Publisher's Synopsis
This study concludes that Greek women routinely wore the veil. The Greeks, popularly credited with the invention of civic openness, are revealed as also part of a more eastern tradition of seclusion.;This work proceeds from literary and iconographic evidence. It demonstrates the presence of the veil in sculpture and vase painting. Although often shown covering much of the head, the veil is no less often represented as unobtrusive, discreetly folded on to the shoulders. This gave a privileged view of the face to the ancient consumer of art but also allowed the veil to escape the notice of traditional modern scholarship.;Greek literature also reveals that full veiling of the head and face was commonplace. The book analyzes the Greek vocabulary for veiling and explores what the veil was meant to achieve. Veiling allowed women to circulate in public whiel maintaining the ideal of a house-bound existence. Greek and more modern evidence is used to show how wmen could exploit and subvert the veil as a means of eloquent, sometimes emotional, communication.
