Ancient Greek Costume

Apollo was a patron of Delphi. This made him an oracle and he was thus able to speak to mortals and tell them the future. His position diving prophecy at Delphi made Apollo one of the most important deity figures of Olympus. There are various scripts describing the oracle and pictures depicting the followers at the oracle in their flowing ancient Greek costumes. The sects that followed were quite diverse, which was odd because he had two areas that were devoted to him – Delos and Delphi.

Often, shrines of each cult would be found in the same city! . Today, supporters of revivalist Hellenic polytheism still revere Apollo. The most common symbols associated with Apollo were the lyre and the bow, along with occasional depictions of a plectrum and the “sacrificial tripod”, representing his powers of prophecy.

Another very important attribute to Apollo were The Pythean Games that were held at Delphi every four years. The crowns given to the winners were made out of laurel bay plant. This was a symbol sacred to Apollo since he was born under a palm in Delos. These games were the forerunner to our present day Olympics! It would seem strange to see those games with the participants sporting the ancient Greek costumes rather than the sports wear we see today.

Greeks were very conscious of the human body and displayed it to the best advantage. Rather than conceal, these Ancient Greek Costumes, artistically showed-off the human form.

These may seem rather vulgar in the present day and rather impractical too but they were in vogue at that time. Some of the outfits are the chiton (unisex), exomis (males), tunic (males), himation (males), Doric (females) and ionic (females).

Though most of the dresses were drapes cloths, it is known that the Greeks definitely knew how to make sleeves. However, since normal straight sleeves were considered less aesthetic, bare arms were preferred.

A cursory glance at ancient Greek costume helps people to reflect on the past so as to have a deeper understanding of the present and the future. Greek culture is a subject that is studied in depth as Greece is considered one of the greatest civilizations of ancient times. Hence, the subject of ancient Greek costume also becomes extremely important.

The remains of the city-states of Greece have been researched to know about the every day life of Greeks, from carvings, tombs and ruins. Greek costumes, by and large, were fairly simple and light. The reason behind this probably was the hot climate Greece.

Greeks mostly preferred loose and comfortable costumes. Ancient Greek costumes were mostly white. For colors, they dyed the fabrics in bright colors or bleached them. The most typical of costume consisted of different pieces of the ‘chiton’ – a long square costume, with pins attached around arms to make sleeves and also a belt. For summers, the costume was in linen, and for winter it was woolen. A chiton was a unisex costume, similar to the tunics of the present day. This ancient Greek costume was decorated with embroidery to indicate the wearer’s city-state.