Veiled Women?

By Florence Gherchanoc and Pauline Schmitt Pantel

Fig. 1: Attic cup, circa 460-450 B.C.; Berlin, Staatliche Museen, F 2530. Drawing © Gaëlle Deschodt.

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Fig. 2: Attic cup, circa 490-480 B.C.; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution 89.272. © BMFA. Photo: DR.

Fig. 3: Amphora, circa 500-475 B.C.; Rome, Villa Giulia 50432. Photo: DR.

Fig. 4: Attic funeral stele, circa 400 B.C.; New York, Metropolitan Museum, 48.11.4. Public domain. Photo: DR.

Contrary to widespread belief, Greek women wore veils only in particular contexts. Evidence of this can be found, first and foremost, in countless images of indoor and outdoor scenes, which, though they are not photographic copies of reality, do refer to the most common representations. (See Gallery 1 below).

The scene depicted on the red-figure Attic cup by the Amphitrite Painter, dating from 460-450 B.C. (fig. 1) is an illuminating example. Here, just one woman wears a veil on her head, and her face is exposed: she is the bride in this wedding ritual. Her future husband holds her by the wrist, for it is the moment when he leads her to her new house. The other women are not veiled; they are perhaps the mothers of the newlyweds, and hold torches to light the ritual. The woman behind the bride wears a sakkos (a cloth to keep the hair back) on her head; the woman standing at the door of the house is bare-headed, her hair in a bun. Archaic, as well as classical Attic imagery, offers many scenes of the procession leading the veiled bride from her parent’s house to her husband’s (see Gallery 2 below).

In addition, seduction scenes between men show a beardless young man wrapped up in a himation (coat), his head covered, across from an older, bearded male partner, who offers him a gift (a rooster, hare, etc.) (figs. 2 and 3).

Finally, funeral steles from the classical era represent the deceased woman with her head covered by part of her himation: this was an iconographic convention used to signal modesty (aidôs) and temperance (sôphrosunê) (fig. 4).

Gallery 1

Fig. 5: Black-figure Attic lekythos, circa 550-530 B.C.; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31.11.10. Public domain: Photo: DR.

This small Attic lecythos (jar for wine, oil, or perfume), dating from 550-530 B.C., depicts young women weaving in a domestic scene. Some spin yarn (on the left) while others weave on a large loom. None are wearing a veil. However, in the top strip, we see a seated female figure holding her veil and a crown in her left hand, like the bride in figure 11.

Fig. 6: Black-figure pinax, circa 500 B.C.; Paris, Louvre, MNB905 (L4). © Wikicommon. Photo: Jastrow.

This prothesis (body lying in state) scene on an Attic pinax (tablet), dating from around 500 B.C., shows light-skinned women gathered around the bed on which the deceased is lying. They are tearing their hair as a sign of mourning, while, at left, the men perform a farewell gesture. The women—whom the inscription tells us are the mother, sister, grandmother, and aunt of the deceased—do not have their heads covered with a veil.

Fig. 7: Warrior’s departure, 5th century B.C., Achilles Painter. Attic red-figure stamnos, London, British Museum 1843, 1103.1. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

On a red-figure stamnos (drinking vessel) from 450-440 B.C., a man wearing a hoplite’s panoply (suit of armor) is shown in the center of the image, between an unveiled woman holding libation instruments (an oenochoe—wine jug—and a phiale—libation bowl) and a bearded man leaning on a stick. The two men are shaking right hands (dexiôsis). This scene represents a citizen going off to war, leaving behind his father and a woman of his family (perhaps his mother, wife, or sister).

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Fig. 8 Attic red-figure cup, circa 470 B.C. Compiègne, Musée Vivenel, 1090. © Musée Vivenel. Photo: DR.

A harvest scene on an Attic red-figure cup from around 470 B.C. shows young women in various head wear: on the left, one wears a sakkos (a bun cover); on either side of the tree, two other women are wearing headbands; at the far right, two more women stand facing each other: one has part of her himation (coat) covering the back of her hair, while the other has her hair gathered into a bun.

Fig. 9: Attic black-figure hydria, circa 525-500 B.C.; Paris, Louvre F302. RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre). Photo: Hervé Lewandowski.

On an Attic black-figure hydria (large water jug) from around 525-500 B.C., young women with pale skin, their hair loose but held back by a headband, are gathered around a fountain. The woman in the center carries a hydria on her head. On the heads of the two others, we see the small cushion upon which the jug would be placed once full.

Gallery 2

Fig. 10: Attic black-figure lecythos, circa 550-530 B.C.; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 56.11.1. Public domain. Photo: DR.

A black-figure lecythos (jug for wine, oil, or perfume) from around 550-530 B.C. shows a numphagôgia (marriage procession). The procession follows the newlyweds’ chariot toward their new oikos, the doors of which are symbolized by two columns framed by geometric decorations. The bride, seated next to her husband, holds part of her veil in front of her with her left hand, in which she also holds a crown.

Fig. 11: On this Attic red-figure loutrophoros (jug for carrying bath water) from 450-425 B.C., the bride is recognizable by the veil that covers her hair. Two small Eros (the personification of desire and erotic force) and a numpheutria (young woman who assists the bride) adjust her veil. © BMFA Photo DR.

Fig. 12: Attic red-figure pyxis, circa 475-450 B.C.; Paris, Louvre L55(b)N3348. RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre). Photo: Hervé Lewandowski.

An Attic red-figure pyxis (jewelry or makeup box) from around 475-450 B.C. shows a scene similar to that in Fig. 11. Here, the numpheutria, bareheaded, adjusts the veil of the bride, whose husband holds her by the wrist.

Fig. 14: Detail from the eastern frieze of the Parthenon, Block V, circa 438-432 B.C.; London, British Museum, 1816,0610.19. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Veil

The Greek language has various terms that are translated, sometimes wrongly, as “veil”: peplos, kaluptra, kalumna, krêdemnon, pharos. Peplos refers to the typical women’s garment, made of a long rectangle of cloth folded in two, attached at the shoulders, and tightened at the waist by a belt. The words kaluptra and kalumna are derived from the verb kaluptô, and refer to a fabric that covers and conceals. Krêdemnon is a kind of head garment. Pharos probably refers to a large piece of fabric (nuptial covering, coat, sail, etc.). In images, the pharos, worn on the head and body with a part held out in front, symbolizes the conjugal bond and identifies the bride (figs. 13 and 14). All these terms contain the idea of covering and hiding, which is why the veil is often interpreted as a mark of reserve, modesty (aidôs), and temperance (sôphrosunê)—qualities expected of the wives and daughters of citizens, as well as of young men, who are also shown covered up by their coat (figs. 2 and 3).

The Veil and Marriage

The veil played a significant role in various moments of the matrimonial ritual. First, it served as a pre-nuptial offering: before getting married, young women would offer (often in a group), objects and clothing to the divinities who watched over marriages, in particular, Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite. We find evidence of this in votive epigrams such as the following:

“To Aphrodite the Heavenly we girl companions, all of one age, give these gifts: Bitinna these sandals, a comfort to her feet, the pretty work of skilled shoemakers, Philaenis the net (kekruphalos), dyed with sea-purple, that confined her straying hair, Anticleia her fan, lovely Heracleia her veil (kalupteiran prosôpou), fine as a spider's web, and the daughter of Aristoteles, who bears her father's name, her coiled snake, the gold ornament of her slender ankles.”

(Antipater of Sidon, 2nd century B.C., in The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, ed. and trans. by W. R. Patton, Loeb Classical Library, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916, VI, 206.

During the wedding itself, the veil served as a fundamental and distinctive element of the bride’s appearance, as we can see from the images here (figs. 1, 10, 11, 12). It shaped the beauty of the young woman, which is also indicated by the presence of Eros. As bridal wear, it accompanied the bride as she passed into her new status as a married woman, and expressed both her erotic force and the conjugal bond (Homer, The Iliad, XV, 125-128; The Odyssey, XVIII, 292-293 and 303; The Iliad, XXII, 468-472; Pherecydes of Syros, Fragments B 1-2 [Hermann Diels, Walther Krantz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 1956, p. 47-48]; Euripides, Medea, 947-958 and 1156-1162).

The rite of unveiling (anakaluptêria) was a key moment in a wedding. The gesture would be accompanied by some words of farewell and sometimes a gift. It symbolized the connection between the spouses, at the moment when the young woman, pulling aside part of her veil, revealed her face.

Finally, after the wedding, the nuptial veil was sometimes offered to a divinity as a token of thanks. Thus, “Alcibia dedicated to Hera the holy veil (kaluptrên) of her hair, when she entered into lawful wedlock (kouridiôn gamôn).” The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, ed. and trans. by W. R. Patton, Loeb Classical Library, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916.