Programme & Abstracts :: Registration Details :: Accommodation

THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002

Francesca Zardini
University College, London

Clothes and accessories of gods and heroes

Clothes and accessories can often make gods and heroes immediately recognisable. Sometimes, gods and heroes wear common robes, eg the hat: both pilos and petasos mark the travellers and the pilgrims in general and Hermes, Charon, Odysseus, Theseus and Kadmos in particular. In this case clothes and accessories can be important clues to identify the mythological scene, but they are not enough, we also need the context and other details to be sure of identification. An example by the winged shoes worn by both Hermes and Perseus; in this case it is the visual context with other details that clarifies the scene. At some other times, robes and accessories may be typical features belonging to only one character and they are enough to immediately identify either gods or heroes. This happens, for instance, with the lion-skin of Herakles and the aegis for Athena. My aim is to deal with some examples from each category -the common robes and typical clothes- by combining literary and iconographical sources, and to consider why certain clothes and accessories became typical features associated with particular gods and heroes.