DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0503
45o PINCHED WAISTS OF M. M. Ill FASHION
man of broad and bulky proportions from Tylissos, reproduced in Fig. 313.1
A similar loose belt surrounds the waist of a man of heavy build represented
by a Minoan bronze figurine in the British Museum2 (Suppl. PI. XXXIX).
This was, in fact, only a return to the older fashion so well illustrated
by the terra-cotta votive figurines from Petsofa.3 These and other parallel
examples belong to the earlier phase, a, of M. M. I, and may date, therefore,
from the last century of the Third Millennium B.C. The fashionable woman's
dress of the time was a cloak with a high peak behind4 and tied by a cord
round the waist like a modern dressingr-gown, and this remained in vogue
Tight till the closing phase of M. M. II.5 So far, at least, as women's dress is
beginwith concerned the new fashion with the pinched waists must have grown up
m.m.iii. during the succeeding M. M. Ill period—from the Seventeenth Century B.C.
onwards—and may be thought to be a reaction of the male custom of wearing
a narrow belt, with which it makes its appearance paripassti. With the men
it seems to-have been adopted rather as a sign of strength and endurance,
such as would have been implied by the close girding of the loins, than
from any aesthetic considerations. It stands, indeed, in a very near relation
to the national sport. It is certainly a suggestive fact, in view of the
Oriental origin of the bull-grappling shows themselves, that Gilgames
in his struggles with the man-bull Eabani early appears on cylinders with
what seems to be a close-fitting belt of metal.6
To start the desired remoulding of the human frame in early child-
hood is in itself usual in such attempts to improve on Nature. It may,
indeed, in this respect be set beside the Chinese practice of checking the growth
of women's feet from earliest infancy, or the binding of boards to their babies'
heads by the Indian 'Flat-heads'. At the same time the prominence
thus given to the thighs and the relative breadth added to the expansion of
the chest may in the case of the Minoan usage have flattered certain
personal vanities. It is really only another form of the tight-lacing that
has at recurring epochs marked the fashions of modern Europe, though
1 J. Hatzidakis, Tu'Ahto-os MwunK-q. striction.
2 Published by F. N. Pryce, J. H. S., xli 4 On this costume, and on its ' proto-
(1921), p. 86 seqrj.,.and PI. I. Libyan' affinities, see P. of M., ii, Pt. I,
3 J. L. Myres, The Sanctuary Site of Pet- pp. 32, 33, and Figs. 14, 15.
sofa (B.S.A.,p. 356 seqq. : cf., especially, 5 Witness the 'hieroglyphic' signet-type,
PI. X. See, too, P. of M., i, p. 152, Fig. op. at., p. 33, Fig. 15.
111). The ' Minoan sheath' was attached to 6 See, for instance, the representations of
this and a dirk slung across it. The belt was the struggle on cylinders.
often broad, and there was no sign of con-
man of broad and bulky proportions from Tylissos, reproduced in Fig. 313.1
A similar loose belt surrounds the waist of a man of heavy build represented
by a Minoan bronze figurine in the British Museum2 (Suppl. PI. XXXIX).
This was, in fact, only a return to the older fashion so well illustrated
by the terra-cotta votive figurines from Petsofa.3 These and other parallel
examples belong to the earlier phase, a, of M. M. I, and may date, therefore,
from the last century of the Third Millennium B.C. The fashionable woman's
dress of the time was a cloak with a high peak behind4 and tied by a cord
round the waist like a modern dressingr-gown, and this remained in vogue
Tight till the closing phase of M. M. II.5 So far, at least, as women's dress is
beginwith concerned the new fashion with the pinched waists must have grown up
m.m.iii. during the succeeding M. M. Ill period—from the Seventeenth Century B.C.
onwards—and may be thought to be a reaction of the male custom of wearing
a narrow belt, with which it makes its appearance paripassti. With the men
it seems to-have been adopted rather as a sign of strength and endurance,
such as would have been implied by the close girding of the loins, than
from any aesthetic considerations. It stands, indeed, in a very near relation
to the national sport. It is certainly a suggestive fact, in view of the
Oriental origin of the bull-grappling shows themselves, that Gilgames
in his struggles with the man-bull Eabani early appears on cylinders with
what seems to be a close-fitting belt of metal.6
To start the desired remoulding of the human frame in early child-
hood is in itself usual in such attempts to improve on Nature. It may,
indeed, in this respect be set beside the Chinese practice of checking the growth
of women's feet from earliest infancy, or the binding of boards to their babies'
heads by the Indian 'Flat-heads'. At the same time the prominence
thus given to the thighs and the relative breadth added to the expansion of
the chest may in the case of the Minoan usage have flattered certain
personal vanities. It is really only another form of the tight-lacing that
has at recurring epochs marked the fashions of modern Europe, though
1 J. Hatzidakis, Tu'Ahto-os MwunK-q. striction.
2 Published by F. N. Pryce, J. H. S., xli 4 On this costume, and on its ' proto-
(1921), p. 86 seqrj.,.and PI. I. Libyan' affinities, see P. of M., ii, Pt. I,
3 J. L. Myres, The Sanctuary Site of Pet- pp. 32, 33, and Figs. 14, 15.
sofa (B.S.A.,p. 356 seqq. : cf., especially, 5 Witness the 'hieroglyphic' signet-type,
PI. X. See, too, P. of M., i, p. 152, Fig. op. at., p. 33, Fig. 15.
111). The ' Minoan sheath' was attached to 6 See, for instance, the representations of
this and a dirk slung across it. The belt was the struggle on cylinders.
often broad, and there was no sign of con-