A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890)
William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, Ed.

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CHLAMYS

CHLAMYS (χλαμύς), a short mantle. This term, being Greek, denoted an article of the AMICTUS or outer raiment, which was in general characteristic of the Greeks, and of the Oriental races with which they were connected, although both in its form and in its application it approached very near to the LACERNA and PALUDAMENTUM of the Romans, and was itself to some extent adopted by the Romans under the emperors. It was for the most part [p. 1.416]woollen; and it differed from the ἱμάτιον, the usual amictus of the male sex, in these respects, that it was much smaller; also finer, thinner, more variegated in colour, and more susceptible of ornament. It moreover differed in being oblong instead of square, its length being generally about twice its breadth. (Plut. Alex. 26; Plin. Nat. 5.62.)

The chlamys came originally from Macedonia and Thessaly (Ammon. p. 146; Plin. l.c.; Poll. 7.46, 10.124). It was the dress of hunters, of travellers, especially on horseback (Xen. An. 7.4.4; Plaut. Poen. 3.3, 6, 31), and of soldiers (Aelian, Ael. VH 14.10; Plaut. Pseud. 2.4, 45; Epid. 3.3, 55). It seems to have been part of the usual dress of a Spartan (Aristoph. Lys. 988; Juv. 8.101), and was worn at Athens by the ephebi from about seventeen to twenty years of age. (Philemon, p. 367, ed. Meineke; ephebica chlamyde, Apuleius, Met. x. p. 253; Pollux, 10.164; λαβεῖν τὸ χλαμύδιον, Athen. 6.240 c). In the frieze of the Parthenon representing the Panathenaic procession, several of the riders have the chlamys. It does not appear to have been much worn by children, although one was given with its brooch to Tiberius Caesar in his infancy (Suet. Tib. 6).

The chlamys as worn by youths, by soldiers, and by hunters, differed in colour and fineness, according to its destination, and the age and rank of the wearer. The χλαμὺς ἐφηβικὴ was probably yellow-or saffron-coloured; and the χλαμὺς στρατιωτικὴ, scarlet. On the other hand, the hunter commonly went out in a mantle of a dull unconspicuous colour, as best adapted to escape the notice of wild animals (Poll. 5.18). The more ornamental mantles, being designed for females, were tastefully decorated with a border (limbus, Verg. A. 4.137; maeander, 5.251); and those worn by Phoenicians, Trojans, Phrygians, and other Asiatics, were also embroidered, or interwoven with gold (Verg. ll. cc., 3.483-4, 11.775; Ovid. Met. 5.51; V. Fl. 6.228). Actors had their chlamys ornamented with gold (Poll. 4.116).

The usual mode of wearing the mantle was to pass one of its shorter sides round the neck, and to fasten it by means of a brooch (πόρπη, fibula), either over the breast, in which case it hung down the back, reaching to the calves of the legs; or over the right shoulder, so as to cover the left arm, as is seen in the cut under CAUSIA and in the well-known example of the Belvedere Apollo. In other instances, it was made to depend gracefully from the left shoulder, of which the bronze Apollo in the British Museum (see right-hand figure) presents an example; or it was thrown lightly behind the back, and passed over either one arm or shoulder, or over both (as in left-hand figure, taken from Hamilton's Vases, 1.2); or, lastly, it was laid upon the throat, carried behind the neck, and crossed so as to hang down the back, as in the figure of Achilles under BALTEUS and sometimes its extremities were again brought forward over the arms or shoulders. In short, the remains of ancient art of every description show in how high a degree the mantle contributed, by its endless diversity of arrangement, to the display of the human form in its greatest beauty; and Ovid has told us how sensible the ephebi were of its advantages in the account of the care bestowed upon this part of his attire by Mercury (Met. 2.735). The aptitude of the mantle to be turned in every

Chlamys. (The figure on the left from a painting on a vase; that on the right from the Brit. Mus.)

possible form around the body made it useful even for defence. The hunter used to wrap his chlamys about his left arm when pursuing wild animals, and preparing to fight with them (Poll. 5.18; Xen. Cyneg. 6.1. 7). Alcibiades died fighting with his mantle rolled round his left hand instead of a shield. The annexed woodcut exhibits a figure of Poseidon armed with the trident in his right hand, and having a chlamys to protect the left. It is taken from a medal which was struck in commemoration of a naval victory obtained by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and was evidently designed to express his sense of Poseidon's succour in the conflict. When Artemis goes to the chase, as she does not require her mantle for purposes of defence, she draws it from behind over her shoulders, and twists it round her waist, so that the belt of

Chlamys. (Poseidon from a coin, and Artemis from a statue in the Vatican.)

her quiver passes across it, as shown in the statues of this goddess in the Vatican (see woodcut).

It appears from the bas-reliefs on marble vases that dancers took hold of one another by the chlamys, as the modern Greeks still do by their scarves or handkerchiefs, instead of taking one another's hands.

Among the Romans the chlamys came more into use under the emperors. Caligula wore one enriched with gold (Suet. Calig. 19). [p. 1.417]Alexander Severus, when he was in the country or on an expedition, wore one dyed with the coccus (chlamyde coccinea, Lamprid. Al. Sev. 40 ; of. Matt. 26.28, 31).

[J.Y] [W.M.L]