The Northern Origin of the Melon Coiffure in Classical Greece

E. Lopes – The Northern Origin of the Melon Coiffure in Classical Greece
Fig. 18 - Female hair. Tomis, northern necropolis
(after CANARACHE 1967).
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Finally, the melon coiffure is present in
the Attic world in Late Classical times. I have
already noted that Praxiteles gave his statue of
Artemis Brauronia and one Muse at Mantinea this
coiffure. In addition, there are several Attic stelai
depicting women with the Melonenfrisur (fig.
17) 30 .
A bronze mirror (inv. n. 14326), held in
the National Museum of Athens, dates to the first
half of III c. B.C. and shows the profile of a young
lady with a melon coiffure 31 .
In a grave dated to the III c. A.D., in
Tomis, in the northern necropolis, the brown hair
of a young girl was found together with jewellery,
pottery and similar objects (fig. 18) 32 . The tomb
dates to the III century AD. The early inhabitants
of the region may have dedicated hair as a tribute
to a chthonian goddess, but hair has not been
found elsewhere in burial contexts, perhaps because
organic material decays easily. The
coiffure is divided lengthwise into sections using
two pieces of lace. A plait must have surrounded the skull in order to give the girl a meek and sober
appearance. The coiffure may have been similar to that of the goddess in the Bucarest Museum: in other
words, a Melonenfrisur 33 .
This hair in Tomis recalls the ritual offering of the locks of hair. Many centuries later, Alexander Pope
stressed the moment of the cutting of the hair in his mock-heroic poem: “The meeting points the sacred hairs
dissever / From the fair head, for ever and for ever!” 34 .
The local mint of Orthagoria flourishes before 347 BC, at which point the polis came under
Macedonian rule and the local mint was therefore closed. This year can be considered the terminus ante
quem for the mint of Orthagoria, too, which was involved in the same political events 35 .
In any case, the reception of the melon coiffure in southern Greece, and in Athens in particular, was
eased by the fashion of the part of the artists for endowing young women and goddesses with appealing
coiffures, already clearly apparent in the vase painting by Meidias 36 . This early evidence reveals that this
social need for seductive hair styles was deeply felt in Athenian society. This demand is ultimately the
reason why the Thracian hairstyle was so successful.
In conclusion, I believe it is possible that the reception of the Melonenfrisur in southern Greece in
late classical times is due to the incorporation of the Thracian region into the Aegean koine, culminating with
the entry of this area into the most important and powerful state of the region: Macedonia 37 . Thus, some
aspects of the life style of peripheral regions eventually came to conquer continental Greece.
30
CLAIRMONT 1993, 802, 2.919; see also BESCHI 2003, 147–154; CLAIRMONT 1993, 233–234, 3.371b; 95, no. 4.420; 1993, 357, no.
3.433; 413, no. 3.471; for a comment on the inscriptions nos. 3.371b, 3433, 3.471 see respectively: TRAILL 2007, 160, no. 86.4820;
2005, 439–440, no. 78.8980; 1994, 356, no. 210965.
31
ZÜCHNER 1942, 82, KS 129 = SCHWARTMAIER 1997, 67 (1), no. 31, tav. 65, 2.
32
CANARACHE 1967, 40.
33
BORDENACHE 1969, 21–2, no. 17, tav. X, XI, XII D.
34
POPE 1714, vv. 153–55.
35
PETER 1997, 140–43.
36
BURN 1987, 97, no. M1, pl. 22-5a; 97, no. M2 pl. 27-9; 111, no. MM75, pl. 26; 106, no. MM17, pl. 34; 98, no. M7, pls. 35-7; 97, no. M2,
pls. 27-9; 100, no. C1, pls. 39-41.
37
HAMMOND and GRIFFITH 266–67; SCHÖNERT-GEISS 1985, 51–62; YOUROUKOVA 1976, 63–70, tav. 19; DIMITROV 1993, 151–63.