The Wonders of Ancient History

[thief-alchemist.livejournal.com]

We have been studying Ancient Greece for a while in class, and have recently moved on to Pompeii and Herculaneum. I'm sure many of you would know the feeling of seeing the word "peplos" or something similarly related to the Queen's Thief series, letting out a squeak of excitement and starting to babble incoherently to people who have no idea what you're talking about. Well, it happens a lot in my Ancient History class...

On researching the Pompeiian forum I came across this graffiti:

I.7.8 (bar; left of the door); 8162: We two dear men, friends forever, were here.  If you want to know our names, they are Gaius and Aulus.

If only the other had been called Boagus...

Comments

[eatenbyfangirls.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened in my History of Clothing class. We started covering women's clothing in Ancient Greece and I was like "Oh, so that's what they're wearing."

...in my head, the books are still some weird cross between Ancient Greek and Elizabethan. Gen in puff pants and a chlamys? Er. Brain hurty.

[thief-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Ack, I know. I just can't imagine them in Greek or Roman clothes, it's always something that looks like it came from a Jane Austen period piece mixed with Spartacus. O_o

But, seeing as the bookverse is not strictly Greek, maybe we could create a new fashion style? XP

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how in the books they're running around with guns and wristwatches, I think you guys are justified in imagining the clothing how you like. :P

Weird Coincidence Time

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I called my wife about 6:30 today to say I'd be leaving the office a bit late, and while we were chatting a bit about our days she said something ... I thought she said something about peplums, which was pretty strange to me outside a classical context. So I asked to her to repeat (or I said "Wha'?", OWTTE) and yes, she was talking about peplums. She collects fashion dolls and sews clothing for them, and she had mislaid the peplums she was working on.

(from the Oxford English Dictionary:
peplos: An outer robe or shawl worn by Greek women in the classical period and up to about 300 A.D.; spec. the richly embroidered robe of this kind woven yearly for the statue of the goddess Athene in Athens, depicting mythological subjects and carried in procession to her temple in the greater Panathenaea.
The peplos consisted of a large rectangular piece of material draped from the shoulders in loose folds and usually belted around the waist or (later) under the bust. It was originally made of wool or linen but later also of cotton or silk.

peplum:
1. = PEPLOS
2. Fashion. The part of a woman's jacket or tunic which hangs below the waist; a jacket or tunic having such a design; a kind of overskirt resembling the ancient peplos (obs.). Hence (now usually) in modern use: a short flared, gathered, or pleated strip of fabric attached at the waist of a woman's jacket, dress, or blouse to create a hanging frill or flounce.

--- Oh, and... um... it's "a graffito", "many graffiti". Sorry.)

By the time I got home she'd found them.

Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody

Re: Weird Coincidence Time

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Just want to say, I really like your posts. They're always so informative.

Re: Weird Coincidence Time

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

(blush) Awww! (bow)

[wanderingdreamr.livejournal.com]

Can you add me to the "Ancient Greece meets Queen Elizabeth's collar" school of thinking pile? Since the stories are supposed to be set around the 1600s (that's what I remember reading anyway) I always assumed some odd mashup of clothes like that. Then again, we haven't seen any countries yet that match up with what our Western/Northern Europe looks like so who knows, maybe they (and those clothes) don't even exist in this world.