[+]The whole civilization of Athens was, of course, based on a climate in which artificial heat would be very little needed.  A pot of glowing charcoal might be used to remove the chill of a room in the very coldest weather.  Probably an Athenian would have regarded a climate in which furnace heat was demanded nearly eight months in the year as wholly unfit for civilized man.

This simplicity of costume has produced certain important results.  There are practically no tailors in Athens, only cloth merchants, bleachers, and dyers.  Again fashions (at least in the cut of the garments) seldom change.  A cloak that was made in the days of Alcibiades (say 420 B.C.) can be worn with perfect propriety to-day (360 B.C.) if merely it has escaped without severe use or moth holes.  It may be more usual this year to wear one’s garments a little higher or a little more trailing than formerly; but that is simply a matter for a shifting of the pins or of the girdle.

As a result, the Athenian seldom troubles about his “spring” or “winter” suit.  His simple woolen garments wear a very long time; and they have often been slowly and laboriously spun and woven by his wife and her slave girls.  Of course even a poor man will try to have a few changes of raiment,—­something solid and coarse for every day, something of finer wool and gayer color for public and private festivals.  The rich man will have a far larger wardrobe, and will pride himself on not being frequently seen in the same dress; yet even his outfit will seem very meager to the dandies of a later age.

34. the Masculine Chiton, Himation, and Chlamya.—­The essential garments of an Athenian man are only two—­the chiton and the himation.  The chiton may be briefly described as an oblong of woolen cloth large enough to wrap around the body somewhat closely, from the neck down to just above the knees.  The side left open is fastened by fibule—­elegantly wrought pins perhaps of silver or gold; in the closed side there is a slit for the arm.  There is a girdle, and, if one wishes, the skirt of the chiton may be pulled up through it, and allowed to hang down in front, giving the effect of a blouse.  The man of prompt action, the soldier, traveler, worker, is “well girded,”—­his chiton is drawn high, but the deliberate old gentleman who parades the Agora, discussing poetry or statecraft, has his chiton falling almost to a trailing length.  Only occasionally short sleeves were added to this very simple garment; they are considered effeminate, and are not esteemed.  If one’s arms get cold, one can protect them by pulling up the skirt, and wrapping the arms in the blouse thus created.

An Athenian gentleman when he is in the house wears nothing but his chiton; it is even proper for him to be seen wearing nothing else upon the streets, but then more usually he will add an outer cloak,—­his himation.