Ancient Greek Costume

The Greeks liked wearing gold wreaths as decorative headdresses, ornately adorned with flowers, acorns, foliage or images. With jewelry designs and techniques becoming advanced, the Greeks made a laurel headdress to be worn as a crown of honor. It represented Apollo, the god of divination and intelligence.

From its wide popularity in adorning ancient Greek jewelry to the modern times, the purple richness of amethyst has made it the most loved gemstone for decorating unique jewelry pieces. This purple gemstone has also been very much sought-after by people in authoritative positions. It was believed that amethyst symbolized the spirit of God.

Complemented wonderfully well with images of the Greek Gods like - Eros, Nike, Artemis, and Aphrodite, all pieces of ancient Greek jewelry were explicitly unique. Some excellent jewelry pieces, made of beads, were in the shape of animals too. Pendant earrings bejeweled with Nike, Eros or dove figurines became an accepted fashion statement of those times.

Ornamental pendants, shaped like the classic Greek two-handled vase, were decorated with enamel or gemstones. These wonderful pendants were hung by a rosette. Not just pendants, chains were popular also. Spherical or wide chains of gold were worn as necklaces, with clasps of animal heads or dolphins. The superbly crafted Greek gold rings were set with gemstones.

Ancient Greek jewelry commonly consisted of gold beads beautifully shaped like shells, flowers and even beetles. The fascination for jewelry in ancient Greece is quite evident from the excavations of beautiful necklaces and earrings from various sites, especially in the northern part of Greece.

The Greeks were great enthusiasts of jewelry and wore both simple as well as complex pieces. For making their jewelry items exclusive, the Greeks mostly used gemstones, the common ones being - emeralds, garnets, pearls and amethysts. Colored glass stones and enamel stones were also created by the Greek craftsmen.

There was also a period in Greek history, when the focus from the hairstyles went into hibernation. Even the use of wigs became less common. Later, however, with the advancement in technology an ever increasing number of men and women started going to the hair dressers, in order to bring an absolutely new look to their personality, via the hairstyle route.

The ‘comparatively modern’ of the ancient Greek hairstyles included ‘crimping’ – a style in which waves were produced in the hair, using a hot iron. Such a style was in vogue for a long time in ancient Greece. Even in the present times, crimping is the most chosen hairstyle for young girls, especially if they desire a unique look of Greek hairstyles!