Part 18

The beard was carefully attended to by the Greeks. The barber's shop, with its talkative inmate, was not only frequented by those requiring the services of the barber in cutting the hair, shaving, cutting the nails and corns, and tearing out small hairs, but it was also, as Plutarch says, a symposion without wine, where political and local news were discussed. Alkiphron depicts a Greek barber in the following words: "You see how the d----d barber in yon street has treated me; the talker, who puts up the Brundisian looking-glass, and makes his knives to clash harmoniously. I went to him to be shaved; he received me politely, put me in a high chair, enveloped me in a clean towel, and stroked the razor gently down my cheek, so as to remove the thick hair. But this was a malicious trick of his. He did it partly, not all over the chin; some places he left rough, others he made smooth without my noticing it." After the time of Alexander the Great, a barber's business became lucrative, owing to the custom of wearing a full beard being abandoned, notwithstanding the remonstrances of several states.[22] In works of art, particularly in portrait statues, the beard is always treated as an individual characteristic. It is mostly arranged in graceful locks, and covers the chin, lips and cheeks, without a separation being made between whiskers and moustache. Only in archaic renderings the wedge-like beard is combed in long wavy lines, and the whiskers are strictly parted from the moustache. As an example we quote the nobly formed head of Zeus crowned with the stephane in the Talleyrand collection. The usual color of the hair being dark, fair hair was considered a great beauty. Homer gives yellow locks to Menelaos, Achilles, and Meleagros; and Euripides describes Menelaos and Dionysos as fair-haired.

The head-dress of women was in simple taste. Hats were not worn, as a rule, because, at least in Athens, the appearance of women in the public street was considered improper, and therefore happened only on exceptional occasions. On journeys women wore a light broad-brimmed petasos as a protection from the sun. With a Thessalian hat of this kind Ismene appears in "Oedipus in Kolonos." The head-dress of Athenian ladies at home and in the street consisted, beyond the customary veil, chiefly of different contrivances for holding together their plentiful hair. We mentioned before, that the himation was sometimes pulled over the back of the head like a veil. But at a very early period Greek women wore much shorter or longer veils, which covered the face up to the eyes, and fell over the neck and back in large folds, so as to cover, if necessary, the whole upper part of the body. The care bestowed on the hair was naturally still greater amongst women than amongst men. Cut shows a number of heads of Athenian women, taken from an old painting of Pompeii. These, and the numerous heads represented in sculptures and gems, give an idea of the exquisite taste of these head-dresses. At the same time, it must be confessed that most modern fashions, even the ugly ones, have their models, if not in Greek, at least in Roman antiquity. The combing of the hair over the back in wavy lines was undoubtedly much in favor. A simple ribbon tied round the head, in that case, connected the front with the back hair. This arrangement we meet with in the maidens of the Parthenon frieze and in a bust of Niobe. On older monuments, for instance, in the group of the Graces on the triangular altar in the Louvre, the front hair is arranged in small ringlets, while the back hair partly falls smoothly over the neck, and partly is made into long curls hanging down to the shoulders. It was also not unusual to comb back the front hair over the temples and ears, and tie it, together with the back hair, into a graceful knot. Here, also, the above-mentioned ribbon was used. It consisted of a stripe of cloth or leather, frequently adorned, where it rested on the forehead, with a plaque of metal formed like a frontal. This stephane appears on monuments mostly in the hair of goddesses; the ribbon belonging to it, in that case, takes the form of a broad metal circle destined no more to hold together, but to decorate the hair. This is the case in a bust of Here in the Villa Ludovisi, in the statue of the same goddess in the Vatican, and in a statue of Aphrodite found at Capua. Besides this another ornamented tie of cloth or leather was used by the Greeks, broad in the centre and growing narrower towards both ends. Its shape had great similarity to the sling. It was either put with its broader side on the front of the head, the ends, with ribbons tied to them, being covered by the thick black hair, or _vice versa_; in which latter case the ends were tied on the forehead in an elaborate knot. The net, and after it the kerchief, were developed from the simple ribbon, in the same manner as straps on the feet gradually became boots.

[Illustration: HAIR-DRESS. (_From Pompeii._)]

The kekryphalos proper consists of a net-like combination of ribbon and gold thread, thrown over the back hair to prevent it from dropping. The large tetradrachmai of Syrakuse, bearing the signature of the engraver, Kimon, show a beautiful head of Arethusa adorned with the kekryphalos. More frequent is the coif-like kekryphalos covering the whole hair, or only the back hair, and tied into a knot at the top.

The modifications of the sakkos, and the way of its being tied, are chiefly illustrated by vase-paintings. At the present day the Greek women of Thessaly and the Isle of Chios wear a head-dress exactly resembling the antique sakkos. The acquaintance of the Greeks with the curling-iron and cosmetic mysteries, such as oil and pomatum, can be proved both by written evidence and pictures. It quite tallied with the æsthetical notions of the Greeks to shorten the forehead by dropping the hair over it, many examples of which, in pictures of both men and women, are preserved to us.

We conclude our remarks about dress with the description of some ornaments, the specimens of which in Greek graves and in sculptural imitations are numerous. In Homer the wooers try to gain the favor of Penelope with golden breastpins, agraffes, ear-rings, and chains. Hephaistos is, in the same work, mentioned as the artificer of beautiful rings and hair-pins. The same ornaments we meet with again at a later period as important articles of female dress.

Many preserved specimens show the great skill of Greek goldsmiths' breastpins. Hair-pins, in our sense, and combs for parting and holding up the hair were unknown to the Greeks. The double or simple comb of Greek ladies, made of box-wood, ivory, or metal, was used only for combing the hair. The back hair was prevented from dropping by means of long hair-pins, the heads of which frequently consisted of a graceful piece of sculpture. Well known are the hair-pins adorned with a golden cicada which, in Solon's time, were used by both Athenian men and women for the fastening of the krobylos.

It was the custom of the Greeks to adorn their heads on festive occasions with wreaths and garlands. Thus adorned the bridegroom led home the bride. Flowers full of symbolic meaning were offered on the altars of the gods, and the topers at carousals were crowned with wreaths of myrtle, roses, and violets, the latter being the favorite flower with the Athenians. The flower-market of Athens was always supplied with garlands to twine round the head and the upper part of the body; for the latter also was adorned with garlands. Crowns consisting of other flowers, and leaves of the ivy and silver-poplar, are frequently mentioned. Wreaths also found a place in the serious business of life. They were awarded to the victors in the games; the archon wore a myrtle-wreath as the sign of his dignity, as did also the orator while speaking to the people from the tribune.

The crowning with flowers was a high honor to Athenian citizens--awarded, for instance, to Perikles, but refused to Miltiades. The head and bier of the dead were also crowned with fresh wreaths of myrtle and ivy.

The luxury of later times changed the wreaths of flowers for golden ones, with regard to the dead of the richer classes. Wreaths made of thin gold have repeatedly been found in graves. The barrows of the old Pantikapaion have yielded several beautiful wreaths of ivy and ears of corn; a gold imitation of a crown of myrtle has been found in a grave in Ithaka. Other specimens from Greek and Roman graves are preserved in our museums. A golden crown of Greek workmanship, found at Armento, a village of the Basilicata (at present in Munich), is particularly remarkable. A twig of oak forms the ground, from among the thin golden leaves of which spring forth asters with chalices of blue enamel, convolvulus, narcissus, ivy, roses, and myrtle, gracefully intertwined. On the upper bend of the crown is the image of a winged goddess, from the head of which, among pieces of grass, rises the slender stalk of a rose. Four naked male genii and two draped female ones, floating over the flowers, point towards the goddess, who stands on a pedestal bearing an inscription.

Greek, particularly Athenian, women carried a sunshade, or employed slaves to hold it over them. In the Panathenaic procession even the daughters of metoikoi had to perform this service. Such sunshades, which, like our own, could be shut by means of wires, we often see depicted on vases and Etruscan mirrors. This form was undoubtedly the most common one. The cap-like sunshade painted on a skyphos, which a Silenus, instead of a servant, holds over a dignified lady walking in front of him, is undoubtedly intended as a parody, perhaps copied from the scene of a comedy. In vase paintings we also see frequently the leaf-like painted fan in the hands of women.

[Illustration: TOILET ARTICLES FOUND AT POMPEII.]

The above articles were in good preservation when found. _a_, _l_, _n_, are hand-mirrors; _m_, is a wall-mirror; _c_, toilet-box, made of ivory and beautifully carved; _d_ and _k_, bronze combs; _i_, fine comb; _b_, ear and tooth-pick; _f_, pin-box, with glass and steel pins; _h_, salve-box; _g_, hair-pins made of ivory and gold; _e_, is a powder or paint-box.

Of the secrets of Greek _toilette_ we will only disclose the fact that ladies knew the use of paint. The white they used consisted of white-lead; their reds were made either of red minium or of a root. This unwholesome fashion of painting was even extended to the eyebrows, for which black color was used, made either of pulverized antimony or of fine soot.

The mirrors of the Greeks consisted of circular pieces of polished bronze, either without a handle or with one richly adorned. Frequently a cover, for the reflecting surface, was added. The Etruscan custom of engraving figures on the back of the mirror or the cover seems to have been rare among the Greeks, to judge, at least, from the numerous specimens of mirrors found in Greek graves. Characteristic of these are, on the other hand, the tasteful handles, representing mostly Aphrodite, as in a manner the ideal of a beautifully adorned woman. These hand-mirrors frequently occur in vase paintings, particularly in those containing bathing utensils.

The carrying of a stick seems to have been a common custom. It is mostly of great length, with a crutched handle; young Athenian dandies may have used shorter walking-sticks. The first-mentioned sticks seem to have been used principally for leaning upon in standing still, as is indicated by frequent representations in pictures.

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CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS; CONTRACTS, DEEDS, ETC.

Truth or justice was thought to be the main cardinal virtue among the Egyptians, inasmuch as it relates more particularly to others; prudence, temperance, and fortitude being relative qualities, and tending chiefly to the immediate benefit of the individual who possesses them. It was, therefore, with great earnestness that they inculcated the necessity of fully appreciating it; and falsehood was not only considered disgraceful, but when it entailed an injury on any other person was punishable by law.

A calumniator of the dead was condemned to a severe punishment; and a false accuser was doomed to the same sentence which would have been awarded to the accused, if the offense had been proved against him; but to maintain a falsehood by an oath was deemed the blackest crime, and one which, from its complicated nature, could be punished by nothing short of death. For they considered that it involved two distinct crimes--a contempt for the gods, and a violation of faith towards man; the former the direct promoter of every sin, the latter destructive of all those ties which are most essential for the welfare of society.

The willful murder of a freeman, or even of a _slave_, was punished with death, from the conviction that men ought to be restrained from the commission of sin, not on account of any distinction of station in life, but from the light in which they viewed the crime itself; while at the same time it had the effect of showing that if the murder of a slave was deemed an offense deserving of so severe a punishment, they ought still more to shrink from the murder of one who was a compatriot and a free-born citizen.

In this law we observe a scrupulous regard to justice and humanity, and have an unquestionable proof of the great advancement made by the Egyptians in the most essential points of civilization. Indeed, the Egyptians considered it so heinous a crime to deprive a man of life, that to be the accidental witness of an attempt to murder, without endeavoring to prevent it, was a capital offense, which could only be palliated by bringing proofs of inability to act.

With the same spirit they decided that to be present when any one inflicted a personal injury on another, without interfering, was tantamount to being a party, and was punishable according to the extent of the assault; and every one who witnessed a robbery was bound either to arrest, or, if that was out of his power, to lay an information, and to prosecute the offenders; and any neglect on this score being proved against him, the delinquent was condemned to receive a stated number of stripes, and to be kept without food for three whole days.

Although, in the case of murder, the Egyptian law was inexorable and severe, the royal prerogative might be exerted in favor of a culprit, and the punishment was sometimes commuted by a mandate from the king.

Sabaco, indeed, during the fifty years of his reign, "made it a rule not to punish his subjects with death," whether guilty of murder or any other capital offence, but, "according to the magnitude of their crimes, he condemned the culprits to raise the ground about the town to which they belonged. By these means the situation of the different cities became greatly elevated above the reach of the inundation, even more than in the time of Sesostris;" and either on account of a greater proportion of criminals, or from some other cause, the mounds of Bubastis were raised considerably higher than those of any other city.

The same laws that forbade a master to punish a slave with death took from a father every right over the life of his offspring; and the Egyptians deemed the murder of a child an odious crime, that called for the direct interposition of justice. They did not, however, punish it as a capital offence, since it appeared inconsistent to take away life from one who had given it to the child, but preferred inflicting such a punishment as would induce grief and repentance. With this view they ordained that the corpse of the deceased should be fastened to the neck of its parent, and that he should be obliged to pass three whole days and nights in its embrace, under the surveillance of a public guard.

But parricide was visited with the most cruel of chastisements; and conceiving, as they did, that the murder of a parent was the most unnatural of crimes, they endeavored to prevent its occurrence by the marked severity with which it was avenged. The criminal was, therefore, sentenced to be lacerated with sharpened reeds, and, after being thrown on thorns, he was burned to death.

When a woman was guilty of a capital offence, and judgment had been passed upon her, they were particularly careful to ascertain if the condemned was in a state of pregnancy; in which case her punishment was deferred till after the birth of the child, in order that the innocent might not suffer with the guilty, and thus the father be deprived of that child to which he had at least an equal right.

But some of their laws regarding the female sex were cruel and unjustifiable; and even if, which is highly improbable, they succeeded by their severity in enforcing chastity, and in putting an effectual stop to crime, yet the punishment rather reminds us of the laws of a barbarous people than of a wise and civilized state. A woman who had committed adultery was sentenced to lose her nose, upon the principle that, being the most conspicuous feature, and the chief, or, at least, an indispensable, ornament of the face, its loss would be most severely felt, and be the greatest detriment to her personal charms; and the man was condemned to receive a bastinado of one thousand blows. But if it was proved that force had been used against a free woman, he was doomed to a cruel mutilation.

The object of the Egyptian laws was to preserve life, and to reclaim an offender. Death took away every chance of repentance, it deprived the country of his services, and he was hurried out of the world when least prepared to meet the ordeal of a future state. They, therefore, preferred severe punishments, and, except in the case of murder, and some crimes which appeared highly injurious to the community, it was deemed unnecessary to sacrifice the life of an offender.

In military as well as civil cases, minor offences were generally punished with the stick; a mode of chastisement still greatly in vogue among the modern inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, and held in such esteem by them, that convinced of (or perhaps by) its efficacy, they relate "its descent from heaven as a blessing to mankind."

If an Egyptian of the present day has a government debt or tax to pay, he stoutly persists in his inability to obtain the money, till he has withstood a certain number of blows, and considers himself compelled to produce it; and the ancient inhabitants, if not under the rule of their native princes, at least in the time of the Roman emperors, gloried equally in the obstinacy they evinced, and the difficulty the governors of the country experienced in extorting from them what they were bound to pay; whence Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, "an Egyptian blushes if he can not show numerous marks on his body that evince his endeavors to evade the duties."

The bastinado was inflicted on both sexes, as with the Jews. Men and boys were laid prostrate on the ground, and frequently held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was administered; but women, as they sat, received the stripes on their back, which was also inflicted by the hand of a man. Nor was it unusual for the superintendents to stimulate laborers to their work by the persuasive powers of the stick, whether engaged in the field or in handicraft employments; and boys were sometimes beaten without the ceremony of prostration, the hands being tied behind their back while the punishment was applied.

The character of some of the Egyptian laws was quite consonant with the notions of a primitive age. The punishment was directed more

## particularly against the offending member; and adulterators of money,

falsifiers of weights and measures, forgers of seals or signatures, and scribes who altered any signed document by erasures or additions, without the authority of the parties, were condemned to lose both their hands.

But their laws do not seem to have sanctioned the gibbet, or the exposure of the body of an offender; for the conduct of Rhampsinitus, in the case of the robbery of his treasure, is mentioned by Herodotus as a singular mode of discovering an accomplice, and not as an ordinary punishment; if, indeed, the whole story be not the invention of a Greek _cicerone_.

Thefts, breach of trust, and petty frauds were punished with the bastinado; but robbery and house-breaking were sometimes considered capital crimes, and deserving of death; as is evident from the conduct of the thief when caught by the trap in the treasury of Rhampsinitus, and from what Diodorus states respecting Actisanes.

This monarch, instead of putting robbers to death, instituted a novel mode of punishing them, by cutting off their noses and banishing them to the confines of the desert, where a town was built, called Rhinocolura, from the peculiar nature of their punishment; and thus, by removing the bad, and preventing their corrupting the good, he benefited society, without depriving the criminals of life; at the same time that he punished them severely for their crimes, by obliging them to live by their labors, and derive a precarious sustenance from quails, or whatever they could catch, in that barren region. Commutation of punishment was the foundation of this part of the convict system of Egypt, and Rhinocolura was their Norfolk Island, where a sea of sand separated the worst felons from those guilty of smaller crimes; who were transported to the mines in the desert, and condemned to work for various terms, according to their offence.

The Egyptians had a singular custom respecting theft and burglary. Those who followed the _profession_ of thief gave in their names to the chief of the robbers; and agreed that he should be informed of every thing they might thenceforward steal, the moment it was in their possession. In consequence of this the owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery; and having stated their quality and quantity, the day and hour when they were stolen, and other requisite particulars, the goods were identified, and, on payment of one quarter of their value, they were restored to the applicant in the same state as when taken from his house.

For being fully persuaded of the impracticability of putting an entire check to robbery, either by the dread of punishment, or by any method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police, they considered it more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made in order to secure the restitution of the remainder, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen, and discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss.

And that the Egyptians, like the Indians, and we may say the modern inhabitants of the Nile, were very expert in the art of stealing, we have abundant testimony from ancient authors.