Chlamys
（
χλαμύς). A short mantle forming a part of the outer
raiment of the Greeks, and of the Romans in imperial times. Its material was usually woollen;
and it differed from the
ἱμάτιον, the usual
amictus of the male sex, in these respects: that it was much smaller; also finer,
thinner, more variegated in colour, and more susceptible of ornament. It moreover differed in
being oblong instead of square, its length being generally about twice its breadth (
Plut. Alex. 26).
The chlamys came originally from Macedonia and Thessaly, and was the dress of hunters, of
travellers, especially on horseback, and of soldiers. It seems to have been part of the usual
dress of a Spartan (
Aristoph. Lys. 988) and
was worn at Athens by the
ephebi from about seventeen to twenty years of
age (Philemon, p. 367, ed. Meineke).
The chlamys as worn by youths, by soldiers, and by hunters differed in colour and fineness,
according to its purpose, and the age and rank of the wearer. The hunter commonly went out in
a mantle of a dull, inconspicuous colour, as best adapted to escape the notice of wild animals
(
Poll.v. 18). The more ornamental mantles, being designed for
women, were tastefully decorated with a border (
limbus,
Verg. Aen. iv. 137); and those worn by
Phœnicians, Trojans, Phrygians, and other Asiatics were also embroidered, or
interwoven with gold (
Verg. Aen. iii.
483-484
Verg. Aen., xi. 775; Ovid,
Met. v. 51). Actors had their chlamys ornamented with gold (
Poll.iv. 116).
The usual mode of wearing the mantle was to pass one of its shorter sides round the neck,
and to fasten it by means of a brooch (
πόρπη,
fibula), either over the breast, in which case it hung down the back, reaching to the
calves of the legs; or over the right shoulder, so as to cover the left arm, as in the
well-known example of the Belvedere Apollo. In other instances, it was made to depend
gracefully from the left shoulder, of which the bronze Apollo in the British Museum (see
righthand figure) presents an example; or it was thrown lightly behind the back, and passed
over either one arm or shoulder, or over both (as in left-hand figure); or, lastly, it was
laid upon the throat, carried behind the neck, and crossed so as to hang
 |
|
Chlamys. (The figure on the left from a painting on a vase; that on the right from the
British Museum.)
|
down the back, and sometimes its extremities were again brought forward over the
arms or shoulders. In short, the remains of ancient art of every description show in how high
a degree the mantle contributed, by its endless diversity of arrangement, to the display of
the human form in its greatest beauty. The aptitude of the mantle to be turned in every
possible form around the body made it useful even for defence. The hunter used to wrap his
chlamys about his left arm when pursuing wild animals, and preparing to fight with them (
Poll.v. 18;
Cyneg. vi. 17). Alcibiades died fighting
with his mantle rolled round his left hand instead of a shield. The annexed illustration
exhibits a figure of Poseidon armed with the trident in his right hand, and having a chlamys
to protect the left. It is taken from a medal which was struck in commemoration of a naval
victory obtained by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and was evidently designed to express his sense of
Poseidon's succour in the conflict. When Artemis goes to the chase, as she does not require
her mantle for purposes
 |
|
Chlamys. (Poseidon from a medal, and Artemis from a statue in the Vatican.)
|
of defence, she draws it from behind over her shoulders, and twists it
round her waist, so that the belt of her quiver passes across it, as shown in the statues of
this goddess in the Vatican.
It appears from the bas-reliefs on marble vases that dancers took hold of one another by the
chlamys, as the modern Greeks still do by their scarfs or handkerchiefs, instead of taking one
another's hands.
Among the Romans the chlamys came more into use under the emperors. Caligula wore one
enriched with gold (
Calig. 19); and Alexander Severus, when in the country, one
dyed with scarlet (Lamprid.
Al. Sev. 40).
