Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

136 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
Women wearing chitônes and himatia. Courtesy
akg-images, London: Peter Connolly.
The Athenians were of the opinion that the peplos was a Doric
invention, whereas the chitôn was Ionic. More likely the change
was a reflection of the increased wealth of the Athenians in the
middle of the sixth century b.c.e. , since linen, being more costly
to produce than wool, had to be imported. As Herodotos reports,
however, the Athenians gave a more sensational explanation. They
claimed that, after a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Aiginetans,
only one Athenian managed to escape. When he returned
with news of the disaster, the wives of the men who had died in the
battle were so outraged by the fact that he alone had escaped that
they stabbed him to death with the pins of their dresses, demanding
as they did so what had befallen their husbands. Herodotos
concludes:
So this man died but the Athenians thought that what the women had
done was more terrible than the disaster itself. As they could find no way
of punishing them, however, they made them change their dress to the
Ionic style . . . as this did not require any brooches. (5.87.3)