THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

THE BROOCH. 567
knob-shaped appendage which is found in south Italy, and
which resembles some seen on some of the women of the
Francois vase\
Olympia has likewise furnished examples of the serpentine
class with a bow formed of two
wires uniting into a single pin,
like those found in Italy.
Closely related to these is the
unique fibula found by Gsell at
Vulci in a camera of the 7th cent.
Fk;. 121. Fibula with two
pins Vulci.
;
B.C. It has a double bow and two pins, which catch into
the twin grooves or channels of an elongated nose- (Fig.
121).
From these data it is plain that the tibula only found its
way into Crete, Rhodes, the parts of Cyprus occupied by the
Graeco-Phoenician population, and to the mainland of Asia, at
a comparatively late ])eriod.
The same holds true for Attica,
Thebes and Olympia, where no fibulae earlier than the Dipylon
pei-iod have come to hand. That this should be the earliest
type known at Olympia is especially interesting, as it will be
remembi'red that the ^ast majority of the bronze objects found
there all belong to the l^ipyion period. But if our arguments
are sound, this was the (jf
epoch the Achean domination. We
thus have only to consider the safety-pins from the Lowt'r City
of ^Mycenae, and the cemeteries of Salaniis and Knkomi, when
we discuss the ultimate place of origin of the tibula.
The Homeric ])oems contain four woids
irepovj], iropTni,
ever/], eXi^ each of which has heeii held to mean a tibula by
either the ancient commenlatoi's or modo'u arehaeologists.
As the ancients consideicd jicrniie
and purpe con\'ertible
terms-', anv conclusion concei'iiing the former will hold e(|u;illy
true for the hittci-.
The Homeric pei'iinc
was worn 1)\' both sexes, but scjtolars
ha\'e ilis|)ut(jd much cuiic"1-iiiul:- its nature.
568 THE BROOCH.
It
was certainly some kind of a pin or brooch with a sharp
point, which like that of the modem pin or brooch projected
from the garment secured by the perone in such a way that
the wearer or anyone else was liable to scratch his or her hand
against its point. This is made clear by the scoff levelled
at the wounded and weeping Aphrodite by Athene, " verily I
ween that the Cyprian was urging some woman of Achaia to
join her unto the Trojans, whom she so marvellously loveth
;
and stroking such an one of the fair-robed women of Achaia,
she tore upon her golden
brooch her delicate hand'." It is
to be noticed that the wearing of such peronai is especially
attributed to Achean women.
How the latter wore these ornaments is made clear by the
peplos given by Antinous to Penelope.
It was large and of passing beauty " and in it were golden
brooches, twelve in all, fitted with well-bent catches I" Modern
archaeologists have explained these peronai as Jiooks, and the
well-bent catches '
as ei/es (on the opposite side of the garment)
'
into which the hooks were caught, exactly like the hook and
eye of modern female dress. Whilst a well-bent ' catch ' is a
very itiaccurate description of either an eyelet wrought in the
garment or attached to it, on the other hand it exactly describes
the bent-up catch of the primitive safety-pin (Figs. 10.5, 106).
If perone really meant a hook, the epithet ' '
well-bent ought
to go with it rather than with Meides. But, as the ordinary
2)erone worn by Achean women (such as Penelope) had sharp
points ready to tear any chance hand that caressed the wearer,
it cannot have been a hook caught into an eye,
for the ])oiut
of
the hook, then as now, would have been inside the garment,
and therefore could not scratch the hand of the wearer or
elst'.
anyone The conclusions thus drawn fnun the statements
of the poems are confirmed by ancient ti'adition, for the
scholiast explains the Ideides as " catches into which they let
down the pins''."
^
11. \. \'1'1: TT/'OS X/"'""'?? '"'(pour] KaT(/j.v^aro X^'P^ apairjv .
-
S. Jtriliach. /.. rit.: (-'ll. r"U,llr.< ,!. \-,ilr,. .V_'l -J.
pp.
l-".ilstatli. (Ill II. will. 101 : *i>i (U noiiTrai aiv m jiovai ~iVi'aiKi^'i> x^"''5. citto
TOV TT'l/ICJ, (^ O" Kai TTfpoi'ai.
-
()(l. xvill. '2'.).') 1: it' 8 dp' (Lraf irtpovai di'o kuI OtKa Tracrai XP''"'^'"'! x^V^'^'-^
c'(|-)cd/U7rT0!cr' dpapvML.
Sell. JI :
KXyjluLi'' KaTaK\(uTLi' (is as KaOitaai' ras Treplwas.