House and veil in ancient Greece

Author(s): Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Source: British School at Athens Studies, Vol. 15, BUILDING COMMUNITIES: House,
Settlement and Society in the Aegean and Beyond (2007), pp. 251-258
Published by: British School at Athens
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40960594
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 27
House and veil in ancient Greece
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

PRIMARY CONSIDERATIONS: SYMBOLS I want to concentrate on the idea that a female's

AND IDEOLOGIES garments become an extension of her living-space. This
notion is especially compounded in the ideology of a
In his Dream Book (Oneirokritika), Artemidoros of
woman's veil. By 'veil' I mean an unstitched garment,
Daldis famously collected and collated a wealth of
like a mantle or cloak, which has the capacity to be pulled
reports concerning people's dreams (White 1975). He
up onto the head and, if required, across the lower face,
customarily records an individual's dream and offers a
like the modern Iranian chador. This was a routine way
brief interpretation of its meaning; sometimes he notes
of wearing an 'uncut garment' in ancient Greek
the symbolism of a particular dream and attempts to
societies, and pan-Hellenic literary and material
highlight its impact on the dreamer's waking world. The
evidence from several successive centuries strongly
Oneirokritika notes, for example, that within a dream
supports the notion that the veiling of the female head
all objects which surround a person - whether cloaks,
or lower face was routine for many types of women
tunics, houses, walls or even ships - must signify one
(see further Cairns 2002; Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 49-61,
another, so that, Artemidoros reports, when a man once
104-13, 162-5). I want to suggest that the connection
dreamed that his cloak was ripped in the middle, his
between the veil and the house is a pertinent theme
house fell in. Conversely, someone who once dreamed
in Greek gender constructions and that the symbolic
that the tiled roof of his house was destroyed lost all of
association between these two facets of female
his clothes and no longer owned what should have
daily experience can be located in both literary and
covered him (Artemidoros iv 30). material evidence.
In the ancient Greek mind, then, there is clearly a
subconscious connection between the protective
HOUSE-VEIL:
elements that help to create a civilised life: housing and ARCHAEOLOGY,
ETYMOLOGY AND ICONOGRAPHY
clothing. In fact, we can go beyond Artemidoros'
Muchaof
collection of subliminal experiences to encounter the evidence for the Greek house has not
rich
survived
symbolism which was attached to and shared the centuries and does not appear in the
by dress
and domestic space in the ancient Greek world. This record; there are no surviving upper
archaeological
floors,
connection is particularly evident in regard to women'sfor example, and little evidence for doors,
domestic space and to female clothing; an investigation
shutters, or any interior decor besides mosaics and wall
painting.
into the ways in which the Greeks observed Wood and textiles rarely survive in the
and even
archaeology
named parts of the house and items of dress will quickly of Greece, but literary and artistic
reveal that the association was very much at the front
information does testify to the use of shutters, wooden
of the Greek mind and was, in fact, an panelsimportant
and textiles as curtains and screens. Judging from
component of Greek gender ideology. a list of domestic textiles presented by the lexicographer
Plutarch, for example, uses the symbolic Pollux
motif (Onomastikon
of a x 42), these hangings would
tortoise to demonstrate the notion of the shared
certainly have provided a brilliant splash of colour in
the house (Vickers 1999). Moreover, any social
connection between the covering created by clothes and
interaction within the house between women and male
the covering created by a house: the tortoise's shell,
he suggests, is at one and the same time her house strangers could have been carefully controlled through
and her dress. He comments that 'Pheidias represented
the interruption of sight-lines by physical barriers like
curtains and wooden partitions, and not just by
the Aphrodite of the Elians as stepping on a tortoise
to typify for womanhood staying at home and keeping behavioural and theoretical barriers (Nevett 1995, 373).
silent' (Plutarch, Moralia 142 D). Ideally, he suggests,
The textile hangings that covered doors and probably
a woman should stay at home in security and silence,acted as spatial dividers were no doubt common features
but when necessity forces her to leave the house, of the Greek house, but being of perishable materials
she, like the tortoise, should symbolically carry they
her have all but disappeared and only a few fragments
house with her and should always act as though she have accidentally survived (Richter 1966, 177; Barber
were still passively secreted indoors (see further
1991, 379). But a variety of curtains are depicted
Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 189-90). on Hellenistic reliefs, Roman wall paintings and sarco-

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 252 LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES

walls areare
phagi, and although some of the drapes vulnerable and the Iliadic phrase kredemnon
undoubtedly
linked to funerary practice, others have
luesthai, ana veil/covering/
'to loose undeniable wall', is used as a vivid
domestic function. It is interesting
metaphor for to note
the sacking of athe
city and for the breaching
of a woman's
observation recorded by the excavators of the chastity (see Iliad ''in
houses 1 17-18, 373-4, iv 290-
1, ix 24-5; Llewellyn-Jones
the Classical city of Olynthos in northern Greece,2003, that 130-4).
there was a total absence of pivot-holesThe most common
in the word for 'roof in ancient Greek
paved
rooms. Although it is conceivable was that doors
tegos; it was the rootworked
of the diminutive tegidion, 'little
roof,
only on hinges, it is more feasible to a word thatthat,
imagine is oddly instead
defined by the lexicographer
Hesychios as and
of doors, hangings were used (Robinson 'a manner of adorning the heads of
Graham
women'. But what
1938, 251; Pritchett 1956, 233; Pomeroy 1994, style297).
of adornment
In (or dress) could
addition, Pollux {Onomastikon x 32) possibly be said to
refers to resemble a 'little roof? The answer,
'curtains
at the doors of bedchambers', Theophrastos {Enquiry
I think, is found in a popular female headdress worn in
most of
into Plants iv 2 7) mentions 'rings for the Greek world between
embroidered hang- the fourth and first
ings', and curtain-rings are also centuries
mentionedBC (it disappears in the early Roman period).
by Pliny
(Natural History xvi 32). Such ringsIt have
is foundbeen
almost exclusively
discover- on terracotta figures, an
important
ed at a number of excavations, ranging in source,
date since
from coroplasts
the were at liberty to
fourth century to the Roman period show the 'reality' 1966,
(Richter of dress fig.
far more than, say, vase
600; De Caro 1996, 376). Some of painters or large-scale
the houses onsculptors
Delos (Uhlenbrock 1990;
had holes in the upper parts of the peristyle
Llewellyn-Jones 2002). columns,
Figures wearing the tegidion have
which are thought to be sockets for been found in Attica, Boeotia and Macedonia, the length
curtain-poles.1
Most ancient Greek words for 'curtain' are derived of the coast of Asia Minor and in the Greek cities of the
from various verbs meaning 'to cover', but it is Levant, Egypt and Libya, although to date no examples
interesting to note that several of them share a meaning have been found in the Péloponnèse (Llewellyn-Jones
with the terminology used for clothing. The common 2003, 62-4). If the wide geographic distribution of
word epiblema, for example, has the general meaning of tegidion-wtaring figurines means that the garment itself
'that which is thrown over' or 'covering', but is more was as widely circulated, then it must be conceded that
specifically linked with a tapestry or wall-hanging, while the tegidion was a very popular fashion indeed.
it simultaneously means 'outer garment', 'mantle' and, But what exactly was the tegidion? What the
by extension, 'veil'. But a variant of the word - epibles coroplasts actually show is a face-veil composed by
- is used for a cross-beam in a roof (see, for example, cutting eye-holes into a single rectangular cloth, which
Lysias fr. 175S and IG ii2 463, 62), which seems to is sometimes edged with a delicate fringe; it is bound
indicate that there is a correlation between a woman's around the head by a fillet and is often fastened over
head-covering and a roof, an idea which was also the forehead with (what appears to be) a brooch.
propounded in Artemidoros' Dream Book (iv 30). Unfortunately it is rarely shown in the position for
Moreover, the widespread veil-word kalumma is often which it was designed (and no doubt worn in daily life),
associated with vocabulary referring to the house and that is, hanging down over the face like the style of
its decoration: Aischylos {Agamemnon 691) describes Islamic veil known as the niqab (Vogelsang-Eastwood
Helen of Troy stepping out of her 'veiled' bed chamber 1996, 57), although a few examples are known,
(prokalumma), and Athenaeus (iv 145 b) relates that the exclusively from Alexandria (Thompson 1963, 52;
king of Persia would view his dinner-guests through a Llewellyn-Jones 2003, fig. 67).
fine veil that hung before the palace door and separated
him from his subjects.2 But kalumma does not only mean
'veil' and 'curtain', because it is also applied to roof-
beams (Aristophanes fr. 70 K-A) and to window 1 Maison des Masques: holes in northern columns only, 2.37 m
shutters (Diodorus Siculus xx 91 6 1), which again above floor; Maison de l'Hermès: holes in two columns in front
amplifies the association between the veil and the house.3 of room g, 2.24 m up. I am grateful to Ruth Westgate for these
The common veil- word kredemnon also translates as references.

'city walls', 'towers' or 'battlements', and in an epic
context, the female veil and the defensive walls of a city-
state are regarded as systematically analogous. The
analogy is also apparent in another veil- word glossed by
Hesychios - eruma - which also means 'fence',
'fortress' or 'bulwark' and more generally 'protection'.
In fact, Sophokles uses the word to describe the walls
of Troy {Ajax 467). In its Homeric context, with its high
walls flanked by towers and gates, Troy is described as
'well-crowned' {eustephanos) and is envisaged as covered
with sacred veils {hiera kredemna) of battlements, but the
2 See also Theophrastos, Characters x 6 2; Philo, On the Change
of Names xliii 2; Life of Moses ii 87 5, ii 101 4; Diodorus Siculus
xix 22 3 3; Plutarch, Life of Alexander 51 10 1.
3 The house-veil analogy is pertinent to Muslim belief too, where
the traditional Islamic lattice-screened window known as the
mashrabiyya prevents people from seeing in and, because of
the grid, gives only a restricted view of the world from inside
the house; it can easily be likened to the burqaa-'éX which has
a grid over the face. The Koran (xxxiii 53, 59) certainly equates
the veil (hijab) of a woman with an interior dividing curtain
(hijab) that separates women from strange men. See further
Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 6, 14, 19, 23, 133.

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 HOUSE AND VEIL IN ANCIENT GREECE 253

Fig. 27.2 (below). Woman wearing the tegidion

face-veil pulled off the face. The eye-holes are visible
above the hairline. Redrawn from a water colour
painting by Thomas Burgon, c. 1830; original
terracotta head from Pergamon (Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum. Line drawing by the author).

Fig. 27.1 (above). Detail of a terracotta statuette of

a woman from Myrina, c. 250-230 bc. She is well-
veiled in a mantle, drawn over the head and across
the mouth in combination with a tegidion thrown off
the face and over the back of the head (Paris, Louvre,
1163.0.0g. Line drawing by the author).

The word tegidion appears on an inscriptionand hairto

dated and enveloped the body. This seems to have
the third century BC listing dedications of been the common
clothing in practice (Llewellyn-Jones 2003, 66).
the sanctuary of Demeter at Tanagra (Reinach It is1899),
easy to see why the tegidion is so named: the
and it is perhaps no coincidence that a little-known cloth is folded off the face and back onto the head to
travel-writer of the same date known as Heracleides form a flat surface with overhanging eaves resembling
Creticus (i 18; see further Austin 1981, 151-4)a little gabled roof. The eye-holes are always plain to
comments on the women of Thebes (only a shortsee. A watercolour made by the antiquarian Thomas
distance away from Tanagra) as being the most beautiful Burgon during a visit to Pergamon in 1830, and now
in Greece, noting: 'The covering of their clothes on theiron display in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, perhaps
head is such that the whole face seems to be covered by shows most clearly the construction of the tegidion: the
a mask, with only the eyes showing through; the other eyeholes are clear above the forehead and the back of
parts of their face are all covered by the garments.' Thisthe face-veil is tucked neatly into the headband and
is almost certainly another reference to the 'little roof, head-ties (FIG. 27.2).4
although it is clear that a complete form of veiling is Greek iconography frequently offers proof of the
guaranteed not only by the face-veil itself, but by thehouse-veil connection. The standard and often-
additional protection of a mantle which is pulled overencountered depiction of a gesture whereby a woman
the head and around the lower face. In fact, a statuette raises a portion of her veil usually shows it being held
from Myrina (FIG. 27.1, c. 250 BC) shows a woman
wearing a mantle-veil that has been pulled around her
lower face to mask her mouth and chin and is secured
on the right side by being tucked into the headband of
the tegidion which is worn in conjunction. The tegidion 4 Thomas Burgon (1 774-1 858). His notes that accompany the
is folded back over the head to reveal its distinctive watercolour state: 'Handkerchief which serves as a headdress'.
shape; in daily life it was worn down over the face in Higgins (1986, 122) comments briefly on this type of veil. See
combination with the mantle-veil that covered the head also Thompson 1963, 50-1.

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 254 LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES

half-opened
out at arm's length, so that it forms door
a large flap and the enveloping ve
of cloth
that frames her profiled face.outstretched
The artistic hand that lifts the veil inten
gesture
of the open
probably represents a visual interpretation ofdoor, and her clothing, lik
a daily-
life action wherein a woman covers demarcates
(or more the
rarely
privacy of the female
uncovers) her face in public. It can
ideally
be paralleled
removed with
from the public gaze (
another popular artistic theme: the depiction
Lissarrague 1992,of a
146).
woman peeping from behind the A door offrom
scene a house or
a fourth-century South It
standing (but sometimes sitting) 27.4) shows
in the a modest
doorway. The woman, or at lea
female costume,
earliest evidence for this is the damaged peeping out from beh
François Vase
portion of
from Chiusi of c. 570 BC, which illustrates the
the door that masks half of he
goddess-
bride Thetis seated within her house awaiting
simultaneously her
raises her long veil in fron
bridegroom (FIG. 27.3). Greek doors, it of
portion appears, were
her visage to avoid the stare of
usually constructed in two halves, hovering with a central
about outside. The closed door
entrance, and opened inwards; inveil theseemvase to say only
scene, similar things: the hou
one of the doors is open and we cankeep seea woman
the legsmodestly
of the and safely enclo
can be compared
goddess who performs the veil-gesture, although much to an Italian comedy
of her face would (if the vase were not broken
another young at womanthis gazing out from
section) have been hidden by the shutter
one of aclosed
window as door.
she raises her
In veiled hand to
effect we catch a quick glimpse ofconceal her mouth
the bride and lower
behind face (FIG. 27.5).
the

Fig. 27.3 (right). The veiled bride Thetis seated within

a house. Detail from a volute-krater by Kleitias and
Ergotimos, c. 570 bc (Florence, Museo Archeologico, n WW «nro wpnr :
420g. Line drawing by the author).

Fig. 27.4 (below left). Young woman raising her veil as

she peers from behind a door. Detail of a Tarentine
skyphos, c. 355 bc (London, British Museum, F 124.
Line drawing by the author).

Fig. 27.5 (above). A young woman veils her f

looks through an open window. Detail from an
bell-krater, c. 340 bc (London, British Museum
Line drawing by the author).

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 HOUSE AND VEIL IN ANCIENT GREECE 255

VEILING AND PRIVACY a shrine, writes to her, noting that: 'You, seeing me
looking at you (as happens with respectable girls), lightly
The desire to keep private things hidden is at the centre
veiled yourself (f)Q8|Lia 7iaQexaÀ,ói|)u)).' It is interesting
of a remarkably incisive discussion by Plutarch entitled
to compare this with the reaction of anthropologist
On Being a Busybody (Mor alia 516 E-F) in which he
Patricia Jeffery (1979, 108) who, whilst sharing apurdah
makes clear the direct correlation between that which
household with a group of women, had an unexpected
clothes the body and that which houses the body: male visitor:

It is not customary to walk into a house of someone

Only under exceptional circumstances do unrelated
else without first knocking on the door; but nowadays
men enter the homes . . . and their arrival always puts
there are doormen and formerly there were knockers
the household into disarray . . . Screens and curtains
to be struck at the door and give warning, so that the
are erected ... if guests or workmen hang around . . .
stranger might not catch the mistress of the house or
[Once] some 'guests' walked in with little warning and
the unmarried daughter in the open, or a slave being
the woman I was talking to burrowed under a blanket
punished or the maidservants screaming. But it is for
and left me exposed and confused about my own
these very things that the busybody slips in. A sober
feelings of embarrassment.
and respectable household he would not willingly enter
as a spectator even if he were invited to come; but the
For men, like Plutarch's Busybody, to enter into a space
matters to conceal which keys and bolts and street-
doors are used - these are what he unveils that is currently in use by females is a discreditable act
(avaxaXüTTTtov) and communicates to outsiders. thatAnd
brings dishonour on the violated family and
yet, 'the winds with which we are most vexed' asparticularly shames the women.
The veil-house analogy is clearly a pertinent theme
Aristón says, 'are those which pull up our garments',
but the busybody does not strip off the cloaks in the
andideology of Greek perceptions of women and
tunics of those near him, but the very walls; hespace. Certainly, the anthropologist Hannah Papanek
flings
(1973, 294) argues for two 'instruments' of female
the doors wide open and makes his way, like a piercing
wind, 'through the tender-skinned maiden' andseclusion:
creeps the segregation of living space from outsiders,
in, searching out with slanderous intent drunken revels
and the covering of the face and body with a veil,
and dances, and all-night festivals!5
suggesting that the veil is a 'logical supplement' to the
use of enclosed living spaces. But what can be done with
As the busybody penetrates through the door of the
this ideology and what light can it shed on the
house he 'unveils' its occupants to his unwanted and
separation, segregation or independence of women in
shaming gaze and defiles the sanctity of privacy that
ancient Greek society?
the house usually offers. Plutarch draws particular
In ancient Greece the women who attract the most
attention to the women of the household, the mistress
notoriety are those who are conspicuously uncovered
and her unmarried daughters, who suffer most from
to the public view: lower-class prostitutes who are at
this intrusion upon privacy. Contained within the
the call of all men and do not enjoy the protection of a
protective walls of their house they normally have no
husband or guardian come in for particular attack.
need for the further protection offered by the veil; but
These street girls stand outdoors, half-naked, in the sun;
when interrupted in their daily routine by a strange
they are women it is permitted to look at (see further
man, their lack of veils leaves them even more exposed
Davidson 1997; Dalby 2002). As one comic fragment
and vulnerable to the gaze of the intruder. Menander
attests, 'Their door is open' (Athenaeus xiii 569 f). But
informs us that women need to be constantly vigilant
with their veils even inside the house. In Perikeiromene
the majority of women in the Greek sources arouse no
undue criticism for their appearances in the public
(311-12), the long-lost son Moschion muses alone to
sphere, for, as Cohen (1991, 155) convincingly argues,
himself on how he will visit his estranged mother and
'Women were . . . not physically isolated from their
the girl of his dreams, and he imagines himself and his
community, and their daily activities took them out of
slave calling on them within their house:
their houses and brought them into contact with men,
whether in the agora, at a festival or a wedding, or in
f| |nèv aia%[uv]e[ÎT' è]7reiôà[v] eiaícojiev 8r|À,aôr|,
the house of a friend or neighbour.'
7iaQaxa^ó[i|;8Taí t' 80o]ç yÒQ t[o]ut[o]*
She'll be embarrassed when we go in, that is clear, But when Cohen attempts to find a solution to the
and she'll veil herself, for that's [normal].6 dichotomy between the ancient sources that are hostile

The attestation that women veil their faces in front of

strangers as a matter of routine, as an inbred reaction
to a social situation, is nowhere better stated than here
(Gomme and Sandbach 1973, 486; Llewellyn-Jones
2003, 1, 3, 197). A similar testimony, from Aristaenetus'
collection of 'Greek Letters' (ii 2 7-8), is provided by a
young man who, having been caught looking at a girl at
5 The theme of intrusion into private space is also found in Lysias
iii 6-7. See further Cohen 1991, 148-52, with references.
6 1 he restoration of the text comes from Körte 1955. Compare
Aristaenetus ii 2, ii 18.

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 256 LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES

to the idea of women's public appearances

A veil that
andwasthose
specifically designed to cover the
that speak of them participating in female
public life
face was aon a
significant move towards the public
control
routine and daily basis, he merely says, 'it of female
is not sexuality as a guarantor of male
resolved'
(1991, 162). This is not satisfactory. Cohen
honour, yet thefails to
tegidion first appears at a time when it
consider what women wear when they leave is generally
the assumed
security that women's lives were literally
of their homes and enter into the man's opening
world.
up asI they
suggest
began to take increasingly confident
that the conflict in the ancient sources can be at least strides into public life; evidence from Hellenistic
partly resolved in the use of the veil. Alexandria in particular supports this suggestion and
As an extension of domestic space and a symbol of it is hard to disagree with the data which so strongly
separation, the veil, in any form, enables women to move imply that women were becoming increasingly 'visible'
out of their homes in a kind of portable domestic space (Pomeroy 1984; Rowlandson 1998). But how far can
and as a result, despite the modern Western perception we take the idea of female visibility in the Hellenistic
of its negative aspects, the veil can be considered a world? Van Bremen (1996) has suggested that even
liberating garment that frees a woman from the confines though the women of Hellenistic Asia Minor were
of any form of patriarchal purdah and lets her operate actively beginning to participate in civic roles, they
in the public sphere; it is viewed this way by many veiled continued to operate strictly within the confines of a
women themselves (Papanek 1973, 295; Jeffrey 1979, male framework as representatives of their families. In
151; Doubleday 1988, 10). sympathy with this, Nevett observes that from the late
fourth century, a new group of large and elaborate elite
THE TEGIDION AND FEMALE VISIBILITY houses begin to appear, suggesting that 'the status of
the oikos and the role of the house were undergoing a
The apex of association between social separation and
rapid change in many areas of the Greek world' (Nevett
veiling is best emphasised by a specific face- veil
1999,like the
162-4; see also Walter-Karydi 1994; 1996). This
ancient Greek tegidion. Although a social requirement
revision of domestic space resulted in the physical
for a woman to cover her face is an extension of the separation of the house into two separate areas, one for
ideological complex that obliges women to cover theirdomestic activity and one public, where guests could
heads, it is a drastically greater step to have an item of be received in style. Each area had its own courtyard
clothing specifically designed to cover the face; face-and so for the first time we can probably use the terms
veiling is concomitantly significant. In contrast, if thereandron and gynaikonitis in the manner of the ancient
is not a general social obligation for a woman to coversources (cf. Reber, this volume, pp. 281-2, FIGS. 30.1-
her face, then for her to choose to do so can have a host 2). In this new double-courtyard house it seems highly
of other significances, which may vary from emotional likely that the customary use of space was more marked
expression to social manipulation of her own. Thebetween family areas and areas used by guests, and that
introduction of the tegidion into the Greek world at the domestic activity could have been conducted entirely
close of the fourth century BC is a facet of female life within the family space, without intruding into guest
that has passed virtually unnoticed in scholarship, butareas. Consequently, it would appear that women were
one which must have had a profound and fundamental
influence upon the lives of Greek women. It is very
difficult to tell just how widespread this fashion was, but,
as suggested above, widely disseminated textual 7 If this veil-style is mentioned in scholarship at all, it is usually
in the context of a discussion of Heracleides Creticus: see, for
references, coupled with findings of statuettes of women
example, Walcot 1998, 169. Burr Thompson's influential
wearing the tegidion scattered throughout northern studies of the Tanagra figurines have convincingly argued that
Greece, Asia Minor and Egypt, suggest that the garment the various modelled figures derive from Attic prototypes and
was commonplace among upper-class women in these were originally the product of Athenian craftsmen who sculpted
regions by the late Classical period, and increasingly the figures from real-life Athenian models. If this is indeed
throughout the early Hellenistic era; it has even been the case, then the tegidion could have had a major impact on
suggested, judging again from the terracotta evidence, Athenian womanhood. A convenient account of Burr

that the tegidion may have been worn in Attica
(Thompson 1963).7 This may have been a consequence
of Macedonian incursions, for it is not beyond the limits
of possibility that this strict form of female veiling was
originally a Macedonian conceit, introduced via Persian
or other Near Eastern influences (Llewellyn-Jones 2003,
64). Certainly, Persian and Near Eastern influence on
Macedonian elite culture (which included polygamy and
the institution of the harem - a form of patriarchal
control closely aligned with strict veiling) should not be
routinely dismissed (Carney 2000).
Thompson's research is contained in Uhlenbrock 1990, 48-
53. A second, much rarer, type of face- veil has been identified
on an Alexandrian statuette dating to the early second century.
Here the woman wears a delicately fringed face-veil without
eyeholes - in other words, a face-panel that hangs from her
forehead down to her chest. Presumably the fabric (probably
linen, but possibly silk) was so sheer that eyeholes were
unnecessary and, in this respect, it resembles a Yemeni silk
face-veil known variously as the maghmuq or the sheshaf, which
is sufficiently transparent for the wearer to remain capable of
seeing the world around her. See Adriani 1948, 7-8; Vogelsang-
Eastwood 1996, 51.

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 HOUSE AND VEIL IN ANCIENT GREECE 257

Moreover,
even more restricted in this new type of house than they a veil specifically designed to be tied around
were in the one-courtyard model, and the fact the
thathead
the in order to conceal the face allowed the wearer
two-courtyard types appear at this date has led moreNevett
freedom of movement with her arms and hands
to speculate whether the activities of women were
for she no longer had to hold a length of fabric acros
becoming more tightly controlled from the her face or on top of her head. This apparently
fourth
century on (1999, 158). As she suggests: 'contrary to
insignificant facet of the female daily experience may
what the epigraphic [and, indeed, poetic] recordwell go some way towards explaining women's greater
appears
to suggest, women's status did not improve during thein the Hellenistic textual sources.
visibility
Hellenistic to early Roman periods' (Nevett 1999, 166;
see also Nevett 2002). In conjunction with this
CONCLUSIONS
interpretation, increasingly throughout the Hellenistic
While it was desirable for the women of Greece to
period we have reports (in some Greek cities) of a civic
remain separated from male society, when they were
body known as the gynaikonomoi ('controllers of
allowed out of their houses their use of the veil enabled
women') who may have ensured that women's public
them to operate with some autonomy in the public
appearances were policed and that, when they ventured
sphere. The common conception that the female veil
into public space, their clothing was modest, sober and
concealing (Ogden 2002).8 acted as a logical extension of private domestic space
can
The archaeological data for the two-courtyard house
be demonstrated in a rich linguistic and visual
symbolism where veils are frequently likened to shells,
and its interpretation, together with evidence of the
walls, doors and roofs. That a woman takes her symbolic
gynaikonomoi, neatly coincide with the information
separation with her into the public domain solves the
offered by the use of the tegidion. If the veil, as I have
practical problems of living in a society where there are
attempted to suggest, is an extension of domestic space,
rigidly enforced restrictions on interaction between
then the increasing separation of women from the male
world reflected in the two-courtyard house finds an adults. The veil makes a woman socially
marriageable
astonishing parallel in the use of the face-veil in the
same period. Both the new style of house and the new
style of veil increasingly distance and separate women
from the public world. 8 While it is difficult to know exactly how this 'institution' op-
erated, it is possible that a group of officials acted as 'women
It has frequently been noted that at precisely this
police' and controlled the movements of women in many Greek
point in time Greek artists start to produce full-sized
states from the late Classical period on. I do not want to over-
nude female statuary, in the form of a variety of
stress the importance of this 'institution' (if indeed that is an
Aphrodite figures (Hales 2002). But it should be
appropriate word), because the evidence for the gynaikonomoi
emphasised that nudity did not transfer from the asdivine
an active, organised and established 'police force' is frag-
realm to the world of mortal women; in fact, mentary
heavy to say the least. Nonetheless, much of the scant
drapery around the body and the closed 'Pudicitia'
evidence suggests that the gynaikonomoi controlled female be-
(modesty) pose are features of public statuary of at public festivals and funerals and checked the
haviour
Hellenistic women. It is intriguing to note that respectability
at the of female participants in state rituals. In a rather

same time as Aphrodite was shedding her clothes, puzzling

herstatement Harpokration noted that 'Women [sc. in
mortal worshippers were putting on more layers. Athens] without order in the street were fined 1,000 drach-
mas.' It is hard to understand what he means by 'without order'
The tegidion, when worn with a mantle-veil,
(àxoauouoai) but I think that it is perhaps a convenient 'catch-
undoubtedly had the effect of rendering a woman a 'non-
all' phrase which hints that the activity of the gynaikonomoi
person' beneath layers of clothes. In this respect, and
was not confined to festivals and could include the daily polic-
following Nevett's arguments, it is tempting to interpret
ing of women in public, perhaps with regard to overseeing
the introduction of the tegidion as another device
their to
modest dress. This was certainly true for women at festi-
control the autonomy of Hellenistic women, onvals,
a parbut it is conceivable that this control extended beyond
with the evidence offered by the two-courtyardthehouse
confines of special occasions. The punishment for trans-
model. But the reality of the situation may have beenthe rules of the gynaikonomoi was to have the name of
gressing
different, since the tegidion could actually have allowed
the offender written on a white board and pinned to a plane
tree, and
women more freedom to participate in public society. to be summoned with a fine that was, of course, pay-
able by the
The frequent reports we have of, say, Alexandrian woman's official guardian (Hesychios s.v. plátanos).
The shame brought about by the public display of a woman's
women shopping, visiting friends and public places, and
name was a harsh punishment since it brought dishonour on
attending festivals could have been facilitated by the use
her family, and it is possible that a physical chastisement of
of the face-veil. This small garment, overlooked in
the erring woman could have followed at the will of her guard-
scholarship for so long, may have had a profound effect
ian. Of course, Hesychios' term 'without order' could mean
upon women's access to a more active lifestyle; equally,
that the gynaikonomoi were vigilant in controlling female be-
men could have tolerated a woman's amplified
haviour in other ways, including, perhaps, keeping women from
participation in communal life because the tegidioninteracting
made publicly with men or even from speaking to men
her public imperceptibility even more pronounced.
in the streets.

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258 LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES

invisible, allowing her to enjoy privacy and to

distance be in even further from the public
women
public. The introduction of the tegidion
in at the the
much close of way as the introduction of
same
the fourth century and its spread throughout
face-veil much of
amplified women's invisibility. How
the Greek world in the Hellenistic 'little
periodroof
findshadanthe potential for allowing a
more
astonishing parallel in the two-courtyard autonomous
house model public existence since, s
of the same date. This development in house
contained and its protective covering, where
beneath
wentas
household structure has been interpreted she took her
a move to house with her.

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