green turtle was used in the Mediterranean, while loggerhead
turtle shell had a northerly distribution. Th e high cost of the
small tortoiseshell ornaments made them a luxury item lim-
ited in use to only the wealthy members of society. Th e Gauls
were known to favor bold colors and used garnets in jewelry
and other adornment. Gauls also preferred coral and enamels
as decorative stones. Coral was oft en associated with lucky
amulets, and workers even tried to imitate its color in enamel,
a completely Celtic industry. Gaul craft smen also made rings
and bracelets from jet and ignite.
Th e use of adornment sharply diminished aft er the fourth
century of the Common Era. Th e art of cutting gems declined
rapidly, as did the use of amber. By the fi ft h century the only
continuous jewelry-making practice within Europe was the
cutting of garnets for cloisonné, or raised enamel work set
into a metal background.
GREECE
BY SPYROS SIROPOULOS
It has been said that the fi ft h century b.c.e. was the age of van-
ity. Th is is what the thousands of beautiful statues, painted
with lifelike colors, spread all around Athens signify. Greeks
liked to see beauty around them. Th ey certainly appreciated
beauty and thought naught of enhancing it. In mythology
the goddess of love, Aphrodite, was adorned by the Horae
(female goddesses of the seasons) as soon as she was born.
Th en when Hera, the fi rst lady of Olympus, needed to seduce
Zeus to avert his attention from the battlefi eld of Troy, she
called Aphrodite to make her up and help her with a beauti-
fully adorned garment.
Adornment was popular among the Athenians of the
Classical Period (480–323 b.c.e.), especially women. Archae-
ological excavations have unearthed a great number of arti-
facts used by the women of classical Athens, which are very
similar to items used by women today. Among these are twee-
zers, pliers, mirrors, jewelry, and other means of enhancing
one’s natural beauty.
Th e Greeks knew nothing of soap. In order to clean
themselves they used lead carbonate made of pure soda (ore);
a solution of potash, made of wood ash (useful also for wash-
ing clothes); or a special clay, consisting of silica with chalk
(kimolia in Greek). Even today the island of Kímolos in the
heart of the Aegean Sea is famous for producing a light stone,
rich in soda, called kimolia. For washing their hands, the an-
cient Greeks also used a kind of paste.
Women powdered their faces with a fi ne white powder
called psimythion. In the fi ft h century b.c.e. Athenians thought
much of women who stayed indoors and gave no reason for
talk of them in public. Of course, only aristocratic women
had no reason to go out to work in the sunshine, and thus a
white complexion was associated with women of aristocracy,
a detail oft en depicted in vase paintings from the same period.
Women also liked to use red rouge for their cheeks and wore
high shoes, to appear taller. Th e courtesans known as hetaerae
used the white color of carbonic lead and the red powder of a
plant’s roots, as well as dyeing their eyebrows.
Th e use of makeup was sometimes frowned upon, how-
ever. Th e philosopher Plato (ca. 428–347 b.c.e.) complained
that using makeup was “harmful and deceptive” (Gorgias).
Even the fi ft h-century b.c.e. playwright Euripides, in his
tragedy Medea, seems to associate adornment and vanity
with destruction. Planning to take revenge on her adulterous
husband, Jason, Medea off ers to his future bride, the princess
of Corinth, fi ne veils and a golden headband, anointed with
some kind of poison. Death fi nds the ignorant princess while
she admires herself in front of the mirror.
P e r f u m e s w e r e b o u g h t f r o m a myropoleíon (“perfumery”),
and they were of animal or plant origin, usually imported. A
woman selling perfumes to a slave girl is depicted on one side
of a pelike (a ceramic container for storing liquids) dating to
about 460 b.c.e.; on the other side we see the girl carrying
the small perfume jar home to her mistress. Perfumes were
used by men, too, especially at symposia and wrestling halls,
but it was considered disreputable for a man to sell perfumes.Greek marble head, from about 350 b.c.e., showing headdress of snail-
shell curls (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)adornment: Greece 11