Queen Hera, you who from heaven often look down upon your fragrant Lacinian shrine, accept this linen garment which Theophilis, daughter of Kleoche, wove for you with her noble daughter Nossis.
Anth. Pal. VI, 265

1Given the strong association of women and textiles, as evidenced for example by epigrams like that of the fourth-century author Nossis above, and the importance of woven garments in Greek society it is not surprising that deities were often the recipients of votive textiles, especially by female worshipers.1 One of the most enduring instances of this practice is the elaborate peplos presented to the goddess Athena at the Panathenaic festival of ancient Athens, a ceremony which is depicted for the first and possibly only time on the Parthenon. In the absence of the textiles themselves, texts and inscriptions offer considerable evidence for this votive practice. Less often cited are works of Greek art, which can expand our understanding of how textiles were used in a religious context. In what follows I address the contexts of textile offerings in an attempt to establish a typology of the many variables relating to these dedications, and then examine in greater detail some of the recent challenges to the communis opinio regarding the Panathenaic peplos.

2The association of women and textiles is as old as figurative and narrative art. One of the earliest images of a garbed female is the Lespugue ‘Venus’ from the Upper Paleolithic in France. Already chic 22,000 years ago she wears a string skirt carefully incised on the buttocks and thighs of the bone statuette. This non-utilitarian garment has been associated with the ‘mating girdles’ mentioned in the fourteenth book of the Iliad.2 In order to seduce Zeus, Hera dons her own girdle ‘fashioned with a hundred tassels’ and then proceeds to borrow Aphrodite’s presumably even more potent model.3 During the later Bronze Age in Greece there is a great deal of tantalizing evidence for rituals involving saffron dyes and special female garments. On Minoan Crete, for instance, the dress-shaped faience plaques from Knossos feature decoration in the form of a Crocus sativis, the source of saffron dye. Frescoes from Thera, notably those of the House of the Ladies at Akrotiri, portray a dressing ceremony involving either a goddess or a human priestess. Linear B tablets from Pylos and elsewhere record large teams of female wool workers with children as assistants.4 All these instances testify to the importance of textiles and their ritual associations in Bronze Age Greece.

3To take an example of one garment, the peplos, it is interesting to note the variety of purposes mentioned by Homer.5 In Book V of the Iliad (194) the war chariots of Lykaon are covered with peploi, while in Book XXIV (796) the funerary urn of Hektor is wrapped in a peplos. It can be draped on chairs (Od. VII, 96) and most often appears as an over-garment exclusively of women (Il. V, 315; Od. XVIII, 282). The most famous instance is the supplicatio in Book VI (Il. VI, 293-303) when the Trojan women led by Queen Hekabe offer an exquisite Sidonian robe, a peplos that ‘shone like a star’, to Athena in hopes of fending off the Greeks; it is laid on the lap of the statue of the goddess by the priestess Theano, but to no avail.6 Homer’s references to the peplos are interesting because some of the very same uses that he cites relate fairly closely to what art and archaeology have revealed about the contexts of dedicatory garments in later times.

Funerary

4There is considerable evidence for votive offerings to the heroized dead in the form of textiles which are distinct from the funeral shroud. The practice of draping a cinerary urn as mentioned by Homer is now confirmed in an Italic context at the site of Verucchio on the Adriatic coast near Rimini where the damp conditions of the late eighth- to seventh-century BC graves have preserved many of the textiles. Here in at least two instances the ossuaries of females were ‘dressed’ with a cloth, belt, and elaborate fibulae (Fig. 1).7 There are also historic instances of the dedication of garments to the heroized dead, as in the case of the Plataians. Thucydides8 records a speech by the representatives of Plataia after the surrender of their city to the Spartans in 427, in which they invoke the tombs of the Spartan soldiers who fell to the Persians in 479; they are honored every year with garments (esthêmasi) and other gifts.9 In classical Greece artistic evidence for clothing used as a post-funerary offering comes from Attic white-ground lekythoi where women are occasionally shown holding clumps of unfolded garments.10

5These, like the offerings of the Platiaians, may be slated to be burned at the burial site. Herodotos11 records the story of Melissa, the deceased wife of the tyrant Periander of Corinth, who demanded in a dream that her husband burn clothes on her behalf because the garments in which she was buried were not burned and so could not keep her warm in the underworld. At the end of Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Tauris12 Athena announces that Iphigeneia will die and be buried at Brauron and “they will dedicate adornment to you, finely-woven robes [agalma peplôn] which women who have died in childbirth leave in their homes.” In the context of Brauron it is interesting to note that among the vast array of dedicated garments listed in the inventories not one is called a peplos; can one thus assume that the peploi of the dead mothers-to-be dedicated were burned for Iphigeneia by their relatives and so do not appear in the official lists?

Theoxenia

6Just as in Homer fresh clothes are laid out for important guests after they have bathed, so the gods are received on earth ceremoniously with textile-draped seating. In Odyssey VIII, the palace servants prepare a hot bath for Odysseus and lay out gifts from the Phaiacians, which include clothing (esthêta, l. 440; further specified as a chlaina and a chiton at l. 455). The equivalent practice for the gods would be the theoxenia, a ritual in which stools, thrones or couches are set out for the reception of deities.13 The Roman version is better known in the ritual of the sellesturnium in which richly draped and cushioned thrones and chairs were set up for the gods to watch spectacles in their honor. Illustrations of theoxenia are rare and usually feature the Dioskouroi, as the hydria by the Kadmos Painter in Plovdiv where the central couch has numerous cushions as well as a richly decorated robe draped upon it.14 On a newly discovered but as yet unpublished

7Attic red-figure krater of ca. 460 BC attributed to the Niobid Painter in the Lamia Archaeological Museum there is also a couch with the Dioskouroi hovering above. However the scene includes an additional draped seat, a klismos (with sandaled human feet on a footstool but with no apparent body) at the left. A woman with scepter stands in attendance; so might this be a ritual honoring a third, possibly female deity as well as the two Dioskouroi? A red-figure chous of ca. 420 BC by the Meidias Painter (Fig. 2) may also represent a similar scene because of the draped klismos at the right with a similar footstool, holding two pairs of sandals. Here women are shown perfuming folded clothes which are suspended on a swing over smoldering twigs.15 Many of the ritual garments on this vase, of which there are at least five as well as two belts, are richly ornamented and clearly were lavish offerings. Because the vase is a chous the scene may represent some rite associated with the Anthesteria; if so then either the god Dionysos or his consort the basilinna (or both given the pairs of sandals) may be the recipients of the perfumed clothing. Although there is no textual evidence, it seems likely that the clothing used in these ceremonies was considered sacred property and was consecrated to the deity worshipped.

Kosmesis

8Images of gods, usually old statues of wood, were often draped with changeable garments in a ritual known as the kosmesis.16 The ancient olive-wood statue of Athena was clothed in the Panathenaic peplos, a ritual assigned to a hieratic clan of women known as the Praxiergidai, and took place at an ‘adorning festival’ known as the Kallynteria. The Brauron inventories mention three distinct statues of Artemis that are regularly draped with as many as five garments. The wardrobe of Samian Hera consisted of thirteen chitons, two chitoniskoi, four mitrai, eight veils, an apron and a hairnet as well as curtains and rugs.17 The most extensive visual evidence for this practice can be found on the so-called Lenaia vases, mostly Attic red-figure stamnoi. A pole-like idol of the god Dionysos was topped with a mask of the god and draped with one or more garments, thus creating a cult statue before which female adherents dance ecstatically and ladle out large portions of wine.18 This type of draped idol is peculiar to Dionysos as far as the evidence of vases is concerned and to a specific ritual, possibly some part of a bacchic festival which involved women only.

Thank offering

9As in most votive dedications there was a wide range of reasons for giving textiles as thank offerings to deities. For instance, there are dedications known as ‘retirement offerings’; Aristophanes Ploutos 19 relates how an aged blind man who recovered his sight dedicated his old cloak and shoes to Ploutos, now that he expects to be wealthy. The most complete evidence for women’s dedications of clothing as thank offerings can be found in the inventories of Brauron from the second half of the fourth century BC which remain unpublished, except for what is presumably a copy from the Acropolis in Athens.20 Women who were successful in childbirth dedicated their clothing to Artemis, and several garments were inscribed to the goddess. The extant inventories list 271 separate garments, of which there are 32 different types with some 80 descriptive terms. Much of this clothing is used, some in the form of rhakos, often interpreted as rags, and many finer pieces were housed in display boxes. Because these garments appear in various sizes they have been interpreted more broadly as thank offerings of all of life’s transitions, not just childbirth.21

10Visual evidence for this practice is now available on the unique votive relief from ancient Achinos found in 1979 and dated to ca 300 BC (Fig. 3). The goddess Artemis stands at the far right with her torch while a diminutive servant leads a bull to her altar and a nurse holds forth a small baby. A young skaphephoros carries a tray of fruit and cakes, and at the end is the mother, heavily veiled and holding incense. Along the top of the relief hangs an array of garments: a pair of shoes, a sleeved chiton, two fringed himatia, one or two fringed belts, and a sleeveless tunic.22 The variety of garments recalls the Brauron inventories, and as at Brauron some sort of thanksgiving rite for successful childbirth is portrayed.23

Propitiation

11The classic example of propitiation is the scene in the Iliad24 in which Athena is supplicated by the Trojan women for success in battle. A similar episode occurs in Statius’ Thebaid25: at a critical stage of Argos’ war against Thebes the Argive women dedicate an elaborate peplos (peplum) to Hera which is put on her cult statue.26 In both instances Hera is no doubt invoked as a protectress of family and marriage. Visual evidence comes from the terracotta plaques of Lokroi where there appear to be two distinctive types of textile dedications.27 The first shows a priestess in procession with a younger female carrying a folded textile on her head, usually on a footstool-like object. Given that the recipient of the dedication is Persephone it is thought that these textile offerings are being made by brides on the verge of marriage as a propitiatory rite. These textiles may then be put away in wooden chests as a woman does — before the throne of the goddess.28

Peplophoria

12Very different from these plaques is the pinax with a multi-figured procession: four very young girls carry a peplos-like garment with an obvious neck hole as they follow a veiled priestess (Fig. 4).29 This is presumably a newly woven garment, perhaps by specially chosen women and is civic in nature rather than personal. Distinct from the dressing rituals is this ceremonial presentation of a specially woven, often officially ordered garment, most often a peplos. One of the earliest textual references to such a ceremony may be the seventh-century poem by Alkman30 in which a chorus of young girls presents a robe (pharos) to Orthia in Sparta. While clothing cult statues is common in many areas, the weaving of special garments for statues as a cult ritual is rare. Spartan women annually wove a chiton for the bronze statue of Apollo at Amyklai,31 and the sixteen women of Elis wove the peplos every four years for Olympian Hera.32 The Panathenaic peplos is the classic example. It was commissioned by the state, woven by especially chosen females, and carried to the Acropolis in a grand procession. At some point it was prominently hung from the mast of a special ship which was wheeled in the quadrennial procession.

13In addition to the primary textual and pictorial evidence there are secondary indications of textile dedications. The presence of belts, stick pins and fibulae as votives could indicate the presence of garments to which these metal objects were once attached. Spindles, spindle whorls and loom weights might originally have had partially worked wool, woolen threads, or uncompleted weaving attached when they were dedicated.33 Finally textual and archaeological evidence for special structures where weaving took place can indicate the practice of textile dedication. For instance, the ‘édifice carré’ at Foce del Sele has been recently identified as a special building where young girls produced woven garments for Hera.34 Additionally certain goddesses were recipients of dedications of wool-working equipment like the epinetron; of the 68 extant epinetra, 24 have been found in sanctuaries of female deities, with Artemis receiving the majority (14, or 20 if those from the Acropolis were dedicated to her rather than Athena).35

14In analyzing these various textile dedications in ancient Greek religious practice, it is clear that a wide range of offering practices was possible: votives could be simple cloth or elaborate garments; new, worn or even ragged; folded and stored in boxes or hung up on display; official state donations or private dedications; and, finally, a variety of deities could receive them, but Artemis and Hera are the most common. Some dedications were actually involuntary as in the case of women who ignored the sumptuary laws and wore their finery into the sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoria in Arcadia.36 Donors were primarily women, but men and children also made textile dedications.

15The Panathenaic peplos in particular has been the subject of several new interpretations: iconographical, philological, and epigraphical in nature. I begin with the iconographical because it is the easiest to refute, namely Joan Connelly’s theory that the famous scene in the center of the east frieze of the Parthenon (Fig. 5) is not the peplos ceremony as it has been identified since Stuart and Revett’s publication of 1787.37 Her suggestion that the scene represents the sacrifice of the daughter of Erechtheus is based on her identification of the child interacting with the priest as a girl and the cloth as a funeral shroud. However the child is most certainly a boy — not because of the usual arguments about anatomy, hairdo or Venus rings on the neck, but because of his garment which does not reach the ground as all female garments do in Greek relief sculpture of this period. He is the assistant to the priest and in my opinion they are refolding the peplos after its successful presentation to Athena with the other gods seated in a semicircle watching the ceremony.38

16Second there is the theory of John Mansfield, reprised by E.J.W. Barber in the Goddess and Polis exhibition catalogue of 1992, that there are actually two peploi — a woolen one woven by specially chosen girls and women, and a much larger tapestry woven by professional male weavers.39 It strikes me as inherently illogical that a term which is so consistently used for the Panathenaic peplos in the texts and inscriptions — and avoided altogether in the accounts of Brauron — would have two referents. On special occasions there may have been more elaborate peploi especially in the Hellenistic period, but I question whether a ritual would have two distinct incarnations.

17This leads to the latest challenge, i.e. to the traditional view of this ritual as age-old, namely Noel Robertson’s recent article on the Praxiergidai decree.40 Dated to ca 470-60 BC in IG I³, this decree is normally read as reinstating the ancestral rights of the clan of the Praxiergidai to dress the statue with the peplos. However Robertson argues that it in fact establishes Apollo’s blessing on a new custom — that of presenting Athena with a peplos. So the ceremony could be a much later development of the 460s, rather than the age-old custom we have always assumed. Support for this somewhat radical idea comes from the pictorial evidence for the Panathenaia — none of which depicts anything resembling a garment until the east frieze of the Parthenon was carved in the 440s.

18The Attic black-figure band cup formerly in the Niarchos collection supports his point; here many particulars of the procession are shown but not a peplos.41 Further confirmation of his reading may come from the frieze itself.

19Although religious processions are a common theme in Greek art, what is anomalous about this one is the large number of women (29) at the east end. While women can appear in scenes of sacrifice, it is usually only the basket-bearer or kanephoros at the head of the procession.42 On the Parthenon’s east frieze there are two distinct types of women distinguished by their dress: young women with bare arms, a back-pinned mantle, and long hair steaming down their backs; and presumably older, more modest women, wrapped in himatia, with their hair tied up — a hairstyle and costume of married women. It appears that there are exactly ten of these married women — six on the south side and four on the north. This number and placement exactly correspond with the so-called eponymous heroes on the frieze — those draped males who stand between the procession and the gods. One possible conclusion from this correspondence is that the women represent the female counterpart of the eponymoi, i.e. each stands for one of the ten Attic tribes. There is no textual reference for such ‘eponymai’ although we know that the Sixteen Women of Elis represented their cities when conducting the Heraia festival held every four years at Olympia. Why would the artist want to represent ten tribal women? One possible explanation is a piece of legislation proposed by Perikles in 450 BC, just before work began on the Parthenon, namely his famous law on citizenship. This law established a new prerequisite for Athenian citizenship; one had to have not only an Athenian citizen father, but also a citizen mother, i.e. a woman who was the daughter of an Athenian citizen. This law considerably enhanced the importance of Athenian women, such that they would figure prominently on the temple of the city’s patron deity.43

20What does this have to do with Robertson’s theory of the peplos? If the Parthenon frieze is deliberately codifying, so to speak, new policies like the citizenship law, then it may also be serving to legitimate the new ritual of the peplos dedication to Athena. It is not beyond the Athenians to invent traditions, as they did with their hero Theseus by adding youthful deeds to his previously limited repertoire. And so it could well be that the Panathenaic peplos, which we think of as an element going back to the beginning of the festival in 566, was in fact a later but nonetheless brilliant addition. As a no-longer-contemporary mode of dress except for ritual occasions, it had become a symbol of Hellenic identity, and as such could have been an appropriate gift for Athena.44

21This inquiry is inevitably highly speculative because we are dealing with a class of evidence that no longer exists except in texts. But I hope I have demonstrated that artistic representations add considerably to our understanding of the actual offerings, and may even help to date their appearance as part of famous rituals like the Panathenaia.

22In the end we are still left with a strong association of women and textiles in ancient Greek cult.