DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0054
42
boys in solemn processions. Whether the garment worn by the
boy before us be the one so named is uncertain, for the authority
upon which Hesychius, and some lexicographers after him, have
mentioned it, does not appear, nor is there any description of its
peculiar form. The garment, however, worn by this youth is a
kind of peplus, consisting of a single piece of cloth too long for
the wearer, and therefore doubled to a proper length ; the longer
portion reaching to the ancles, the shorter and outer portion
somewhat lower than the waist; it is open at his left side, and,
falling in simple and graceful folds before and behind, gives the
artist the opportunity of displaying the contours of the youthful
form in beautiful contrast with the straighter lines of the drapery.
The colour of this garment is a matter of some doubt; on the
one hand it has been asserted that the Athenian youths during
this ceremony were clothed in black, in commemoration of the
death of Copreus, who had been slain by the Athenians while
endeavouring to rescue the Heraclidse from the wrath of Eurys-
theus ; and that this continued to be the colour till the time of
Herodes Atticus, in the middle of the second century after Christ;
after which white alone was allowed to be worn.1 To this it is
objected, that the Panathenaic festival was a ceremony of unqua-
lified joy and hilarity, and that funeral garments would be pecu-
liarly unsuitable to such an occasion; it appears also from Lucian
that, in his time at least, coloured garments of any kind were
absolutely prohibited, and that the offender against the inhibition
was punished.2 The head of the youth has been encircled with
a diadem of some description, as the fillet at the back of the head
is still perceptible ; but whether it was composed of millet, which
was usually worn by youths upon such occasions, cannot now be
decided, from the dilapidated state of the marble,3 The boy is
looking up to the priest to whom he is delivering the peplus, and
1 Meursius, c. xxii.
2 Id. c. xiv.
3 Id. c. xxii.
boys in solemn processions. Whether the garment worn by the
boy before us be the one so named is uncertain, for the authority
upon which Hesychius, and some lexicographers after him, have
mentioned it, does not appear, nor is there any description of its
peculiar form. The garment, however, worn by this youth is a
kind of peplus, consisting of a single piece of cloth too long for
the wearer, and therefore doubled to a proper length ; the longer
portion reaching to the ancles, the shorter and outer portion
somewhat lower than the waist; it is open at his left side, and,
falling in simple and graceful folds before and behind, gives the
artist the opportunity of displaying the contours of the youthful
form in beautiful contrast with the straighter lines of the drapery.
The colour of this garment is a matter of some doubt; on the
one hand it has been asserted that the Athenian youths during
this ceremony were clothed in black, in commemoration of the
death of Copreus, who had been slain by the Athenians while
endeavouring to rescue the Heraclidse from the wrath of Eurys-
theus ; and that this continued to be the colour till the time of
Herodes Atticus, in the middle of the second century after Christ;
after which white alone was allowed to be worn.1 To this it is
objected, that the Panathenaic festival was a ceremony of unqua-
lified joy and hilarity, and that funeral garments would be pecu-
liarly unsuitable to such an occasion; it appears also from Lucian
that, in his time at least, coloured garments of any kind were
absolutely prohibited, and that the offender against the inhibition
was punished.2 The head of the youth has been encircled with
a diadem of some description, as the fillet at the back of the head
is still perceptible ; but whether it was composed of millet, which
was usually worn by youths upon such occasions, cannot now be
decided, from the dilapidated state of the marble,3 The boy is
looking up to the priest to whom he is delivering the peplus, and
1 Meursius, c. xxii.
2 Id. c. xiv.
3 Id. c. xxii.