EXO´MIS
EXO´MIS (
ἐξωμίς),
originally a tunic fastened over the left shoulder only (
χιτὼν ἑτερομάσχαλος, Schol.
Aristoph. Wasps 444; Phot. and
Hesych. sub voce
ἑτερομ.; Heliod.
Aethiop.
3.1;
Paus. 5.16.2; cf. Plaut.
Mil. 4.4, 44), leaving the right shoulder and part of the
breast free, and thus distinguished from the
ἀμφιμάσχαλος, which was fastened over both. It was
especially characteristic of workmen and slaves (Phot. s.v. Schol.
Aristoph. Kn. 879, Laconizers and Cynics
(
Ael. VH 9.3,
4; Sext. Emp. 1.153; Suid.); while the
ἀμφιμάσχαλος was used by the better classes. It was also
the dress of old men in comic plays. (Pollux, 4.118), and as such worn by
the chorus in the
Lysisirata (662). Hephaistos as a god of
labour (
v. bronze in Brit. Museum, fig. p. 380,
Baumeister's
Denkmäler; Müller,
Archäol. d. Kunst, § 366, 6) was
commonly represented clothed in the exomis, as was also Odysseus. After
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Exomis. (Bronze in British Museum.)
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Aristophanes' time, short sleeves (
χειρῖδες)
were introduced in the wide holes of the
χιτών, like a blouse, and the terms
ἀμφιμ. and
ἑτερομ.
(
ἐξωμίς) were equally applied to the
two forms so produced (of one sleeve,
Xen. Mem.
2.7,
5;
v.
Rich, p. 659). On the other hand, the long-sleeved tunic,
χιτὼν χειριδωτός, was originally peculiar to
barbarians, and accordingly appears in representations of Orpheus, the
Indian Bacchus, Persians, Scythians, and the paedagogus. Later grammarians
starting from the sleeved
χ. wrongly
interpreted
ἐξωμὶς
“sleeveless” (Aulus Gellius,
7.12:
“citra umerum desinentes” ). The exomis, however, was not
only a chiton [
TUNICA], but also
a
ἱμάτιον or
περίβλημα [
PALLIUM]. According to Hesychius (s. v.
Ἐξωμίς) and Aelius Dionysius (ap. Eustath.
ad
Il. 18.595), it served at the same time both the purposes of a
chiton (
διὰ τὸ ζώννυσθαι) and a himation
(
ὅτι τὸ ἕτερον μέρος ἐβάλλετο);
but Pollux (7.48) speaks of two different kinds of exomis, one of which was
a
περίβλημα and the other a
χιτὼν ἑτερομάσχαλος. And his account is
confirmed by existing works of art. In the
Museo
Pio-Clementino (vol. iv., pl. 11) is a Hephaistos wearing an exomis,
which is a himation thrown round the body in the way in which this garment
was always worn, and which clothes the body like an exomis when it is girded
round the waist. (Cf. Becker-Göll,
Charikles, iii.
p. 112, &c.; Guhl and Koner, ed. 5, p. 206;
Hermann-Blümner,
Privatalterth. p. 176; and the
figure in Weiss,
Kostümkunde.
[
W.S] [
J.M]