Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

COMA. COMA. 329
of silk (Salinas. Exerc. ad Solin. p. 392), or the
Elean byssus (Paus. vii. 21. ~ 7), and probably
of other materials, which are not mentioned by
ancient writers. The persons who made these
nets were called KeppuwpaXOXdKOot (Pollux, vii.
179). Females with this kind of head-dress frequently occur in paintings found at Pompeii, from
one of which the preceding cut is taken, representing a woman wearing a Coa Vestis. [COA
V~ESTIS.] (/lIuseo Borbon. vol. viii. p. 5.)
The cadcKos and the tirTpa were, on the contrary, made of close materials. The adKiccos covered
the head entirely like a sack or bag; it was made
of various materials, such as silk, byssus, and
__, X t,7wool. (Comp. Aristoph. Thesm. 257.) Sometimes, at least among the Romans, a bladder was
used to answer the same purpose. (Mart. viii. 33.
/( 19.) The juTrpa was a broad band of cloth of
different colours, which was wound round the
hair, and was worn in various ways. It was
jJ//i}~~\- <-originally an Eastern head-dress, and may, therej ~~/ -wX>1k ~fore, be compared to the modemrn turban. It is'. " ~\2\\*StA sometimes spoken of as characteristic of the Phry/gXXB/t\MX4SE > gians. (Herod. i. 195, vii. 62; Virg. Aen. ix.
616, 617; Juv. iii. 66.) It was, however, also
[ _ _ I > worn by the Greeks, and Polygnotus is said to
e_____________________________________ have been the first who painted Greek women
with mitrae (Plin. II. N. xxxv. 9. s. 35). The
On vases, however, we most frequently find the Roman calaeeica or calvatica is said by Servius
heads of females covered with a kind of band or a (ad Virg. Aen. ix. 616) to have been the same as
coif of net-work. Of these coiffures one was called the msitra, but in a passage in the Digest (34.
e&lBuVs77, which was a broad band across the fore- tit. 2. s. 25. ~ 10) they are mentioned as if they
head, sometimes made of metal, and sometimes of were distinct. In the annexed cut, taken from
leather, adorned with gold: to this the name of Millin (Peintires de Vases Antiques, vol. ii. pl. 43),
oTAx'7yl was also given, and it appears to have the female on the right hand wears a o-iKcos and
been much the same as the 6&y7rvU (Pollux, vii. that on the left a;g-pa.
179; Bittiger, yanseegemnelde, iii. p. 225; A.lPYx).
But the most common kind of head-dress for
females wits called by the general name of KcEKpVipaAos, and this was divided into the three species
of ItelCcpaXoss, aictios, and t/rpa. The iKeipU- i
Q.pa.os, in its narrower sense, was a caul or coif of
net-work, corresponding to the Latin reticuzluo. It
was worn during the day as well as the night, and -
has continued in use from the most ancient times
to the present day. It is mentioned by Homer
(I1. xxii. 469), and is still worn in Italy and
Spain. These hair-nets were frequently made of
gold-threads (Juv. ii. 96 Petron. 67), sometimes
VWith respect to the colour of the hair, black
i l l \ )'~ll \ l\\S@\9 J was the most frequLent, but blonde (eavOij Kso'Lm)
was the most prized. In Homer, Achilles, Ulys-.
/h11t i{ ~ q' III -\\ ~B ses, and other heroes are represented with blonde
hair (I1. i. 197, Od. xiii. 399, &c.) At a later
time it seems to have been not unfrequent to dye
I hair, so as to make it either black or blonde, and
this was done by men as well as by women, especially when the hair was growing gray. (Pollux,
ii. 35; Aelian, V. /I. vii. 20; Athen. xii. p.
542, d.; Lucian, Amor. 40.)
lROMrAN. Besides the generic conza we also
find the following words signifying the hair: ca