with classical education in this country. It is the object, therefore, of the present publication to give a specimen of the method and results of continental archaeology, which will not, it is hoped, be thought a needless contri- bution to our national literature, if it in any degree contribute to extend the range of English scholarship. In the translation, considerable changes have been made in the arrangement of the subject. The two parts, of which the German text was composed, having been written and published at different periods, had somewhat too much retained the character of separate treatises. The translator has therefore, endeavoured to give greater unity of treatment, by transferring the opening paragraphs of the second part to the general introduction, and by remodelling some of the sentences so far as was necessary for this work of incorporation. The translation is not a literal one. It will, perhaps, be thought by some a scarcely war- rantable liberty to have substituted for the original title one which seemed more familiar and attractive to English ears, and to have both inserted and omitted here and there in the text, words, clauses, and even sentences. But such changes have been made with the conviction that less would not have been sufficient, and it must be remembered that the faithful re-pro- duction of an author’s thoughts is accomplished, not always by the literal rendering of his words, but by the choice of that form of expression most intelligible to those for whom the translation is made, whether it be fuller or more condensed than its equivalent in the original text. The references in the notes have been carefully compared with the original authorities, and PREFACE. V a few remarks have been added by the translator, such insertions being always indicated by brackets. The plates have been carefully executed on stone by Mr. George Scharf, on a much larger scale than those in the German work, and have been, with a few exceptions, recopied from the original sources. The following illustrations are new : The frontispiece, fig. 1,2, PI. xix, fig. 1, PI. xx, and the woodcuts, pp. 20, 26, and 38. These are substituted for figures 4, 5, 7, 20, 21, 22, PL i, and fig. 3, 5, PI. ii, of the original work, Part ii, which have been omitted. The Vase from which the illustration, PI. i, is taken is not in the collection of the British Museum, as is stated, p. 5, note 8, but in that of the Louvre at Paris. t LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece. — The family of Niobe playing at the game of Astragali. Plate I. Aurora . . . to face page 5 Plate II, 1. Nausicaa and her companions. 2. Spinning ...... 6 Plate III, 1. Embroidery. 2. A dancing lesson 7 Plate IV, 1 . A girl playing at hall. 2. Phaedra swinging ...... 8 Plate V. Sappho and Alcaeus . . . 10 Plate VI, 1. The death of Orpheus. 2. A scene from the toilet . . . . . 11 Plate VII, 1. The youthful warrior receiving his arms ; 2. bidding farewell to his family. 13 Plate VIII, 1, 2. Nuptial scenes . . 14 Plate IX, 1. A wedding gift. 2. The cham- ber of death ...... 17 Plate X, 1. The passage of the Styx. 2. A sepulchral offering . . . . . 18 Plate XI, 1. The cradle of Mercury. 2. Boy playing with a cart. 3. The discipline of Silenus. 4. A pedagogue with his pupil . 20 Plate XII, 1. A lecture. 2. Writing. 3. A wrestling match ..... 22 Plate XIII, 1. Cock-fighting. 2. The game of Mora ....... 24 Plate XIV, ] . Hurling the discus. 2. A gym- nastic exercise. 3. An athlete crowned by Victory .... to face page 26 Plate XV, 1. A musical contest. 2. A singer crowned by Victory. 3, 4. Preparations for the bath ...... 27 Plate XVI, 1, 2. Banquet scenes . . . 29 Plate XVII, 1 . Return from the banquet. 2. Consultation of the oracle. 3. Jason and Alkinoos ...... 33 Plate XVIII, 1. Marriage of Athene and He- rakles. 2. An unseasonable suitor . . 35 Plate XIX, 1. A slinger. 2. A trumpeter. 3. A warrior in his chariot ... 36 Plate XX, 1. Ajax and Achilles playing at dice. 2. Meeting of Menelaus and Helen . 37 Plate XXI, 1. Warrior carrying off the slain. 2. The voice of the spring. ... 40 WOODCUTS. 1. Terracotta model of a war- chariot . page 20 2. Chariot - race, from a coin of Syracuse. 3. Horse-race, from a coin of Tarentum. . 26 4. Victory erecting a trophy, from a coin of Lamp- sacus. 5. Victory with a cross, from a coin of Alexander the Great . . . . 38 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OE THE GREEKS. The land of classical antiquity, its streams, its mountains, and its valleys, the ruins and even the sites of its cities and temples, have in our eyes no common aspect ; it is with peculiar and acknowledged interest that we regard them. •If from their outward beauty and from the associations with which they are blended in our memories the features of natural scenery are thus attractive, would not a picture of ancient society , viewed not only in its general outline and historical relations, but also in its more minute and special details, have at least an equal claim on our attention, and equal power to move our sympathies ? It is with this feeling and in this hope, that the author has been induced to apply to the illustration of ancient life and manners the designs of the Greek Fictile Vases, of which the varied and instructive series preserved in the museums of Europe compensates, in some degree, for the loss of the more perishable works of the great painters of antiquity. These vases, found beyond the limits of Greece Proper, in Magna Grsecia, Sicily, and Etruria, but known to be the work of the Greek race not less by the characters with which they are inscribed than by their design and fashion, are among the earliest monuments of Hellenic civilization ; ranging in date from the fifth or sixth, to the second century before our era. They were employed for a variety of domestic purposes in the Greek household ; for their preservation in such numbers at the present day we are indebted to a custom suggested by the simple piety of the ancients. In their rite of burial it was usual, as we learn from various authorities, to place in the grave those objects to which the deceased had attached the greatest value while living. 2 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS Nearly all the more fragile and elaborate works of ancient art that we possess, such, for example, as the gold and silver ornaments of the Greeks, have been thus preserved ; and the fictile vases in the various museums of Europe have, without a single exception, been discovered in places of interment, standing or lying near skeletons, or, in some instances, containing the ashes of bodies burnt upon the funeral pile. In the shapes of these vases, and in the designs with which they are ornamented, we may study the course of Greek art from its commencement to its decline ; and, while we recognize beauty of form and faithful imitation of nature 1 as their general characteristics, they present at the same time certain varieties of style which enable us to class them in successive periods. The vases with black silhouette - like figures on a red or yellow ground are among the earliest specimens of the art of painting on clay, and are interesting chiefly as examples of drawing in the Archaic period. These ruder works are succeeded by the vases with red figures on a black ground, which belong for the most part to the best age of art. In this style there is often much grandeur in the general com- position as well as in the conception of the single figures, while an exquisite feeling for the beautiful pervades the whole design, and reveals itself in every detail. In the vases of a later date the mannerism of the drawing, and the profusion of meretricious ornament, betray the decline so general both in sculpture and in paint- ing after the time of Alexander the Great. The comparison of these successive styles contributes much to our general know- ledge of the history of ancient art, while at the same time we become acquainted with some of its technical processes ; but this is not the only result to be obtained from the study of fictile vases ; we may regard them in another and not less interesting point of view. In the designs with which they are decorated many new and curious details of Greek manners have been transmitted to us, not so much by the direct portiaiture 1 Nothing is more remarkable in the fictile art of the Greeks, than the truth to natuie shewn in the treatment of the animals’ heads with which some of the drinking cups called rhytons terminate, while again, the lustre of the black varnish of the Nolan fabric is so brilliant after the lapse ot 2000 jeais, that the unpractised judgment not unnaturally hesitates to admit their remote antiquity. OF THE GREEKS. 3 of real life, as by the representations of scenes from the legend of some mythic per- sonage, whom the faith of antiquity had invested with the motives of action, the habits, and some of the external conditions of humanity. This intimate association of the mythical and the human was peculiarly the cha- racteristic of the Hellenic mind, which ever regarded the claims of religion as paramount, — in all cases to be preferred to those of individual man. Art was thus almost exclusively devoted to the illustration of religious tradition, and was slow to lend its aid to the demands of egotism. Even at Pompeii, where we might expect to recognize the influence of feelings more analogous to those of our own times, scenes from the divine or heroic mythology form almost the only subjects selected for the frescoes and general decorations of the dwelling houses. The pedestals of the beautiful candelabra, the handles of the bronze vases, every article of furniture and household use are ornamented with such designs, while historical pic- tures and portraits are but of rare occurrence even in this comparatively late period of ancient art. In consequence of this marked preference for ideal representation in antiquity — a sentiment strongly contrasted with the self-admiring and conscious vanity of modern times — we are deprived of much positive and direct evidence for the elucidation of our subject. We are thus compelled to seek the materials for a sketch of Greek society sometimes in the sphere of gods and heroes rather than in the world of human existence, and, as it were, by the dim light of mythic tradition to trace the lineaments of that reality which it is our object to embody in a distinct form. The first part of this work contains some account of the occupations and social position of Greek women ; the designs annexed are with one exception taken from vases. The scenes selected for illustration are arranged in an order determined by the chief epochs of life from its commencement to its close. A fleece of wool or an olive wreath suspended above the entrance door was the public announcement that a child was born within the dwelling . 1 The wool was emblematic of the household duties of a girl ; the wreath implied the life of strife and victory awaiting a boy. Two different feasts served to celebrate the event of a birth. 1 Hesych. v. fjV. 4 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS On the seventh day 1 was held the first feast, Amphidromia , 2 so called from the ceremony of running swiftly round a blazing altar by torch light, with the infant exposed in a shallow wicker cradle ; the child being thus submitted at the commence- ment of life to a symbolical purification by fire. The second feast called Debate , 3 or “the tenth day,” was dedicated to the ceremony of name-giving. In the choice of proper names the ancients were guided by a feeling analogous to that implied in the Roman Catholic custom of selecting a saint’s name in baptism. The Greeks were in the habit of adopting either the names belonging to the gods or such as expressed some divine attribute, with the idea that the god whose name was bestowed on a new born child would be its guardian throughout life ; 4 and thus, if the day of its birth happened to be sacred to one of the principal gods, the name of that deity was the one chosen. Hence the Alexandrian philosopher Arestos was so called from the circumstance of having been born on the day sacred to Ares, the god of war . 5 How much importance the Greeks attached to the choice of a name may be inferred from the story of a dispute between Helen and Paris as to the naming of their daughter ; Paris wishing to call her Alexandra after himself , 6 while Plelen pre- ferred her own name . 7 The decision was left to the chance of tne die, by which the right of choice fell to the mother. In some cases to a near relation or friend acting as witness to the ceremony w r as confided the selection of a name . 8 This second feast was celebrated by sacrifices to the deities, particularly to the 1 According to Hesychius, v. Apopiap viii. 21, 2. 8 Plut. Lacaenar. Apopthegm. Ed. Reiske, vii. p. 896 — 7. 9 Meier, Panatheneen, Allgem. Encyklop. d. Wiss. und Kunst. p. 288. Hesych. v. ’ Epyaurlvai ai tuv ‘mtnXov vcpaivovaai. Harpocrat. V. dpprjipoptiv. d’ p'fv extiporovovvTO dl. ei'yivtiav dpprjipopoi , (5'bt EKpivovTO, ai rpp vfprjg tov urevrXov fjpxov ical riov aXXwv rCov wepi abrbv. Eurip. Hecub. V. 470. Iphig. Taur. 222. Boeckh, Grsec. drag. Princ, p. 192, sqq. The ceremony of the presentation of this veil forms one of the scenes on the frieze of the Parthenon. See Ancient Marbles in Brit. Mus. viii. PI. 3, p. 41. 10 Gerhard, Prodromus Ant. Bilder, p. 123. Alist. Av. 827, Euelpid, TigSalOtog UoXiovxoq Zarai; TwZavovptv rbv trsTtrXov Peisthet. Tib’ouK ’AOrjvaiav iwpev UoXidba. 12 Paus. v. 16, 2. i3 14 D’Hancarville, Antiq. Etr. Gr. i. pi. 124. R. Rochette, Peint. Antiq. p. 409, 2. Plut. Timol. viii. OF THE GREEKS. 7 an Asiatic race, examples of this art, and the borders of the robes worn by' the Greek women are frequently ornamented with embroidered groups of human figures and animals. 1 Our next scene, PL III., 1, shews a Greek woman reclining in a chair, busily occupied with an embroidery frame ; above her hangs a scarf, which she has already finished ; her companion opposite holds pieces of embroidery probably designed for the border of a robe. 2 Amidst these more exclusively domestic employments physical education was not lost sight of, though less attention was paid to it at Athens than at Sparta. The part taken by maidens in the processions and dances with which the chief religious festivals were celebrated required some previous training. Our next subject, PI. III., 2, represents a dancing lesson: the instructress being distinguished by the staff with which she beats time. Opposite to her stands a young dancer with a castanet in each hand. 3 Her shortened robes are perhaps significative of her preparation for a feast sacred to Artemis or Bacchus. Among the pastimes which diversified these graver occupations were the game of Astragali, represented in the beautiful design selected as the frontispiece of this work, 4 and the game of ball, said to have been the invention of the Homeric Nausikaa, 5 and a favourite amusement even in the circle of the gods. Venus, Cupid, 6 and the Graces, are often represented engaged in this sport. Our illustration, PL IV., 1. shews a young girl thus occupied. 7 1 Gerhard, Mysterien-bilder, Tafel I. A drinking cup in the Berlin collection of vases, No. 1802, on which a Bacchic scene is represented, affords a remarkable specimen of embioideij' on the lobe of a statue of Bacchus. Compare Monum. Inedits, de l’lnstitut Archeol. iii. pi. 31. 2 Panofka, Cab. Pourtales, pi. xxxiv. Compare the similar representation on a vase engraved, Stackelberg, Graber der Hellenen. Taf. xxxiii. 3 Gerhard, Antike Bildw. Taf. lxvi. 4 [The family of Niobe, a monochrome painting by Alexander an Athenian artist, found at Her- culaneum, Antich. d’Ercol. i. pi. 1. Becker, Charikles, i. p. 487. The astragalizusa oi nymph playing with the astragali was a favourite subject in ancient sculpture. See K. 0. Muller, Arch. d. Alten Kunst, § 430, 1, for the repetitions of this figure.] 5 Horn. Odyss. vi. 115. The game of ball was most frequently combined with dancing. Athen. i. p. 14, d. 6 Philostrat. Jun. Imag. 8. Millingen, Ancient Unedit. Monum. pi. xii. 7 From a vase, Millin, Peint. des Vases Ant. ii. pi. lxxiii. 8 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS The scene delineated in our next engraving, PI. IV., 2, is far more attractive and full of meaning. A female figure is seated in a swing, which Love impels forward, while Venus stands on the other side looking at herself in a silver mirror j 1 the little dog bounding from below appears to sympathize with the movements of his mistress. 2 If in this design the swinger were the only figure, we might suppose nothing more to be represented than one of the usual summer amusements of Greek maidens. But the presence of Venus and Love elevates the subject above the sphere of ordinary life into the regions of mythology ; it would however have been difficult to discover the name of the principal personage, but for a clue afforded by a description in Pau- sanias of one of the celebrated pictures of antiquity. In the great fresco of Polyg- notus at Delphi representing scenes from the infernal regions, Phsedra, the ill fated step-mother of Hippolytus, was pictured seated in a swing ; the mode of her death being thus figuratively indicated by the artist. 3 It is this very Phsedra who is the subject of the design before us, and it is not without meaning that Cupid is the mover of the swing ; this betokens that her calamitous end was the consequence of her guilty love. This poetic treatment of so tragical a subject was not the invention either of the artist who designed this vase, or of the earlier and more celebrated Polygnotus. Its origin must be sought for rather in that mode of softened expression, Euphe- mismus, which formed an elementary principle of the Greek religion, and hence exercised a powerful influence over art and language, especially that of poetry. In accordance with this feeling the Greeks gave Death the friendly name of “ Host of the Universe,” 4 or “ Gatherer of Nations 5 the image of death was presented to the eye in the pleasant likeness of sleep ; 6 and the Furies were called Eumenides, or “ gracious ones,” 7 a propitiatory name. 1 The Aphrodite Kataskopia, whom Pausanias, ii. 32, 3, describes as standing beside Pheedra. Com- pare Panofka, Terracotten. d. Konigl. Mus. Taf. xxi. p. 82. 2 Gerhard, Antike Bildw. Taf. liv. 3 Paus. X, 29, 2. 1 Polydegmon, Polydektes, Horn. H. in Cer. 9. ^Esch. ed. Dindorf. Prom. 153. Suppl. 157. 5 Agesilaos, AEsehyl. cited by Athen. iii. p. 996. Callim. H. in Lav. Pall. v. 130. Nicand. cited by Athen. xv. p. 684. d. Lactant. i. 11, 31. 6 Pausan. v. 18, 1. 7 Soph. Elect. 11. OF THE GREEKS. 9 The interpretation which we have proposed for our last picture is confirmed by the accounts left us of a feast peculiar to Athens, called Aiora } This festival was held in order to commemorate the suicide of Erigone on the death of her father King Ikarius ; his servants, infuriated by intoxication and the maddening influence of the dog star, had murdered him, and his daughter in despair hung herself on the tree under which he had been buried . 2 After this catastrophe many women of Athens seized with sudden phrenzy destroyed themselves by like means, the oracle de- claring that they were visited with this punishment from the gods, because the manes of Erigone was still unappeased. On each anniversary of her death a feast was therefore held, at which, in expiation of the ill-fated suicide, the Athenian women swung themselves . 3 During this mournful rite, lays were chaunted, such as Erigone might have sung while seeking her father . 4 The seclusion in which the Greek women passed their lives naturally led them to employ their abundant leisure in a variety of domestic employments. Besides those to which we have already alluded, music, singing to the accompaniment of stringed instruments, and occasionally reading and writing, were their occu- pations. On a vase in the Durand collection 5 is represented a lady seated in a chair, wholly engrossed with her book or rather manuscript roll ; a tire-maiden standing before her reminds her mistress that the hour for the toilet is arrived. As to writing it was an acquirement, chiefly employed in the ordering of house- hold accounts, though now and then for correspondence. An ancient Greek letter consisted of tablets generally of an oblong form, coated over with wax, on which the characters were inscribed with a pointed reed. In a painting at Pompeii , 6 a 1 Etym. Mag. v. a iwpa, ed. Sylb. p. 42, 3. Hesych. s. v. also v. Evghttvos- 2 Hygin. fab. cxxx. ccxliii. Poet. Astron. L. ii, Arctophylax. 3 In the Berlin collection is a vase, of which the graceful design relates to this ceremony. It repre- sents an Athenian woman seated on a cushion in a swing, which is impelled forward by one standing behind. Millingen, Anc. Unedit. Monum. pi. xxx. Gerhard, Ant. Bildw. Taf. lv. 1, 2. Berlins Ant. Bildw. p. 249. Panofka, Mus. Bartold, p. 120 — 124. 4 Athen. xiv, 61, e. Pollux, iv, vii, s. 55. 5 Described by De Witte, Cat. Durand, p. 26, No. 66, as Demeter Thesmophoros with Persephone. Compare Millingen, Anc. Uned. Mon. pi. xxxvii. 6 Pitt. d’Ercol. i, 10. Millin, Gall. Myth, clxxii, 632. C 10 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS letter of this kind, but of a diminutive size, may be seen in the band of Cupid, who is crossing the waves of the sea on a dolphin’s back, to convey a message from the Cyclop Polyphemus to Galatea. The art of music next claims our attention. The pictures on vases often repre- sent young maidens grouped like the muses, some seated, some standing, accom- panying their song with a lyre. 1 We have here selected a less common and more special illustration of our subject, 2 PL V. It is the portrait of the celebrated Sappho of Lesbos, from whose minstrelsy a peculiar school of lyric poetesses was formed. She holds the instrument resembling the cithern, 3 which was appropriated to the accom- paniment of love elegies. Alcaeus the bard of liberty, her friend and countryman, is here engaged with her in a musical and poetical contest, probably on the occasion of a feast of Dionysos (Bacchus.) The contest represented in our next illustration, 4 PI. VI. 1, is of a graver kind, its issue is even tragical. In this design the long flowing hair, as well as the short nether garment of the female figure, shew us, that she is not of the same race or country as the actors in our earlier scenes. We behold a Thracian bacchante still under the intoxicating influence of Dionysiac revelry. The figure she menaces with the sword is Orpheus the minstrel and teacher of mysteries. He had attempted by the persuasive harmony of Apollo’s lyre to restrain the unbridled licence of the Thracians, and 1 We need only here remind our readers of the vase from Locri, in the Naples collection, Neapels Ant. Bildw. p. 352, with the much disputed inscription KAAEA0KE2. 2 Milling. Anc. Uned. Mon. pi. xxxiii. The vase from which this illustration is taken, is remarkable for the severe archaic style of the design, which can only be compared with that of PI. VIII, 2. in our illustrations. It was found at Girgenti, the ancient Agrigentum, and is at present one of the finest specimens in the Munich collection. From the height and wide mouth of this vase, we might suppose it to be a krater, or vessel for mixing wine with water, but a large aperture near the bottom would rather indicate that it has been used as a flower pot. See Rathgeber, Bullet, dell’ Instit. Archeol. 1838, No. III. p. 17. sqq. 3 [The cithern or zitter to which Panofka compares the instrument held in the hand of Sappho is a national guitar among the Germans, resembling in form a mandoline ; like that in our engraving, it is played with the aid of a small piece of wood or plectrum. \ 4 Monum. Inddits de l’lnst. Arch. vol. i, pi. v, 2. Ann. de l’lnstit. tom. i, p. 265, sqq. OF THE GREEKS. 11 to introduce a gentler lore and more humane sacrifices. For this Orpheus is about to suffer. Flight is impossible, and the attempt of the doomed victim to defend himself with his lyre can evidently be of no long avail against the death- stroke of the frantic assailant. In this design one further point may be noted, which throws an unexpected light on the action represented, both as to its moral signification and the punishment which followed it. On the arms of the female figure we see a number of sharp angular impressions, exactly similar in shape to the clasps or broaches worn by the Greek women upon the shoulder, which, looping up the robe, formed a sleeve. Now, according to a widely diffused tradition, the women of Thrace did not murder Orpheus, but merely blinded him with broaches of this kind. In atonement for this crime they were condemned by their husbands to bear on their shoulder a brand resembling in form the instrument of their revenge. Woman’s ready wit, however, soon discovered a mode of effacing this stigma. Below the brand they painted another row of marks exactly similar to that which had been inflicted as a punishment, and thus converted into an ornament what had originally been meant as a mark of reproach. 1 The ladies of Athens once made a like use of their broaches. About the year 530, B.C., as we learn from Herodotus, 2 the Athenians attempted to land in^Egina, and carry off the statues of two goddesses, but their sacrilegious attempt was frus- trated by a violent earthquake and by the arrival of aid secretly sent to the iEgine- tans from Argos. The route was so complete, that of the whole invading force but a solitary survivor returned to tell the tale. The widows of those who had perished, thinking thus to give the truest token of their mourning love, blinded the messen- ger of evil tidings with the broaches which fastened their robes. In consequence of this crime, the Athenian women were forbidden the use of such fastenings, and they from that time wore another kind of garment, made with sleeves, for which broaches Plut. De beia INum. \ indict, ed. Reiske, vol. viii. p. 206, Athen. xii. p. 524, e. 2 v - 1 87 • Duris > Annal. xii. ap. Schol., Eurip. Hecub. v. 934, Muller, Aeginet,p. 71. 12 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS were not needed. In niost of the illustrations of tins woik tliis later fashion of attire prevails. We have just described the origin and practice of tattoeing the arms, used as an adornment by the Thracian women, and the transition seems not unnatural to the subject of our next illustration, Pl. VI. 2, a scene of the toilet. A lady still young is sitting, having a mirror in her left hand, and in her right a painting brush, with which she is about to apply the red or white Cosmetic pre- sented to her by the young slave who stands near. 1 At Pompeii has been found a * glass box containing the materials used by the beauties of ancient times to enhance their charms, and now exhibited in the Museum at Naples. The custom of painting the eyebrows as well as the face appears to have been general in Greece, and not re- served as the privilege of maturer years. 2 The Greek women usually passed their days in houses, of which the sitting as well as the sleeping rooms were peculiarly small and low ; a mode of life which could not but lead to the premature loss of the bloom of youth. In Sparta on the other hand, where girls acquired health and robustness from the arduous course of life to which they were trained, 3 women scorned and needed not the devices of art ; colours were set apart for dying garments. Red was a favourite hue for the habits of warriors ; while it contributed to their martial appearance, it also served in battle to hide from notice the blood which flowed from the wounds. 4 On the departure of the youthful warrior for battle, or for the service of guarding the frontier, the tokens of female sympathy were not wanting. Many such fare- well scenes occur in the paintings of Fictile art. We have here selected for our illustration, 5 PI. VII, 1. a design in which the war- rior is arming himself with a cuirass, while his mother is bringing his helmet and shield. The wreath 6 with which he is crowned seems to shew that it is not for battle, 1 Tischbein, Vas. d’Hamilton, t. ii, pl. lviii. 2 The Pythagorean Phintys, mpt y wauebg )r)g Slkijv. 4 Schol. Eurip. Phamiss. 344. 5 Hesych. v. vvfupayuybg. Pollux, iii. c. 3, § 41. 6 Millingen. Peint. des Yas. Gr. pi. xliii. Stackelberg, Graber der Hellenen, Taf. xxxii ; Panofka Recherch. sur les Nonas des Vases, pi. viii, 1. Bild. Ant. Lebens. Taf. xi. 2. 7 Plut. Amator. x. 8 Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 768. Hesych. v. Karaxycpara.