#1. Let's begin at the beginning.

"My name is Socrates.
You probably havn't heard
of me..."

Obviously, you are wondering why the very first post of this blog/class was of the German Men's Gymnastics team.  Well, it's because they were at the Olympics!  The Olympics are one of the many many things which originated in Greece which we still do today.  Basically, Greek and Hellenic culture is where Western Civilization (aka thought, theory, writings, history) begins!


 (Plus, that second dude has an amazing haircut.  Seriously, look at it:

There is so much gel in his hair he totally needs that sports drink
in order to have the strength to move his eyebrows.)

Anyway, Greece.  Somewhere between 750 and 150 B.C. they invented the following things:
1. Democracy
2. Goverment divided into Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches
3. Philosophy
4. Geometry
5. Astronomy
6. Scientific thought
7. Sports
8. Plays
9. War Strategies
10. Atomic Theory
11. Sewers
12. Steam Engines
13. Music Education

Any of that stuff sound familiar?  Yes? No?  Okay, well, in the immortal words of Ruby Rhod..

WHO CARES!!!

Right. Fashion.  We are here to understand these people, this culture, and this history according to how people dress. So, let's look at a Greek.

Boom, baby!

That's right, this is a Greek.  And, no, he has nothing else on but a wool blanket.  This particular garment is called a chlamys. As you can imagine, young fit dudes wore them.  Older rich dudes wore this:

"What up? I'm Sophocles and I'm rocking this
wool or linen himation."

And guys who had to get work done wore these:

Admit it. You are very pleased he has
more clothing on.

This is called an exhomis and it's what farmers and athletes and sailors and miners and just about everybody who worked for a living wore.   Also, if you untwist the shoulder there, it magically turns into a

Chiton!

Which is what soldiers wore under their armor

"No, my chiton is not too short.  It's totally just barely
managing to cover my junk.  You can even see the blue edging
my mom wove into it!"

and, really, is what EVERYONE wore, though women wore them longer and in lots of lovely colors. Like this:

"I'm so pretty, oh so pretty..."

"Actually, MY dress is called a peplos because I stiched
up the sides. But, same thing, really...."

"Why am I the only one here wearing a Doric chiton??" - Cross-looking woman in the middle

Some of these ladies look sort of like men...

If it was cold, women also wore himation as cloaks but if you were a married lady, you got to wear it over your head.

"Don't flirt with me,  young man,
as you can see I'm totally married."

So, you've seen what Greeks wore.  What does this tell us, if anything, about Greeks and their culture?

Well, how about "It must not be super cold in Greece."  Or, "The Greeks aren't really into tailoring."   Or, "They have some very minimal underwear requirements."  Or, "Wow! Everyone is either barefoot or wearing flip-flops!"  Or, "That's a lot of scratchy wool to wrap around oneself."  And those are just the first five things I could think of.  I'm certain you can think of several more.

What is really interesting here is the matter of scale.  These few styles (chiton (peplos), himation, exhomis, chlamys) form the basis of fashion for six hundred years of Greek culture.  If I asked you to find photos which represent the fashion of the U.S. for one hundred years it would take a lot more than ten photos.  I mean, sure, the ladies kept finding new ways to drape stuff but they didn't suddenly decide to wear corsets or johdpurs.  This sameness indicates that Greek culture, like Egyptian culture, was very very stable.   Sure there were wars and storms and arguments, inventions and discoveries, but they didn't have very much impact on how people lived their lives or what was expected of an individual.

So, let's talk about that.  If you have ever read the Iliad  (and you totally should because it's really interesting) you will learn of several of the Greek values which may or may not be different than what we might believe in today.  Specifically the principles of:

Kleos- renown or glory

Xenia- hospitality

Arête- excellence or virtue

Oikos or oikia- household (or family, as there was no Greek word for family)

Philia- friendship (or love of friendship)


There are a lot more values but the Iliad specifically talks about these.   Arete is being the very best you can be, and being the very best YOU you can be -- not the best team or the best tribe or the best family, but YOU.  So, it's a culture which encourages individuality.. just like us!   Kleos is reputation, glory, or being really famous and you gain it by dying in exciting ways.

You know, like this guy.

So... kind of like us.  Xenia is always, always offering hospitality to people who need help.  This means dinner, a place to sleep, safety and that offer is in one's Oikos, which is the house where your mom and dad and sister and brother and 37 slaves and the dog live.  Not like my house.

These values don't seem so alien or different and they don't seem like they would keep fashion from changing much in 600 years.  But, Arete is the key.  You see, the Greeks believed that being the very best YOU meant being as smart as you could be, as skilled as you could be, as ethical as you could be, as powerful as you could be, and... having the very best body you could have.  Perhaps you can see that if they believed "the better the body, the better the person" was true then "the worse the body, the worse the person" was probably also true.

Which WE totally never do.... oh, wait...

So clothing which was flattered and displayed to the naked body was a good plan.   Clothing which allowed one to break into rounds of spontaneous wrestling matches with your friends was a pretty good idea.  And clothing which easily accomodated your (no doubt) soon to be bulging muscles was pretty handy.

"See?  This outfit makes total sense now, doesn't it?"

Now, let's take a moment.  Please go to the hyperlink on the word Oikos and read then entire wiki entry.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.


Did you read it?  All of it?  The facts listed about home life in that entry probably also had a huge impact on the lack of fashion progress.   Those facts will be featured on your quiz.  So go back and read it because I'm pretty sure you skipped it.



Alright, that's it for the Greeks.  I have brought up a few ideas about their clothing and what it might represent but yall probably have more/better insights.  I look forward to discussing them in our facebook group.  But, first, please click the link below for your quiz about the content of this lecture.  :-)


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGc0VEpjY25kRXhzQXV0RWZjd2xuSmc6MQ#gid=0