Mycenaean Fashions: The Women

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Women's fashion in the Aegean Bronze Age is a large topic, so this post will deal only with clothes, and leave hair and cosmetics for later.  From fresco evidence, it appears Mycenaean women got their fashion sense from the Minoans. 

The basic garment which women wore every day was the shift dress, as shown in the below plate of a woman offering wine to a mounted soldier.  It's basically a long tunic banded across the shoulders and along the hem for added strength.  This garment would have been cut from wool, and worn with a short or long sleeved linen under dress, depending on the weather. 

The more familiar Aegean garment is the flounced skirt, which, if you look at the images very carefully, you can see is actually a wraparound garment.  The skirt was made from a long rectangle to which rows of flounces were sewn; it was then tied around the waist and cinched in with a girdle.  Women would have worn some type of under skirt or petticoat underneath, and for special occasions, would have sewn little bells or appliqués to the flounces to produce a tinkling sound.  Some votive statues like the famous Snake Priestess depict women wearing aprons, but these garments seem to be restricted to religious rituals, perhaps for catching blood during a sacrifice.

The below painting of ladies in the Queen's Megaron at Knossos is charming but somewhat misleading.  It's unlikely that Minoan or Mycenaean women walked around bare-breasted all the time.  Naked breasts denoted fertility, especially given the ample bosoms on display in Bronze Age art, so this was a ritual affair; the women in the painting would be preparing for a ceremony, not spending an average Minoan afternoon in the royal apartment.  The open bodice was worn like a bolero jacket, held in place with a corset that was probably made from leather. 

 

Above, a lady depicted  on a Theran fresco offering a necklace to a goddess.  Notice the seam of her wraparound skirt, and her exposed breasts.

 

The Minoan Snake Priestess from the 2004 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Athens.  She is wearing the ritual apron.  In case you're curious, the costume appears to be a mixture of cloth and synthetic material, maybe rubber, and her breasts possibly a silicone or latex, similar to those worn by drag queens.

Other, more concealing types of bodices were worn.  In the Blue Ladies fresco from Knossos, you can see how the bodice is open all the way down the front yet still covers the breasts; it would have been wore with a shift underneath, which was either opaque enough to conceal the chest, or diaphanous, depending the wearer's mood.