Ancient Greek Costume

In Ancient Greece, lead male characters in the Greek theater also had to accentuate their overall costume to make a statement with their audience. They often had to wear shoes with ‘platform’ heels to give themselves extra height. In fact, these kinds of shoes were a part of the costume of ancient Greek men, who wanted to avoid the dirt of the streets. Another reason Greek men preferred platform shoes to be an important part of their costume was that young men in particular wanted to attract attention.

The knowledge about ancient Greek costumes for men would not be complete without a mention of their war ‘helmets’, the most recognizable part of a Greek warrior’s attire. However, ‘Greek helmets’ is not an easy accessory to be described. Unlike the costumes, traditionally, there is no specific helmet to signify the Greek culture. These helmets were of different kinds, namely – Trojan, Spartan and Corinthian. Out of these, one of the most admired helmets by collectors is the ‘Trojan war’ helmets.

Though the helmets of these ancient Greek men were of different designs, there was an underlying similarity too. The chief difference, however, which differentiated one helmet from the others was – the color of the helmet and the plume. Most of the Trojan helmets of Greeks were in colors like – silver, black, and bronze. Some of them also had a war paint camouflage color. Orange, red, and black were the popular colors of the plumes.

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!

Ancient Greece had many religious figures. Each of these was associated with a distinct part of the earth’s resources. They were guardians of these parts. For instance, there was a god associated with wars and also for daily work such as cleansing and even manufacturing.

The most authoritative and prominent not to mention well-known deity was Apollo – the Greek god of the sun. He was the son of the king of gods – Zeus (ruler of Mt. Olympus and God of sky and thunder) and mythical figure Leto, his twin sister was Artemis, deity of hunting and later the deity of the moon. Zeus is depicted in various sculptures as bearded, properly draped in the ancient Greek costume of a cloak – like a Roman Toga and bearing a thunderbolt.

Apollo on the other hand is portrayed in most of the sculptures and in scriptures in his ancient Greek costume of the cloak concealing his divine nakedness. Apollo controlled many of the aspects of Greek life such as including medicine, healing, music, poetry, archery and even plague. Both Delos and Delphi were devoted to worshiping him. He was also the god of migrants with the divine powers of keeping a watch over them and was the guardian of herds and flocks. Apollo’s many different aspects were worshiped alternately in different areas of Greece.