Though the basic elemts of costume, such as tunics, cloak, hats and scarves are common to most social groups, both lay and ecclesiastical, certain versions of these garments are specialized and associated with specific offices and titles. Costumes in Byzantine society are strictly regulaed and determined by the wearer's office, or role n society, so that there is little distinction between costume and insignia. It is the role of their specialized dress that ahs shaped our image of Byzantine dress.
This is especially true of Byzantine imperial garb, known from the descriptions of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos (tenth century) and Pseudo-Kodinos (fourteenth century) and frim images in art on coins. His war garb, rarely worn in Constantinople, consisted of short tunic, purple boots and cloak, golden breastplate and diademed helmet, and sword, spear and shield. His military dress uniform, far more frequently seen and standard for religious ceremonies, included purple slippers long tight sleeved silk tunic or scaramangion, and the enveloping general's cloak or calmys - a deep arc of gold and/or purple cloth fastened with a fibula on the right shoulder, leaving the right arm free but faling to ankle length over the rest of the body. Most distinctive f all is the triumphal garb: a gold scaramangion, a short-sleeved, golden purple outer tunic or dibitsion, purple outer tunic or dibitision, purple boots and the uniquely Byzantine loros - a long strip of cloth heavily studded with gems, eamels and pearls that is draped around the upper body so that one end hangs to the hem in front and the other end is caught up from behind and thrown over the left arm. Chalmys and loros are worn with the stemma, or crested crown of gold plaques enameled with figures; a cluster of pearls caled pendilia, hung to the shoulder from each side. From the twelfth century n, the emperors have worn the kamelaukion, or closed crown, when they wear the loros.
The empress, too, had both civilian and triumphal costumes, which were very similar in for to the emperor's. Her loros, however, is modified s that the portion drawn around from the rear formed a smooth, shieldlike triangle of cloth tucked int the belt in front and tapering to the right ankle. Her crown, of jeweled or enameled plaques, often comprised several tiers. The imperial bodyguard wore loros, too; hence it became standard for the depiction of archangels, the heavenly bodyguard as well. Courtiers wore the chlamys. Women of the court wear loose outer tunic with long, open sleeves, ornate belts and jewelry, and a domed headdress. Court fabrics are silk, not thinly draped but firm and rich with heavily embroidered cuffs ad hems, generalzing the body shape.
Priests' garments, known from Theodore Balsamon of Antioch (late twelfth century) and from depictions in art, consist essentially of the long, straight-sleeved tunic or sticharion, the looser phelonion or sakos, and the insignia of office. The sticharion initially had embriodery on the sleeves, but by the eleventh century this had passed to richly worked detachable cuffs called epimanikia. The phelonion is a circular garment with a central hole for the had. During the eleventh cenury, the patriarch's phelonion came to be studded with crosses, and this cross-studded phelonion, or polystaurion, is becoming popular amongst the metropolitans. Under the front of his phelonion hangs the priests' stole, or epitrachelion, its two ends sewn together to form a single rich panel. Over the phelonion the bishop wears an omophorion, a long scarf with crosses at the ends, on the shoulders, and at the neck. Bishops also wear a stylized handerchief, or epigonation, a rectangle of stiffened cloth suspended by a string from the belt to hang at knee level below the hem of the polystaurion. Throughout the Byzantine Empire, all priests are bareheaded. Monks, by contrast, wear a shirt, a cotton coat and the heavy, hooded black madyas, or tunic-shaped monastic habit.
There are comparatively few variations in female dress. Most women wear a full-length long-sleeved tunic and the maphorion - a garment which covers the head and shoulder - over a tight haddress to cover their heads. The distinction in dress between married woman and nuns was probably small: nuns wear the maphorion more tightly about the neck, so that no part of their body is visible except face and hands. Female court attire includes tunics of extremely wide, painted sleeves, jeweled sashes or belts and pillowlike headdresses.
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998