DONALD LATEINER
Ohio Wesleyan University
Different cultures denaturalize naked, unaltered bodies with modifications that vary by age, age‐class (pre‐pubertal), GENDER, and status. Adornment usually implies jewelry—objects added to the trunk, head, and limbs—but clothing itself is a powerful adornment and identifier. In addition, some alterations are invisible like unguents and perfumes. Variations in the treatment of constant extensions of the body such as HAIR and nails are unavoidable choices (hair‐styles and length, hair and nail colors). Permanent modifications (chosen or inflicted) such as CIRCUMCISION, cutting and scarification (including tattoos or stigmata), piercing/infibulation (tongue, ears, lips, nose, genitals), and organ amputation (1.117, 8.104–5) moderately or seriously modify appearance and self‐presentation. Temporary coloring, odorizing, shaved visages and depilation (head, crotch, chest, armpits, etc.) vary nature’s gifts and punishments. Cosmetic paints for the face, lips, and other visible body parts constitute possibilities of variation and adornment. Finally, adornment of corpses before inhumation or cremation for the journey and arrival in the land of the dead varies in treatment from MUMMIFICATION to cremation, ingestion, excarnation, and glorious “house, HORSES, CONCUBINES and attendants of the deceased” interment (2.85–90, EGYPT; 1.140, PERSIA; 3.38; 7.10.θ*; 4.71–75, Scythian royals).
Herodotus as anthropological observer records many details of body treatments, especially in his plentiful ethnographies. Persian DRESS has been adopted from the MEDES (1.135); Egyptians, JEWS, and Palestinians practice RITUAL circumcision (2.36, 104); the THRACIANS esteem tattooing (5.6, marks [stigmata] of nobility). Herodotus’ primitive royal, the fabulous Mede DEIOCES, produced a fanciful set of behavioral prohibitions to protect him (no laughing or spitting); chief among them, he made himself unseeable by anyone except his emissaries—unique (non‐)self‐presentation (1.99). The comparative ethnologist notes both the pomp produced for Persian rulers—such as tokens of authority, dress, palatial habitats (3.118–19)—and their executions and MUTILATIONS inflicted to punish, forever diminishing status, a kind of social death. These bodily modifications can be official or privately revengeful (3.69, 118, 156; 9.112; cf. Xen. An. 1.9: hands, feet, and eyes removed from malefactors). Thus, XERXES had the Thebans branded as slaves for their cowardly desertion to his cause after he gained control of the pass at THERMOPYLAE (7.233).
Clothing demonstrates ethnic identity as well as gender. The BABYLONIANS wear three tunics: linen, wool, and a white mantle. They have unusual shoes that resemble Boeotian slippers (1.195). They wear caps. The Ethiopian king laughs at aristocratic Persian customs: they wear purple cloaks made from crushed snail parts; they wear “FETTERS” of twisted GOLD on neck and arms (3.22). SCYTHIANS wear cups attached to their belts (4.10). The CATALOGUE of Xerxes’ infantry occupies many pages describing the different tribes and peoples’ clothing, headwear, armor, and weaponry (7.61–88). The Persian troops’ “ornaments” were most splendid: conspicuous for gold, concubines, attendants, and beasts of burden (7.83). The young, male Macedonian assassins dress in women’s garb before knifing their assigned Persian ambassador couch‐mates (5.20).
Herodotus comments on Ionian clothing styles and their adoption in Attica (5.87–88; cf. Thuc. 1.6). His wise SANDANIS tries to persuade CROESUS not to go to war against the Persians, men of rude clothing, a sign of tough warriors (1.71). Croesus advises CYRUS (II) about to attack the revolting LYDIANS (1.155): dress them in soft under‐tunics and loafers—and they will grow accustomed to luxury. PERIANDER burns women’s clothes to atone for his sexual violation of his dead wife (5.92). SYLOSON the beggar gains a TYRANT’s grand territory of SAMOS, because he once generously gave away his handsome cloak to the undistinguished spear‐carrier Darius, although Darius was ready to buy it (3.139–40). After Darius’ irregular accession to the throne, the good deed earned this Ionian the recompense of the title of royal benefactor and the reward of his choice—rule of Samos.
Babylonian men carry staffs with figured devices on top and a personal seal (1.195; cf. 6.75). SOPHANES the Athenian carried a shield at the Battle of PLATAEA with an anchor device (9.74), one of many HOPLITES to do so, we may suppose from Aeschylean descriptions (Sept.), Attic vases, and actual excavated shields. The Persians wreath their hats (“TIARAS”) in myrtle when preparing for SACRIFICE (1.132). To prove the Persians’ unusual adaptability to foreign customs, Herodotus notes that they wear Median DRESS, fight in Egyptian corselets, and adopt luxuries of all kinds as soon as they hear of them (1.135).
Not only visual objects but olfactory substances adorn the body. Babylonian men of means anoint their whole bodies with perfumes. The Persians anoint themselves with perfumes, to the Ethiopian king’s amusement (3.22). The MAXYES smear their entire bodies with unguents of red ochre (4.191). Arabian foot soldiers smear half their body with white chalk, half with red ochre (7.69).
Lack or disruption of adornment also sends a message. DEMOCEDES, a Samian PRISONER OF WAR, came to court dressed in the rags left to him and dragging chains (3.129). He was summoned to supply Hellenic doctoring to the wrenched ankle and leg of Great King DARIUS I. Similarly degrading but performed purposefully to register sympathetic GRIEF and humbling, men and women of the Persian nobility rent their garments when they learned of the naval disaster at SALAMIS (8.99, as in AESCHYLUS’ Persae; 3.66). ZOPYRUS (1) the Persian, to persuade the Babylonians he had been treated as Persian criminals were, cut off his own nose and ears and scourged himself (3.154); his anti‐adornment DECEPTION works.
Herodotus reports normal modes of ethnic hairstyles and others responding to crises such as PUNISHMENT, DEATH, and battle‐peril. The Babylonians, Persians, and Spartans let their hair grow long (1.195; 6.19; 7.208). Egyptian PRIESTS shave their heads, whereas in other lands priests let their hair grow long (2.36). Ordinary Egyptian men in mourning, however, allow their hair to grow long (unlike other nations’ customs) on the head and the chin (otherwise shaven). Arabs cut their hair in a round circle and shave their temples (3.8). The African tribes of Book 4 display a range of styles: long in the back, long in the front (4.180); long on the right but short on the left (4.191); long tufts in the middle of shaved heads (4.175). Herodotus notes that the eastern ETHIOPIANS (Indians) have straight hair; the western (Africans), the wooliest and thickest among men—a feature of natural, distinguishing adornment. Disruption of normal hair, like clothing, can indicate distress: Zopyrus shaved his hair in an unseemly fashion to deceive the Babylonians into believing that he had been punished (3.156; cf. 2.121.δ). The Milesians shaved their heads and put on mourning garb when CROTON took SYBARIS (6.21). But the Spartiates, putting their lives on the line, attend to combing their hair (7.208–9)—noted by the relativist Herodotus as beyond the absolutist Xerxes’ comprehension of NOMOS.
Royalty has distinctive adornment, not only elaborate robes but crowns, scepters, and even attendants and guards. Objects and persons provide them with an extreme of human adornment as they process or sit in state. GYGES SON OF DASCYLUS dedicated his golden throne at DELPHI (1.14; cf. 3.30, throne and royal bow)—not portable but certainly a metonymic adornment of his power and person at rest.
SEE ALSO: Anthropology; Burial Customs; Ethnicity; Ethnography; Silver; Softness; Textiles; Weapons and Armor; Women in the Histories
FURTHER READING
1 Gherchanoc, Florence, and Valérie Huet, eds. 2012. Vêtements antiques: s’habiller, se déshabiller dans les mondes antiques. Paris: Errance.
2 Lateiner, Donald. 1987. “Nonverbal Communication in the Histories of Herodotus.” Arethusa 20: 83–119, esp. 95–100.
3 Rollinger, Robert. 2004. “Herodotus, Human Violence, and the Ancient Near East.” In The World of Herodotus, edited by Vassos Karageorghis and Ioannis Taifacos, 121–50. Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
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