Chapter 52

Ἔπρεπε τοι προέχουσα κάρης εὐρεῖα καλύπτρη,Ποιμενικὸν πίλημα.—Frag.cxxv.

Ἔπρεπε τοι προέχουσα κάρης εὐρεῖα καλύπτρη,

Ποιμενικὸν πίλημα.—Frag.cxxv.

The wide covering projecting from your head, the pastoral hat, became you.

[624]Apud Athen.ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub.[625]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly belonged to the Mattei collection. SeeMonumenta Matthæinana, tom. iii. tab. 37.

[624]Apud Athen.ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub.

[625]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly belonged to the Mattei collection. SeeMonumenta Matthæinana, tom. iii. tab. 37.

This pastoral hat, if we may judge from the representation of the two shepherds in the bas-relief just referred to (Fig. 4.), was in its shape very like the “bonny blue bonnet” of the Scotch. Figure 5 inPlate IX.is taken from a painted Greek vase, and represents the story of the delivery of Œdipus to be exposed. His name ΟΙΔΙΠΟΔΑΣ is written beside him. The shepherd ΕΥΦΟΡΒΟΣ, who holds the naked child in his arms, wears a flat and very broad petasus hanging behind his neck. It is of an irregular shape, as if from long usage[626]. The shepherd Zethus wears a petasus hanging behind his back in a bas-relief belonging to the Borghese collection, published by Winckelmann (Mon. Inediti, ii. 85). SeePlate IX.Fig. 6.

[626]See [Italian 469]Monumenti Inediti pubblicati dall’ Instituto di Correspondenza Archeologica, vol. ii. tav. 14.

The Athenian ephebi wore the broad-brimmed hat, together with the scarf or chlamys[627]. Meleager, in an epigram on a beautiful boy, named Antiochus, says, that he would be undistinguishable from Cupid, if Cupid wore a scarf and petasus instead of his bow and arrows and his wings[628].

[627]Pollux,Onom.x. 164; Philemon, p. 367. ed. Meineke; Brunck,Anal.vol. ii. p. 41; Jacobsin Athol. Græc.i. l. p. 24.[628]Brunck,Anal.vol. i. p. 5.

[627]Pollux,Onom.x. 164; Philemon, p. 367. ed. Meineke; Brunck,Anal.vol. ii. p. 41; Jacobsin Athol. Græc.i. l. p. 24.

[628]Brunck,Anal.vol. i. p. 5.

When a young Greek conquered in the games, his friends sometimes bestowed a hat (petasus) upon him as a present[629].

[629]Eratosthen.a Bernhardy, p. 249. 250.

In consequence of the use of the petasus as a part of the ordinary costume of the Athenian youth, we find it in a great variety of works of ancient art illustrative of the religion and mythology of Greece. For example:—

1. In the inner frieze of the Parthenon, the remains of which are now in the British Museum, it is worn by many of the riders on horseback. Figure 7, inPlate IX.shows one of these horsemen (from the slab No. 54.) with his petasus tiedunder his chin.

2. It is worn by Theseus, as represented on a vase in the Vatican collection. See Winckelmann,Mon. Inediti, vol. ii. 98, and Fig. 8,Plate IX.

3. Also by Œdipus, as represented on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases (vol. ii. Plate 24.), standing before the sphinx.

4. The coins of Ætolia exhibit Meleager wearing the petasus. Five of these have been selected from the collection in the British Museum, which are engraved according to the size of the originals inPlate IX.Figures 9, 10, and 11, are of silver. In each of them the petasus has the form of a circular disc with a boss at the top like that on a Scotch bonnet: on the reverse is the Calydonian boar, with a spear head beneath it, and the word ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ. Figure 12, which is of gold[630], and Figure 13, which is of silver, have the head of Hercules on the reverse. The hero, supposed to be Meleager, wears a petasus, a scarf, and boots, as we have seen to be the case with Endymion (Fig. 3), this being the attire of hunters. In these two coins he also holds a spear in his right hand, and is seated upon a shield (see Fig. 13.) and other pieces of armor. ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ is written by the side. The gold coin (see Fig. 12.) represents him with a Victory in his left hand, and with a small figure of Diana Lucifera in front.

[630]This is engraved by Taylor Combe,Vet. Populorum Nunmi.tab. v. No. 23.

The broad-brimmed hat, or petasus, was more especially worn by the Greeks when they were travelling[631]. Its appearance is well shown in Fig. 14, taken from a fictile vase belonging to the late Mr. Hope[632]. It represents a Greek soldier on a journey, wearing his large blanket, and holding two spears in his right hand. This figure also shows one of the methods of fastening on the hat, viz. by passing the string round the occiput.

The comedies of Plautus, being translated from the Greek, contain allusions to the same practice. In the Pseudolus (ii. 4. 55, and iv. 7. 90,) the petasus and the scarf are supposed to be worn by a person to indicate that he was coming from a journey.In the prologue to the Amphitryo, Mercury says,

Ego has habebo hic usque in petaso pinnulas,Tum meo patri autem torulus inerit aureusSub petaso: id signum Amphitruoni non erit.

Ego has habebo hic usque in petaso pinnulas,

Tum meo patri autem torulus inerit aureus

Sub petaso: id signum Amphitruoni non erit.

[631]Brunck,Anal.ii. 170, No. 5.[632]Hope,Costume of the Ancients, vol. i. pl. 71.

[631]Brunck,Anal.ii. 170, No. 5.

[632]Hope,Costume of the Ancients, vol. i. pl. 71.

Mercury and his father Jupiter are here supposed to be attired like Sosia and Amphitryo his master, both of whom had been travelling and were returning home. At the same time there is an allusion to the winged hat of Mercury, of which more hereafter. Again, in act i. scene i. l. 287, the petasus is attributed to Sosia, because he is supposed to be coming from a journey; and to Mercury, both because it was commonly attributed to him, and because on this occasion he was personating Sosia.

The Romans were less addicted to the use of the petasus than the Greeks: they often wore it when they were from home; but that they did not consider it at all necessary to wear hats in the open air is manifest from the remark of Suetonius about the Emperor Augustus, that he could not even bear the winter’s sun, and hence “domi quoque non nisi petatasus sub divo spatiabatur.” (August.82.) Caligula permitted the senators to wear them at the theatres as a protection from the sun (Dio. Cass. lix. 7. p. 909, ed. Reimari). What was meant by wearing hats “according to the Thessalian fashion” is by no means clear. Perhaps the Thessalians may have worn hats resembling those of their neighbors, the Macedonians, and of the shape of these we may form some conception from the coins of the Macedonian kings. One of these coins from the collection in the British Museum is copied inPlate IX.Fig. 15. It is a coin of the reign of Alexander I. and exhibits a Macedonian warrior standing by the side of his horse, holding two spears in his left hand, and wearing a hat with a broad brim turned upwards. This Macedonian petasus is called theCausia(καυσία)[633], and was adopted by the Romans[634], and more especially by the Emperor Caracalla, who, as Herodian states,aimed to imitate Alexander the Great in his costume. It appears probable, nevertheless, that the turning up of the brim was not peculiar to the Macedonians, and it may have depended altogether on accident or fancy; for we find instances of it on painted fictile vases, where there is no reason to suppose that any reference was intended either to Macedonia or Thessaly. Fig. 16.Plate IX.for example, is taken from the head of Bellerophon, on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases[635]; and the left-hand figure from a fictile vase at Vienna, engraved by Ginzrot[636]. This hat is remarkable for the boss at the top, which we observe also on the Ætolian coins, and in various other examples.

[633]Val. Max. v. 1.Extem.4. Pausan.,ap. Eustath. in Il.ii. 121. It is to be observed, that thecausiaandpetasusare opposed to one another by a writer in Athenæus (L. xii. 537, e), as if thecausiawas not a petasus![634]Plautus,Mil.iv. 4. 42.Pers.i. 3. 75. Antip. Thess. inBrunck Anal.ii. 111.[635]Vol. i. pl. 1.[636]Uber die Wägen und Fuhrwerke der Alten, vol. i. p. 342.

[634]Plautus,Mil.iv. 4. 42.Pers.i. 3. 75. Antip. Thess. inBrunck Anal.ii. 111.

[635]Vol. i. pl. 1.

[636]Uber die Wägen und Fuhrwerke der Alten, vol. i. p. 342.

In connection with the above quoted expression of Dio Cassius it may be observed further, that besides thecausiatwo varieties of the petasus seem to be alluded to by several ancient authors, viz. the Thessalian, and the Arcadian or Laconian. How they were distinguished, cannot be ascertained, but the passages which mention them will now be produced, that the reader may judge for himself. The Thessalian variety is mentioned by Dio Cassius, by Theophrastus, as above quoted (p. 427), and by Callimachus in the following fragment, which is preserved in the Scholia on Sophocles,Œd. Col.316.

And about his head lay a felt, newly come from Thessaly, as a protection from wet.—Frag.124.ed.Ernesti.

The frenzied Cynic philosopher Menedemus, among other peculiarities, wore an Arcadian hat, HAVING THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC WOVEN INTO IT[637]! Ammianus (Brunck,Anal.ii. 384.) represents an orator dedicating “an Arcadian hat” to Mercury, who was the patron of his art, and also a native of Arcadia.

[637]Diog. Laërt. vi. 102. See Gilroy’s Treatise on theArt of Weaving, American edition, p. 446.

Herodes Atticus wore “the Arcadian hat” at Athens, as a protection from the sun; and the language of Philostratus, in recording the fact, shows that the Athenians of his time commonlywore it, more especially in travelling[638]. Arrian, who wrote about the middle of the second century, says, that “Laconian or Arcadian hats,” were worn in the army by the peltastæ instead of helmets[639]. This circumstance shows a remarkable change of customs; for in the early Greek history we find the Persian soldiers held up as the objects of ridicule and contempt, because they wore hats and trowsers[640]. On the whole, it is very evident that “the Arcadian or Laconian hat” was one and the same variety, and that this variety of head-dress was simply the petasus, or hat with a brim, so called to distinguish it from the proper πῖλος, which was the skull-cap, or hat without a brim.

This supposition suits the representations of the only imaginary beings who are exhibited in works of ancient art wearing the petasus, viz. the Dioscuri and Mercury.

[638]Vit. Sophist.ii. 5. 3.[639]Tactica, p. 12. ed. Blancardi.[640]Herod.v. 49.

[638]Vit. Sophist.ii. 5. 3.

[639]Tactica, p. 12. ed. Blancardi.

[640]Herod.v. 49.

It has been already observed that the Dioscuri are commonly represented with the skull-cap, because they were worshipped, as the reader will have perceived, as the guardians of the mariner[641]; but on ancient vases we find them sometimes painted with the petasus; and if this was the same with the πῖλος Λακωνικὸς, it would coincide with their origin as natives of Sparta. InPlate IX.Fig. 16, an example is shown, on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases, in which their attire resembles that of the Athenian ephebi. They wear boots and a tunic, over which one of them also wears the scarf or chlamys. They are conducted by the goddess Night.

[641]Seep. 419.

In like manner Mercury, as a native of Arcadia, might be expected to wear “the Arcadian hat.” In the representations of this deity on works of ancient art, the hat, which is often decorated with wings to indicate his office of messenger, as his talaria also did[642], has a great variety of forms, and sometimes the brim is so narrow, that it does not differ from the cap of the artificer already described, or the πῖλος in its ordinary form.These hats, with a brim of but small dimensions, agree most exactly in appearance with the cheapest hats of undyed felt, now made in the United States and Great Britain[643]. On the heads of the rustics and artificers in our streets and lanes we often see forms the exact counterpart of those which we most admire in the works of ancient art. The petasus is also still commonly worn by agricultural laborers in Greece and Asia Minor.

[642]Servius (onVirg. Æn.viii. 138) says, that Mercury was supposed to have wings on his petasus and on his feet, in order to denote the swiftness of speech, he being the god of eloquence.[643]These hats are sold in the shops for sixpence, ninepence, or a shilling each.

[642]Servius (onVirg. Æn.viii. 138) says, that Mercury was supposed to have wings on his petasus and on his feet, in order to denote the swiftness of speech, he being the god of eloquence.

[643]These hats are sold in the shops for sixpence, ninepence, or a shilling each.

A bas-relief in the Vatican collection[644], represents the birth of Hercules, and contains two figures of Mercury. In one he carries the infant Hercules, in the other the caduceus. In both he wears a large scarf, and a skull-cap, like that of Dædalus[645], without a brim. This example therefore proves that, although the petasus, as distinguished from the pileus, was certainly the appropriate attribute of Mercury[646], yet the artists of antiquity sometimes took the liberty of placing on his head the skull-cap instead of the hat, just as we have seen that they sometimes made the reverse substitution in the case of the Dioscuri.

[644]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. iv. tav. 37.[645]SeePlate VIII.Fig. 8.[646]See Brunck,Anal.ii. 41, and Arnobius,Adv. Gentes, lib. vi. See also Ephippus,ap. Athen.xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub.It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus in the Dionysiac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus (Athen.v. 27. p. 198 A.). In this case the imagination appears to have been indulged in decorating a mere festive character with the peculiar attributes of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven by “boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi” (Athen.v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the custom of the Grecian youth.The following is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua (Gruter.p.297):Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque.

[644]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. iv. tav. 37.

[645]SeePlate VIII.Fig. 8.

[646]See Brunck,Anal.ii. 41, and Arnobius,Adv. Gentes, lib. vi. See also Ephippus,ap. Athen.xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub.It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus in the Dionysiac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus (Athen.v. 27. p. 198 A.). In this case the imagination appears to have been indulged in decorating a mere festive character with the peculiar attributes of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven by “boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi” (Athen.v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the custom of the Grecian youth.The following is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua (Gruter.p.297):Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque.

[646]See Brunck,Anal.ii. 41, and Arnobius,Adv. Gentes, lib. vi. See also Ephippus,ap. Athen.xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub.

It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus in the Dionysiac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus (Athen.v. 27. p. 198 A.). In this case the imagination appears to have been indulged in decorating a mere festive character with the peculiar attributes of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven by “boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi” (Athen.v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the custom of the Grecian youth.

The following is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua (Gruter.p.297):

Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque.

Another bas-relief in the Vatican[647], represents the story of the birth of Bacchusfrom Jupiter’s thigh. Thus the subject of it is very similar to that, which relates to the birth of Hercules, the infant being in each instance consigned to the care of Mercury. But the covering of Mercury’s head in these two cases is remarkably different, though from no other reason thanthe fancy of the artist. In the bas-relief now under consideration, Mercury holds the skin of a lynx or panther to receive the child. He wears the scarf or chlamys and cothumi. This was a very favorite subject with the ancients. It occurs on a superb marble vase with the inscription ΣΑΛΠΙΩΝ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ[648], and on one of Sir W. Hamilton’s fictile vases[649].

[647]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. iv. tav. 19.[648]Spon.,Misc. Erud. Ant.§ xi. art. 1.[649]Vol. i. No. 8.

[647]Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. iv. tav. 19.

[648]Spon.,Misc. Erud. Ant.§ xi. art. 1.

[649]Vol. i. No. 8.

Figure 4. inPlate X.is from Hope’sCostume of the Ancients, vol. ii. pl. 175. The money-bag is in Mercury’s right hand.

In a painting found at Pompeii[650], Mercury is represented with wings (pinnulæ) on his petasus, though not very ancient, is also recognized in the Amphitryo of Plautus.

[650]Gell’sPompeiana, London 1819, pl. 76.

Figure 5. inPlate X.is from the Marquis of Lansdowne’s marble bust, published by the Dilettanti Society[651]. In this beautiful bust the brim of the hat is unfortunately damaged.

[651]Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, London 1809, pl. 51.

Figures 6 and 7,Plate X., are from coins engraved in Carelli’sNummi Veteris Italiæ(plates 58 and 65). Figure 7 is a coin of Suessa in Campania.

To these illustrations might have been added others from ancient gems, good examples of which may be found in the second volume of Mariette’sTraité des Pierres Gravées, folio, Paris, 1750.

Besides the application of felt as a covering of the head for the male sex in the manner now explained, it was also used asa lining for helmets. When in the description of the helmet worn by Ulysses we read

Μέσσῃ δ’ ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει[652],

we may suppose πῖλος to be used in its most ordinary sense,consequently that the interior of the helmet was a common skull-cap.

PLATE IX.

[652]Homer,Il.x. 265. Eustathius, in his commentary on this passage, says, that the most ancient Greeks always wore felt in their helmets, but that those of more recent times, regarding this use of felt as peculiar to Ulysses, persuaded the painters to exhibit him in a skull-cap, and that this wasfirstdone, according to the tradition, by the painterApollidorus. The account of Pliny, who, together with Servius (in Æn.ii. 44), represents Nicomachus, and not Apollidorus, as having first adopted this idea.

Being generally thicker than common cloth, felt presented a more effectual obstacle to missile weapons. Hence, when the soldiers under Julius Cæsar were much annoyed by Pompey’s archers, they made shirts or other coverings of felt, and put them on for their defence[653]. Thucydides refers to the use of similar means to protect the body from arrows[654]; and even in besieging and defending cities felt was used, together with hides and sackcloth, to cover the wooden towers and military engines[655].

[653]Jul. Cæsar,Bell. Civ.iii. 44.[654]Thucyd. iv. 34. Schol.ad loc.[655]Æneas Tacticus, 33.

[653]Jul. Cæsar,Bell. Civ.iii. 44.

[654]Thucyd. iv. 34. Schol.ad loc.

[655]Æneas Tacticus, 33.

Felt was also sometimes used to cover the bodies of quadrupeds. According to Aristotle[656], the Greeks clothed theirmolles oveseither with skins or with pieces of felt; and the wool became gray in consequence. The Persians used the same material for the trappings of their horses (Plutarch,Artax.II. p. 1858. ed. Stephani).

[656]De Gen. Animalium, v. 5. p. 157. ed. Bekker.

The loose rude coverings for the feet calledUdoneswere sometimes made of felt, being worn within the shoes or brogues of the rustic laborers[657].

[657]Hesiod,Op. ed Dies, 542; Grævius,ad loc.; Cratini,Fragmenta, p. 29. ed. Runkel.

In concluding this investigation it may be proper to observe, that, although πῖλος originally meantfelt, and more especially a skull-cap made of that manufacture, it was sometimes used, at least by the later Greek authors, by an extension of its meaning, to denote a cap of any other material. Thus Athenæus (lib. vi. p. 274. Casaub.) speaking of the Romans, says, that they wore about their heads πίλους προβατείων δερμάτων δασεῖς,i. e.“thick caps made of sheep skins.”

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