VITTA
VITTA or plural VITTAE, a ribbon or fillet, is to be
considered (1) as an ordinary portion of female dress; (2) as a decoration
of sacred persons and sacred things.
1. When considered as an ordinary portion of female dress, it was simply a
band encircling the head. and serving to confine the tresses (
crinales vittae); the ends, when long (
longae taenia vittae), hanging down behind (
Verg. A. 7.351,
403; Ovid,
Ov. Met. 2.413,
4.6; Isidor. 19.31.6). It was worn (1) by
maidens (
Verg. A. 2.168;
Prop. 4.11,
34;
V. Fl. 8.6; Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 2.133); (2) by married women also,
the vitta assumed on the nuptial day being of a different form from that
used by virgins (Ovid,
Ov. Tr. 2.252;
Prop. 5.3,
15, and 11,
34; Plaut.
Mil. Gl. 3.1, 194;
V. Max.
5.2.1). From the word
altera in
Prop. 5.11,
34,
Marquardt is probably right in deducing that the vitta of married women was
a
double band, whereas the fillet of maidens was
single (Marquardt,
Privatleben, 46; cf. Becker-Göll,
Gallus, 2.31: for the wearing of
ταίνιαι by Greek brides, see
Becker-Göll,
Charikles, 3.375;--Stephani,
Compte Rendu, 1872, p. 192; 1874, p. 140).
The vitta was
not worn by libertinae even of fair
character (
Tib. 1.6,
67), much less by meretrices; hence it was looked upon as an
insigne pudoris, and, together with the
stola and
instita, served to point out at first sight the freeborn matron
(Ovid,
A. A. 1.31;
R. A. 386;
Trist. 2.247;
Ep. ex Pont.
3.3, 51).
The colour was probably a matter of choice: white and purple are both
mentioned (Ovid,
Ov. Met. 2.413;
Ciris, 511;--Stat.
Achill. 1.611).
One of those represented in the cuts below is ornamented with embroidery,
and they were in some cases set with pearls (
vittae
margaritarum,
Dig. 34,
2,
25.2).
The following woodcuts represent back and front views of the heads of statues
from Herculaneum, on which we perceive the vitta (
Bronzi
d'Ercolano, vol. ii. tav. 72, 75).
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Vittae.
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A full discussion of the dressing of the Lair and further illustration will
be found under
COMA
For
ταίνιαι and vittae in Greek and Roman
funerals as used for the decoration of the dead body and of the bier, see
FUNUS Vol. 1. pp. 886, 890
(woodcut), and compare Becker-Göll,
Charikles, p.
122.
2. When employed for sacred purposes, it was usually twisted round the infula
[
INFULA], holding together
the loose flocks of wool, and depending in streamers (
Verg. G. 3.487,
Aen. 10.537;
Isidor. 19.30.4; Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 10.538;
Lucan
5.142). Under this form it was employed as an ornament for (1)
priests, and those who offered sacrifice (
Verg. A.
2.221,
10.537;
Tac. Ann. 1.57); (2) priestesses, especially
those of Vesta, and hence
vittata sacerdos for
a Vestal,
κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν (
Verg. A. 7.418; Ovid,
Ov. Fast. 3.30, 6.457;
Juv. 4.9,
6.50;
VESTALES); (3) prophets and poets, who may be regarded as
priests, and in this' case the vittae were frequently intertwined with
chaplets of olive or laurel (
Verg. A. 3.81,
7.665;--
Stat.
Silv. 2.1,
26;
Achill. 1.11;
Theb. 3.466); (4) statues of
deities (
Verg. A. 2.168,
296; compare
Stat.
Silv. 3.3,
3); (5) victims
decked for sacrifice (
Verg. G. 3.487,
Aen. 2.133, 156, 5.366; Ovid,
Ep. ex Pont.
3.2, 74; Stat.
Achill. 2.301); (6) altars (
Verg. Ecl. 8.64,
Aen. 3.64;
ARA Vol. I. p. 158 a); (7)
temples (
Prop. 5.9,
27; compare
Tac. Hist. 4.53); (8)
the
ἱκετηρία of suppliants (
Verg. A. 7.237;
8.128). Here the vittae seem to have served to bind the festoons of
wool upon the branches which were borne in the hand (
Verg. A. 7.237,
8.128;
Hom. Il. 1.14;
Plut. Thes. 18;
Soph.
O. T. 3).
The sacred vittae, as well as the infulae, were made of wool, and hence the
epithets
lanea (Ovid,
Ov. Fast. 3.30) and
mollis (Verg.
Ecl. viii.
[p. 2.976]64). They were white
(
niveae,
Verg. G. 3.487; Ovid,
Ov. Met. 13.643;
Stat. Theb. 3.466), or purple (
puniceae,
Prop. 5.9,
27), or
azure (
caeruleae) when wreathed round an altar
to the manes (
Verg. A. 3.64).
[
W.R] [
G.E.M]
