Cestus
（
κεστός). In Homer, an adjective applied to the girdle
(
ἱμάς) of Aphrodité, on which were embroidered
all manner of enticements to love. It means “perforated”—i. e.
with holes made by the needle—“embroidered,”
acu
pictus— and is formed from the same base (viz.
kas=
ferire) as
κεάζω, or
κεντέω for
κενστός. It is to be
considered the same as the
στρόφιον, ταινία, μίτρα,
στηθοδεσμός,
fascia pectoralis, mammillare, which is found on
statues of Aphrodité worn next the skin (
Mart.xiv.
206). (See Baumeister,
Denkmäler, etc., p. 366, fig. 393.) It
was accordingly made of some soft substance. In Mart. xiv. 66,
pellis is
probably what we should call kid. Its object was to support and sometimes to compress too full
bosoms, like the modern corset, but it was not used, like the latter, to pinch in the figure.
The Greeks and Romans were strangers to this injurious practice (Baumeister, l. c.), and,
accordingly, every girl did not wear one. Winckelmann and Saglio consider that, owing to its
splendour, the
κεστός of Aphrodité was a belt worn
outside the dress.
