coma

cŏma, ae, f., = κόμη,

• the hair of the head (hence barba comaeque, Ov. M. 7, 288), considered as an ornament for the head: comae dicuntur capilli cum aliquā curā compositi, Paul. ex Fest. p. 63, 13 Müll. (class., esp. in poetry and post-Aug. prose; very rare in Cic.).—With adj.: unguentis effluens calamistrata coma, Cic. Sest. 8, 18: madens, id. post Red. in Sen. 6, 13: fulva, ξανθή, Prop. 2, 2, 5: flava, Hor. C. 1, 5, 4; Tib. 1, 5, 44: myrtea, id. 3, 4, 28: longa, Hor. Epod. 11, 28: nitidae, Prop. 3 (4), 10, 14; cf.: spissā te nitidum. Hor. C. 3, 19, 25: odorata, Ov. A. A. 2, 734; cf. ambrosiae, Verg. A. 1, 403: cana, Tib. 1, 6, 86: virides Nereidum, Hor. C. 3, 28, 10: regia (of Berenice), Cat. 66, 93: ventis horrida facta, Tib. 1, 9, 14; cf.: dare diffundere ventis, Verg. A. 1, 319. —With verb: deciderint comae, Hor. C. 4, 10, 3: ne comae turbarentur, quas componi post paulum vetuit. Quint. 11, 3, 148: componere, Ov. H. 12, 156: comere, id. ib. 21, 88; cf.: inustas comere acu, Quint. 2, 5, 12: pectere, Ov. H. 13, 39: in gradus frangere, Quint. 1, 6, 44; cf.: formare in gradum, Suet. Ner. 51: longam renodare, Hor. Epod. 11, 28; cf. id. C. 2, 11, 24: positu variare, Ov. M. 2, 412; cf. ponere, id. F. 1, 406: componere, id. R. Am. 679: rutilare et summittere (after the manner of the Germans), Suet. Calig. 47: sertis implicare, Tib. 3, 6, 64: Delphicā lauro cingere, Hor. C. 3, 30, 16; cf. in a Gr. constr.: fronde comas vincti, id. Ep. 2, 1, 110: scindens dolore intonsam comam, Att. ap. Cic. Tusc. 3, 26, 62 (transl. of Hom.Il. 10, 15).—So of Venus lamenting Adonis: effusā isse comā, Prop. 2 (3), 13, 56; and in a Gr. constr.: scissa comam, Verg. A. 9, 478; cf. Ov. Am. 3, 9, 52; id. H. 12, 63; id. M. 4, 139; Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 110.—
• • • • b Of animals, of the golden fleece: agnus aureā clarus comā, Att. ap. Cic. N. D. 3, 26, 68 (Trag. Rel. v. 211 Rib.); cf. Sen. Herc. Oet. 736.—The mane of lions, Gell. 5, 14, 9; of the horse, Pall. 4, 13, 2.—*
      • c The crest of a helmet, Stat. Th. 8, 389.—
• II Transf., of objects resembling the hair in appearance or in ornamental effect; most freq. acc. to a trope common in most languages, of leaves, grass, etc., foliage, ears, grass, and stalks of trees, etc., Cat. 4, 12; Tib. 1, 4, 30; Prop. 3 (4), 16, 28; Hor. C. 1, 21, 5; 4, 3, 11; 4, 7, 2; Tib. 2, 1, 48; Prop. 4 (5), 2, 14; Ov. Am. 3, 10, 12; id. F. 4, 438; Verg. G. 4, 137; Col. 10, 277, Plin. 13, 4, 7, § 30; 18, 7, 10, § 53; 19, 6, 32, § 102.—
• • • • b The wool or hair upon parchment, Tib. 3, 1, 10.—Poet., of the rays of light, Cat. 61, 78; 61, 99; Sen. Oedip. 311; id. Herc. Oet. 727.

coma, ae, f. (κόμη), I) das Haar, als natürliche Bedeckung des Hauptes, das Haupthaar, a) der Menschen, α) Sing.: calamistrata, Cic.: cana, Tibull.: madens, von Salben triefendes, Cic.: regia, der Berenice, Catull.: comam in gradus frangere od. formare, Quint. u. Suet. – β) Plur. comae rutilae, Tac.: comae promissae et rutilatae, Liv.: comae hirsutae et intonsae, Curt.: comas pectere, Tibull.: comas inustas comere acu, Quint.: comas componere (Ggstz. comas turbare), Quint.: calamistro crispare comas, Hier.: dentibus atque comis uti emptis, falsche Z. u. falsches Haar tragen, Mart. – b) der Tiere, die Mähne der Löwen, comae cervicum fluctuantes, Gell.: der Pferde, Pallad.: dah. poet. = crista, Helmbusch, Stat. Theb. 8, 389. – II) übtr.: a) v. den Blättern od. haarähnlich aufwärts steigenden Gräsern u. Stengeln usw. der Pflanzen (s. Hildebr. Apul. met. 5, 25. p. 369), Laub, Ähren, Gras, Stengel usw., b. Dichtern, Col., Plin. u.a. (vgl. Plin. 16, 78 arborum aliis decidunt folia, aliae sempiternā comā virent): arborum comae vitiumque pampini, Hieron. – b) die Wolle der Schafe, Poëta b. Cic. u. Col.: u. das Wollige, Haarige am Pergamente, Tibull. 3, 1, 10. – c) die Feuer- u. Lichtstrahlen, Sonnenstrahlen, Catull. u. Sen. poët.

1 coma [CL < κόμη] 1 hair: a (human); b (animal). a pulchra comis cirrisque decens et candida vultu Aldh. VirgV 2177; exspectavit ‥ donec illi ~a cresceret, quo in coronam tondi posset Bede HE IV 1; ~ae, loccas vel unscoren hær Ælf. Gl.; 9‥ ~a, feax WW; Ina ‥ non in publico ~am deposuit Chr. Abingd. I 14; quicquid superfluebat ~arum cito abscidit W. Malm. HN 453; in mulieribus que ~am nutrire solent Bald. Cant. Tract. 8. 483A; gens ‥ ~is et barbis luxuriantibus juxta modernas novitates incultissima Gir. TH III 10; que Petronilla ‥ ~am capitis sui ad modum funis composuit et ad cordam unius lampadis in choro posuit Knighton I 63.  b Inst. Sempr. xlii (v. circumtondere a); 1409 in ~a equina empta, iiij d. Ac. Durh. 607. 2 foliage. 9‥ ~a, blæd ‥, ~is vel ramis, bogum WW; coma primula comit / arboreos apices Vinsauf PN 549; frutex ‥ habens ‥ ~am spissam vel spinosam Alph. 197. 3 ‘tail’ of comet. palam est ex lumine et splendore ~e quam trahit cometa quod ~a illa nihil aliud est quam ignis Gros. 37; s1264 cometa ‥ ab oriente ‥ surgens usque ad medium hemispherii versus occidentem ~am perlucidam pertrahebat Trevet 262.

2 coma [ME] , comb. 1395 habetis ‥ ~as pro lana carpenda Cl 236 m. 12; hec ~a, a combe WW.

3 coma v. comma

4 coma v. copia(1a)

cŏma, (8) æ, f. (κόμη), ¶ 1 chevelure [de lʼhomme] : calamistrata coma Cic. Sest. 18, cheveux frisés au fer || toison : Acc. Tr. 211 || crinière : Gell. 5, 14, 9 ; Pall. 4, 13, 2 || panache, aigrette : Stat. Th. 8, 389 ¶ 2 [fig.] chevelure, toison : comæ telluris Col. Rust. 10, 277, les fruits de la terre ; coma nemorum Hor. O. 1, 21, 5, la chevelure des bois, les frondaisons || rayons [dʼune flamme, du soleil] : Catul. 61, 77 || duvet du papier : Tib. 3, 1, 10.

coma , ae. f.
長髮。髮辮。諸菜。羊毛。Comam nutrire vel alere 留頭髮 蓄髮。

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cŏma, ae, f.: capigliatura, chioma

peluria

● pelo, criniera, ciuffo

● fronde, rami frondosi.

coma ae, f

• , κόμη, the hair of the head, hair: calamistrata: flava, H.: intonsa, V.: deciderint comae, H.: compositae, O.: comas religata, H.: positu variare, O.: scissa comam, V.: laniata comas, O.: aurea, the golden fleece.—Foliage, leaves (poet.): redeunt Arboribus comae, H.: hyacinthi, V.—The wool on parchment, Tb.—Sunbeams, rays, Ct.

COMA

COMA(κόμη).

1. Greek.

The word κομᾶνin Greek signifies to wear long hair, and the constant epithet of the Achaeans in Homer is καρηκομόωντες, i. e. with the hair all over the head being allowed to grow. They are thus distinguished from the Abantes (Il. 2.542), who only allowed their back hair to grow long (ὄπιθεν κομόωντες), and the Thracians, who were called ἀκρόκομοι (Il. 4.533), because they wound their hair into a knot on the top of their heads. The gods, too, are represented as having splendid hair: Zeus has ambrosial locks; Apollo is unshorn (ἀκερσεκόμης); and the goddesses and distinguished ladies have beautiful plaits (καλλιπλόκαμοι, εὐπλόκαμοι). By contrast, the vulgar Thersites is represented as almost bald (Il. 2.219). The old scholiasts supposed, probably rightly, that κέρᾳ ἀγλαὲ in Il. 11.385 referred to a horn-shaped lock of hair, and Helbig (Das homerische Epos, p. 166) gives a representation of what he considers this to be. As to the colour of the hair in early times, we hear of yellow hair (ξανθαὶ τρίχες) belonging to several of the characters in Homer: Menelaus (Il. 3.284), Odysseus (Od. 13.399), Demeter (Il. 5.501), Agamede (Il. 11.740); cf. Hes. Th. 947. Unfortunately we have no certain illustration of the way the hair was dressed in Homeric times, and without illustrations we can seldom be very positive as to what descriptions exactly signify; though conversely a little later we must not lay too much stress on archaic statues, as the sculptors, having little command over the material, were forced to observe a greater homogeneity of treatment than was probably observed in the actual arrangements of the hair by the men of their day.

Turning, then, with this proviso, to the ancient statues, we find in them the hair built up in arrangements as stiff and symmetrical as, if not quite similar to, that of the Egyptian and Assyrian statues. The winged Artemis of Delos has an artificial arrangement of spiral curls on the forehead, and stiff symmetrical ringlets hanging down the back and shoulders (see Saglio, Dict. des Antiq. i. fig. 1800). Stiffer still are the front curls and the back ringlets of the Apollo of Orchomenus; and in the Apollo of Tenea there are a series of perpendicular curls on the brow similar one to another, and long hair hanging down the back, divided by horizontal lines into a series of homogeneous divisions. These horizontal lines doubtless point to the threads or thin metal spirals (often of gold or silver) which were fastened in this fashion round the hair. A bas-relief of a discobolus given by Saglio (fig. 1799) exhibits a similar arrangement, except that the back-hair is compressed into a circular roll. It is some arrangement of this sort which is described by Homer (Hom. Il. 17.52), where he tells that Euphorbus had πλοχμοί θ' οἳ χρυσῷ τε καὶ ἀργύρῳ ἐσφήκωντο: and Helbig (Das Hom. Epos, p. 167 ff.) has supposed that this wasp-like fastening was effected by spirals (σύριγγες) of gold or silver. We hardly ever find in the archaic statues the front hair otherwise arranged than in some artificial symmetrical fashion (very frequently with three long ringlets or παρωτίδες beside the ears) of a row or fringe of curls or ringlets (σπεῖπαι), the back hair gradually passing, as time went on, from perpendicular or horizontally arranged locks to a fastening up of the back hair on the crown of the head by means of a band or bands. Illustrations tending to exemplify this may be seen in the following drawings, one representing the head of Apollo from an early Greek sculpture, and the other the head of Hermes, with braided hair, in the Etruscan style, and a sharp pointed beard, from an altar in the museum of the Capitol at Rome. In none of the statues is a band wanting. A very common arrangement is that figured in the cut on the next page of an ephebus of the fifth century, taken by Saglio from Gerhard's Berliner Trinkschale.

Owing to its frequency, this arrangement has been supposed by some archaeologists, e. g. Conze (Nuove Mema. dell' Inst. p. 408 ff.), to be the fashion of wearing the hair noted by Thucydides (1.6) as retained by the Athenians till a short time before he wrote (χρυσῶν τεττίγων ἐνέρσει κρωβύλον ἀναδούμενοι τῶν ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ τριχῶν). The κρωβύλος was a large tuft or bunch of hair, also called κόρυμβος. It is generally supposed that it was on the top of the crown, as in the Belvedere Apollo or the

Venus of the Capitol, or as in the accompanying figure of Artemis in the British Museum: others, as we have seen Conze does, suppose that it was on the back of the neck; and the τέττιξ was a pin for fastening it. Helbig (l. c.) thinks the fashion was the same as that of Euphorbus noticed above, and that the τέττιγες are the metal spirals which compressed the collected hair, and which resembled the sunk--in bodies of grasshoppers. Many such spirals have been found in tombs, just at the head of the corpse; but it is not quite decided whether these were not some kind of ear-ring. Birt (Rhein. Mus. 1878, p. 625 ff.) supposes the τέττιγες to be a kind of clasp (fibula, περόνη), but such is not like the grasshopper. Schreiber (Mitth. der deutschen arch. Instit. 8.246) supposes the arrangement to be the hair drawn back from the ears and coming behind, while in front the hair is raised up in a tuft, and the τέττιγες fasten this front hair. This, indeed, agrees somewhat with the statement of Athenaeus (12. p. 512 c), who distinctly says they were used περὶ τὸ μέτωπον.

In the Archaic period, as both sexes wore their hair long, the difference between the arrangement of the hair of men and women was not marked; but after the Persian wars the men begin to wear short hair; and, sculpture getting a greater mastery over its materials, the symmetry and homogeneous arrangements give place to the diversity of nature. We find heads on which the hair is represented falling into natural heterogeneous curls or ringlets: for example, the Hermes of Praxiteles. (See also the annexed cut of Hermes.) Rich luxurious hair falling in natural folds, such as is seen in the statues of Zeus (see annexed cut), was the ideal which the Greeks of this time conceived (O. Muller, Arch. der Kunst. § 330, 4). Though the men of this age all wore shortened hair, yet they not unfrequently represented ever-youthful gods with long flowing hair fastened up like a woman's: a well-known example is the Apollo Sauroctonos.

Children still wore their hair long, the front hair being tied up in a knot (σκόλλυς) on the crown (O. Müller, op. cit. § 330, 1), or arranged in a long plait or plaits stretching from the forehead across the middle of the crown to the back of the head. (See Saglio, figs. 1809, 1810.) The former is supposed to be the σκορπίος alluded to by the Scholiast on Thucydides (Thuc. 1.6) as the tuft peculiar to children. The hair cut off when the boy became an ephebus was called σκόλλυς by Athen. (11. p. 494 f) and μαλλὸς by Hesychius. It was cut off on the third day of the Apaturia (κουρεῶτις ἡμέρα) [APATURIA], the ceremony being preceded by a libation to Hercules called οἰνιστήρια, and the hair being dedicated sometimes to Apollo (for Theseus went to Delphi or Delos to perform this ceremony, Plut. Thes. 5; cf. Ath. 13. p. 605 a; Theophr. Charact. 21), but generally to some river-god (cf. Il. 23.146, and Eustath. ad loc.; Aesch. Choëph. 6; Paus. 1.37, 2; 7.17-Z2, 4; 8.41-Z2, 3). Besides the ephebi, athletes wore their hair cut very short (Lucian, Dial. Meretr. 5, 3, and the statue of Palaestra in Philostr. Imag. p. 433), as did also certain Cynic and Stoic philosophers (Juven. 2.15; Pers. 3.54; and Jahn ad loc.). A ψιλὴ κεφαλὴ is also recommended to the Christians (Clem. Alex. Paed. 3.11). But it must be carefully remembered that by full-grown Greek men of the Classical period, especially the Ionians, the hair was worn moderately long, and much attention seems to have been bestowed upon it, especially by dandies (Aristoph. Eq. 579; Nub. 14, &c.). Agathon (ap. Ath. 12. p. 528 d) says that long hair was a sign of luxury (κόμας. . . μάρτυρας τρυφῆς).

Different from this was the custom of the Lacedaemonians, among whom the boys wore their hair short (Plut. Lyc. 16) and the men long, considering their hair the cheapest of ornaments (Plut. Apophthegm. Lac. 230, 15), and tradition marking it as one of the institutions of Lycurgus (Plut. Lys. 1: cf. Hdt. 7.208, 209; Plut. Nic. 19; Aristoph. Av. 1281; Aristot. Rhet. 1.9, 26, who considers the wearing of long hair a class-distinction of the Spartans), though doubtless it was an old Dorian custom (Becker-Göll, Charikles, 3. p. 288). There are, however, some assertions seemingly at variance with this opinion. Thus Alcibiades (Plut. Alc. 23; de Adult. 7) is said to have cut his hair close, in order to be like a Spartan; and again they are said to have worn short hair till they defeated the Argives in 550 B.C. at Thyrea (Hdt. 1.82); but this latter is controverted by Plutarch (Plut. Lys. 1), and the former may be some mistake of Plutarch's from the fashions of his own day. The Euboeans wore their hair long at the back (ὀπισθοκόμαι, Poll. 2.28), like the Abantes in Homer; and the Macedonians wore long hair and beard till after the battle of Arbela, when Alexander made them cut both short, so as not to allow themselves to be seized thereby in hand-to-hand conflict (Plut. Thes. 5).

Pollux (2.29) has preserved to us a number of terms signifying different kinds of tonsures, which we can fix with some degree of definiteness. Thus, the garden cut (κῆπος) was the hair cut short on the crown, but raised all round with a crisping iron (Schol. Eur. Tro. 1165); the reverse, the bowl cut (σκάφιον), was the hair cut short all round the head (hence called περιτρόχαλα), with a centre tuft probably left intact (Schol. Ar. Av. 806; Hesych. ad Phot. s. v.; cf. Hdt. 3.8). The latter attached only to slaves and the lower orders (Schol. Ar. Av. 856), and it is to be remembered that a mark of class-distinction between slave and free was established by their hair (τὴν ἀνδραποδώδη τρίχα, Plat. Alcib. 120 B). The Ἑκτόρειος was apparently the hair in front, above the forehead, puffed out, and the back hair flowing about the neck (Poll. 2.30); and the Θησηΐ, the hair cut close in the front (Plut. Thes. 5); while what we should call a fringe appears to have been called προκόττα, and was said to be a peculiarity of the Dorians (Poll. 2.29). Μαλλός, a lock of wool, was used for short round fleecy hair, resembling wool (μαλλοὶ πλοκάμων, Eur. Bacch. 113), such as is seen in some of the early Greek sculptures, particularly in the heads of Hercules.

As to the way Greek women wore their hair, we frequently find in vase-paintings the front hair crisped in a kind of fringe, and the rest fastened back by a band in one long cue, itself tied at the extremity, often in a lump of some size. There nearly always appears to have been some band behind. Sometimes long ringlets hang down the neck underneath the band, as in the statue of Peace at Munich; sometimes the hair is all drawn back in a mass at the back of the neck, as in the Venus of Milo and the Venus de Medici. A not uncommon arrangement for young girls was to have the hair drawn up and fastened in a large bunch on the top of the head; an example is the Victory given by Stackelberg (Gräber der Hellenen, plate 60; cf. pl. 29 and 15). It would be endless to describe all the different forms in which women wore their hair which appear on statues. Saglio (1. p. 1361), Blümner (in Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 618), and Guhl and Koner (fig. 222, p. 205, ed. 4) give a great number of illustrations, which show that they were as various as may be seen in our drawing-rooms to-day. As time went on, the arrangements of the hair came to be more and more artificial and crisped with the curlingtongs, till the climax is reached in the wonderful structures which appear in Roman times. Especial notice is to be taken of the head of Berenice, wife of Ptolemy Soter (Visconti, Icon. grecque, pl. 52, 6 and 7), which exhibits a great number of delicately arranged curled ringlets hanging over the forehead all down the temples and on to the shoulders. The only feature noticeable as common to the different headdresses is that they all tended to narrow the forehead, and we know that such was considered a mark of beauty (see O. Müller, Arch. der Kunst, § 329, 3)

For the barbers and their instruments, see TONSOR; and for the various pomades used, UNGUENTUMBut a word must be said about false hair and dyeing. The wearing of false hair, whether wig (πηνίκη, φενάκη, πρόσθετον, ἔντριχον, κεφαλὴ περίθετος) or front (προκόμιον), a custom which undoubtedly came to the Greeks from the East (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 3.355; Xen. Cyrop. 1.3, 2), is chiefly mentioned of women and effeminate men (Aristoph. Thesm. 258; Ael. VH 1.26; Lucian, Dial. Meretr. 5.3, &c.). As to dyeing, the colour most affected was yellow (ξανθή): see Plut. Amat. 25; Lucian, Amor. 40; Poll. 2.30; Ath. 12. p. 542. It is noticed as something strange that the hair of Atalanta (Ael. VH 13.1) and Lais (Alciphr. Frag. 1) was naturally of this colour. But, as in all ages, it was considered as a mark of being fast for women to wear yellow hair (Menander ap. Clem. Alex. Paed. 3.2); though we find men too choosing this colour, e. g. Demetrius Phalereus (Ath. 12. p. 542). Dyeing was frequently resorted to in order to conceal grey hairs (Ael. VH 7.20).

When Andromache hears of the death of Hector (Il. 22.469), in her distraction she lets fall from her head her ἄμπυξ, a band or fillet fastened from the front of the forehead to the back of the head near the neck [AMPYX]; her κεκρύφαλος or coif (though Buchholz, Die homer. Realien, 2.2, 269, takes it as similar to the tutulus; see below); her πλεκτὴ ἀναδέσμη, a thick puffed-out band at the end of the coif, fastening in the mass of hair enclosed thereby; and her κρήδεμνον, a cloak or mantilla, with lappets hanging down on both the cheeks (hence the plural κρήδεμνα), or, according to Buchholz, a veil, = καλύπτρη. The κρήδεμνον could be drawn at will entirely over the face (Il. 14.184; cf. Helbig, op. cit. pp. 157 ff.). It appears to have been similar to the Latin calantica; see below. As to other fastenings used for the hair, we hear of the στεφάνη, a metal plate resting on the front part of the head, and especially found in representations of goddesses (Il. 18.597). The σφενδόνη (Poll. 5.96) or sling-shaped band was perhaps similar, broad in the middle, where it stood on the forehead, and tapering away towards the extremities; the ὀπισθοσφενδόνη (Aristoph. Thesm. Fr. 320, ed. Kock) was a similar band for the back hair. The στλεγγὶς was, according to Pollux (7.179), a gilt band, and indeed most hairbands were somehow ornamented with gold or silver (ib. 5.96). Those dedicated by Nicias in C. I. A. 2.824, line 10, had raised work in wood (ἐπίτηκτοι ἐν ξύλῳ), and were probably like combs (Boeckh, Staatshaushaltung, ii.3 289, 290). The usual names for ornamental combs were ξάνια or κτένια (Poll. 5.96).

The generic term for any hair-coverings other than regular hats was κεκρύφαλος. They appear

Greek Head-dresses. (From ancient vases.)The left-hand figure on the top wears a κεκρύφαλοξ proper (reticulum). Of the two bottom figures, the one on the left hand wears a μίτρα, and the one on the right a σάκκοξ.

to have been made of silk (Salmas. ad Solin. p. 392), byssus (Paus. 7.24, 7), and wool (Poll. 7.66). Yet κεκρύφαλος was strictly applied to a net, like that in No. 1 of the accompanying cut. The σάκκοι were pouches of thicker stuff, not of net-work, which covered either the whole or part of the head, and were usually coloured (examples in Nos. 2 and 3). Bladders (πομφόλυγες, Aristoph. Thesm. Fr. 320, ed. Kock) appear to have been used for this purpose (Moeris, Att. 222; cf. Martial (Mart. 7.33, 19). The μίτραι. were originally bands which gradually became broader and broader (see No. 4), till they developed into a kind of cap with lappets hanging down over the ears and cheeks, not dissimilar to the κρήδεμνα. They were of bright colours, a non-Grecian article of apparel, and were especially (at least in later times) worn by prostitutes (Serv. ad Aen. 4.216; Mayor on Juven. 3.66).

It has been customary among most peoples to cut off some of the hair as a sign of mourning for the dead. For Grecian examples, see Hom. Od. 4.198; n. 23.135; Eur. Hel. 1087; Iph.Aul. 1438; Lysias, Epitaph. § 60; Athen. 15. p. 675 a. According to Plutarch, indeed (Quaest. Rom. 14 = 2.267, ed. Reiske), it was a custom among the Greeks for the women to shave off their hair in sign of mourning, while the men let the hair grow, each sex reversing its usual practice (cf. Artemid. Oneir. 1.19, who says that the men whose custom it was to wear long hair were philosophers, prophets, priests, kings, rulers, and actors); but these statements no doubt refer solely to Imperial times (Hermann-Blümner, Privatalt. p. 370, note 1). In an interesting section of his Ceremonial Institutions( § 361) Mr. Herbert Spencer, with great wealth of illustration from tribes and nations in all parts of the world, shows how cutting off the hair, like most other mutilations, is a sequence of trophy-taking, and, whether used as a class-distinction or in religious ceremonial (especially in ceremonies to the dead), it betokened the subjection of the shorn man either to his fellow-man or to the gods. We still observe the practice of cutting the hair in order to mark our convicts.

2. Roman. 2. Roman.

The Romans in early days used to wear long hair (Liv. 5.41, 9; Cic. Cael. 14, 33), and they often speak of their incompti avi (Ov. Fast. 2.30): cf. also Hor. Od. 2.15, 11; Juven. 5.30, and Mayor on Juven. 16.31. The coin representing Quirinus, struck under Augustus, represented him as having long ringlets hanging down his back (cf. Verg. A. 6.810). In 300 B.C. we are told that Titinius Mena introduced barbers into Rome from Sicily (Varro, R. R. 2.11, 10; Plin. Nat.7.211). Whether this was the case or not may be disputed; certain it is that we have the story of Attus Navius pointing to the knowledge of the razor in most remote times: perhaps it was the scissors (forfex), which was introduced about 300 (Marquardt, Privatleben, 581). At any rate, it was from about that time that it became the custom to wear the hair cut short, and it was only in times of misfortune (e. g. when M. Livius was disgraced: Liv. 27.34, 5), or from exceptional circumstances, as in foreign countries in order to appear more imposing to the inhabitants (e.g. Scipio in Africa, Liv. 28.35, 6), that a Roman allowed his hair to grow. The men wore their hair cut quite short, and let it lie without making any division, either quite flat or curled (crispus) or waving (capillo leniter inflexo), according as nature willed it, using no artificial dressing whatsoever further than combing it on feast days (cf. Hor. Od. 1.15, 14). On statues we generally find the hair brushed forward on the head, so that the forehead was narrowed, a narrow forehead being considered by the Romans, as by the Greeks, a mark of beauty (Hor. Epist. 1.7, 26; Carm. 1.33, 5; Mart. 4.42, 9). This is seen in the fine coin of Antonius annexed. The hair hanging over the forehead like a fringe was called capronae (Lucil. op. Non. p. 22; Apul. Flor. 3. p. 342; Fest.p. 48, M.), while the locks which hung on each side down the temples were called antiae (Apul.

l. c.; Fest. p. 17, M.). Both the capronae and antiae are seen in the annexed figure of Cupid from the British Museum. To be sure, dandies paid elaborate attention to their hair, wearing artificially arranged curls and fringes crisped with the curling-tongs and soaked with unguents, but are spoken of with contempt for so doing (Cic. Cat. 2.1. 0, 22; Sest. 8, 18; Rose. Am. 46, 135; Pis. 11, 25). The ordinary simple way of wearing the hair continued under the early empire, the statues of Augustus and his immediate family exhibiting it (Visconti, plates 18 ff.). Nero indeed (ib. pi. 30, 3) and Otho (31, 6) appear to have arranged their hair in tiers of curls (comam in gradus formatam, Suet. Nero 51); but they were notorious fops, and fops always spent much time and trouble on the arranging of their hair, preferring disorder in the state than in their curls (Senec. de brev. Vitae, 12, 3, a vigorous declamation on the extravagance in this direction).

We find true Romans, like Trajan (Visconti, pl. 36, 4 and 5), wearing their hair combed quite plainly, forward from the crown towards the forehead. Some of the Antonines, especially the luxurious Lucius Verus, appear with highly-crisped and curled hair, as indeed do several statues of M. Aurelius (ib. pl. 41) and his son Commodus; but in the reign of M. Aurelius it became the custom to wear the hair cut quite short (ἐν χρῷ), like the austere philosophers; and as we see from coins and statues, e. g. Alex. Severus (ib. pl. 52, 1 and 2) and Trebonianus Gallus (pl. 57, 1 and 2), ,, this practice continued, except in the case of Elagabalus and Gallienus (pl. 51 and 57), down to the time of Diocletian, when the hair appears a little longer, but combed quite flat down on the crown without division, and cut evenly round the forehead. See the figures on the broken disc in Saglio (fig. 1852), and the busts of Constantine the Great in Visconti (pl. 61, 1 and 2). A fine medal of Constantine (Saglio, fig. 1853) shows us the hair worn still longer, but yet not of any extreme length, with a fringe of short curls on the forehead and the neck covered with similar curls. After this time there appears to have been a great deal of attention paid to the adornment of the hair, and the barbers were people of no small pretensions, as may be seen from the story of Julian and the barber in Ammian. 22.4, 9-10, and the Misopogon of the emperor himself.

Boys appear ordinarily to have had their hair cut short, and combed forward on the forehead like the men. See the bust of Marcellus in Visconti (pl. 19, 6 and 7), Drusus (ib. 23), Annius Verus (ib. 42), Commodus (ib. 44), Philip (ib. 55). Sidonius (Ep. 4.13) says it was cut round the forehead in rotae specimen. But young boys employed in the service of religion (the Camilli) are always represented as wearing long hair (e. g. on the Column of Trajan); and favourite boy-slaves employed to wait at table are especially noted as comati (Mart. 12.70, 9; Lucian, Saturn. 24). Similar terms are capillati, cincinnatuli. Seneca (Ep. 95, 24) even says that the arrangement of their hair formed one of the modes of classification of such slaves.

In the case of men, dyeing the hair black (Mart. 3.43) and blonde (Trebell. Gallien. 21, 4) is well attested (cf. Mart. 4.36, &c.). Wigs (capillamenta, galeri) are also mentioned (Suet. Cal. 11; Nero, 26; Otho, 12), and remains of wigs have been found in the Catacombs (Marquardt, Privatleben, p. 586).

2. Women's hair.

Binding the hair back in a plain knot with fillets (vittae), occasionally with a plait in front, appears to have been the ordinary arrangement followed by maidens (Ov. Met. 8.319; 3.170-Z2), and such is seen on coins representing Diana, Victory, &c., struck during the republic, the knot being sometimes on the back of the crown, sometimes lower down on the back of the head or on the neck; sometimes, however, on the middle of the crown. All artificial arrangements, curls, ringlets, &c., were considered meretricious (Plaut. Truc. 2.2, 32). At marriage the dressing of their hair was altered (Tert. de Virg. Vel. 12). It was one of the wedding ceremonies for the bridegroom to divide the hair of the bride with the caelibaris hasta (Ov. Fast. 2.560; Festus, s. v.) into six divisions (sex crines: see Festus, s. v. senis crinibus), and these were fastened up with a different (Val. Max., 1) kind of vitta (Serv. ad Aen. 7.403) on the crown of the head (cf. Plaut. Mil. 3.1, 196 ; Prop. 5.11, 33; 5.3-Z2, 15). The matrons also in ancient times wore a high mass of hair on the crown, which was called tutulus, and Varro (L. L. 7.44) likens it to a boundary stone (meta); but it ceased to be worn in comparatively early times, though we do not know when (for ornatrix a tutulis in Wilmann's Ex. Inscr. 203 has been proved by Henzen to be not genuine), and the vittae came to be the special mark of the matron (Ov. A. A. 1.31; Pont. 3.3, 51), the tutulus being retained only by the Flaminica (Festus, s. v. tutulus).

In the early empire Ovid (A. A. 3.149) says that there were as many ways of ladies dressing their hair as there were bees in Hybla. But though they varied, as in our own days, according to what was considered becoming by the individual (and Ovid gives numerous precepts on that point), yet there were no very elaborately constructed arrangements. We find the hair divided in the middle by a plait stretching from the forehead across the crown to the back of the neck; sometimes instead of the plait a tuft of hair on the front of the forehead (the tonuis frons being in all cases aimed at), but the hair was let wave in natural folds along the temples and head. For different varieties see Livia (in Visconti, pl. 19, 1); Agrippina (pl. 24*, 1 and 2). However, as time went on, the way in which the hair was arranged became more and more artificial, with curls and ringlets in front and plaits behind, till the most wonderful structures came to be erected towards the latter end of the first century and the beginning of the second. (See cuts opposite.) The next cut, representing Julia, daughter of Titus, gives an example of them, as well as the annexed coin of Marciana, the sister of Trajan, and also the cut above (No. 3) representing Sabina, wife of Hadrian. These drawings show what Juvenal and Martial allude to in several passages (Mart. 2.66; Juven. 6.492, 502; Stat. Silv. 1.2, 114). We can understand how severe the duty must have been on the unhappy tire-women. The whole diadem-like arrangement appears to have been called orbis, and the single ringlet annulus. The hair, too, was frequently adorned with jewels (Plin. H.

N. 9.117; cf. Clem. Alex. Paed. 2.2 and 11). St. Paul (1 Tim. 2.9) and St. Peter (1 Pet. 3.3) felt bound to warn Christian women against such braiding of the hair. During the whole of the second century there continued the most artificial arrangements of ladies' hair, but we find crisped curls in front giving way to plaits ; but these latter were no less employed to build up tower-like structures on the front part of the head. Such structures, however, which must have been excessively uncomfortable, gradually (see the bust of Faustina in Saglio, fig. 1864) went out of fashion (see Lucilla in Visconti, pl. .43); and in the third century waving hair (e. g. Crispina, pl. 45; Julia Domna, pl. 48; Plautilla, pl. 49, No. 4 above) appears to have been sought after,--though very likely the high arrangements of the preceding century continued to be worn, especially in the provinces (Tert. de Cult. Fem. 2.7; and later St. Jerome, de Viry. serv. Ep. 8)--till we arrive at such elegant simplicity as may be seen in the bust of Soaemis (pl. 51) or Mammaea (p1. 52, 5), though the hair of the latter appears to have been fastened behind with a mass of what looks like false plaits. From the time of Alexander Severus onward the arrangement adopted was to draw the back hair up and fasten it on the crown. This was sometimes done simply, as in the accompanying cut of Helena, or it was drawn up over a chignon; sometimes it was plaited, and then fastened up, either simply as in the coin of Herennia (Saglio, fig. 1869) or wound round in circles rising one above the other on the top of the head (ib., fig. 1873)--like a tower, says Prudentius (Psych. 183). The figure of Galla Placidia in the diptych of Monza (ib., fig. 1874) shows two massive plaits of hair on the top of the head, one slightly higher and behind the other. It is noticeable that statues of the third and later centuries have often movable hair, so that it could be altered to suit the taste of each period; see Visconti, vol. 3.181, 192.

Women, of course, as well as men dyed their hair both black (Plin. Nat.26.164) and especially auburn, often to cover grey hairs (Ov. A. A. 3.163). The practice is as old as Cato's time (cf. Serv. ad Aen. 4.698: in Catone legitur de matronarum crinibus: flavo cinere unctitabant ut rutilae essent). In later times it was effected by a kind of pomade called spuma Batava or caustica (Mart. 8.33, 20; 14.26-Z2). It is noticed by Marquardt (Privatl. p. 764) that Galen (15.185, ed. Kuhn) declares that ξανθός, yellow or golden hair, is sometimes incorrectly used for πυρρός, red.

False hair was used by ladies in the time of the early empire (Ov. A. A. 3.165), and later (Mart. 5.68, 12.23-Z2); also wigs, generally yellow (galeri, Juven. 6.120; corymbia, Petr. 110; capillamenta, Tert. de Cult. Fem. 2.7), and chignons (caliendra, Her. Sat. 1.8, 48). We find the hair for these was imported, especially from Germany (Mart. 5.68), and even from India (capilli Indici, Dig. 39, 4, 16, 7).

The hair was fastened up with hair-pins (acus crinales, Apul. Met. 8.13; acus comatoria, Petron. 21) [Acus], and combs (pectines), which we find made of boxwood (Juven. 14.194), ivory (Claud. de Nupt. Honor. et Mar. 102), and tortoiseshell (Ov. A. A. 3.147). The hair was also at times fastened with bands (diademata) of gold set with jewels (Isid. Orig. 19.31; cf. Ov. Am. 3.13, 25; Lampr. Hel. 23), like the Greek στεφάνη. As to nets, the women used to wear reticula (Nonius, p. 542), sometimes made of gold threads (Juven. 2.96; Petr. 67). The mitra (Juven. 3.66) has been explained above; while the calautica or calantica or calvatica (Cic. in Clod. et Cur. ed. Orelli, 5.2, p. 336) was a cap with lappets covering the ears and with two strings for tying under the chin. Ausonius (Perioch. Odyss. v.) uses it to translate the κρήδεμνον of Homer, and it is used as nearly synonymous with mitra by Serv. ad Aen. 9.616. Nonius (p. 537) says it was worn by women only.

The chief works on the subject of the hair of the ancients are Salmasius, Epistola de caesarie virorum et mulierum coma, 1644; Krause, Plotina, 1858; Becker-Göll, Charikles, 3.287 f. ; Gallus, 3.237 if., 269 ff.; Hermann-Blümner, Privatalterthümer, 204 ff.; Guhl and Koner, Leben der Griechen und Römern(ed. 4), 200 ff., 623 ff.; Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer, 579-588; Blümner in Baumeister's Denkmäler, art. Haartracht and Kopfbedeckung; Helbig, Das homerische Epos, pp. 157-170; but, above all, the article in Saglio, Dict. des Antiquités, on Coma. All descriptions must, however, be supplemented by carefully looking through such illustrated works as the volumes of plates belonging to Visconti's Iconographie grecque and Iconographie romaine.

[L.C.P]

Coma

(κόμη). The hair of the head. Besides this general term, there are various other words, both in Greek and Latin, signifying the hair, each of which acquires its distinctive meaning from some physical property of the hair itself or from some peculiarity in the mode of arranging it, the principal of which are as follows: (1) Ἔθειρα, a head of hair when carefully dressed.

(2) Χαίτη, properly the mane of a horse or lion, is used to signify long, flowing hair.

(3) Φόβη, when accurately used, implies the hair of the head in a state of disorder incident to a person under a sense of fear.

(4) Ποκάς, from πείκω or πέκω, the hair when combed and dressed.

(5) Θρίξ, a general term for hair, from the plural of which the Romans perhaps borrowed their word tricae—τρίχωσις and τρίχωμα are used in the same sense.

(6) Κόρση ( αττ.κόρρη), from the old word κόρ, “the head,” signifies properly the hair on the top of the head; and hence a particular fashion of arranging the hair among the Greek women was termed κόρυμβος; or, when worn in the same style by the men, it was designated by another derivative from the same word, κρώβυλος. To produce this effect the hair was drawn up all round the head from the front and back, and fastened in a bow on the top, as exemplified in the two preceding busts—one of the Apollo Belvedere, the other of Artemis—from the British Museum.

Instead of a band, the people of Athens fastened the bow with an ornamental clasp, fashioned like a grasshopper, to show that they were aborigines. Κρώβυλος is also used for a cap of network. (See Calantica.)

(7) Μαλλός, which properly means wool, was also used for the short, round, curly hair, which resembles the fleece of a lamb, such as is seen in some of the early Greek sculptures, particularly in the heads of Heracles, one of which is subjoined from a specimen in the British Museum.

(8) Κέρας was a Greek term used when the hair was combed up from the temples on each side, so as to give it the appearance of two horns, as is seen in the heads of fauns and satyrs, and in the bust of Zeus on the following page.

(9) Κίκιννος, πλοχμός, χλιδαί, the hair which falls in ringlets, either natural or artificial, which was sometimes called βόστρυχος and πλόκαμος. All these terms, when strictly appropriated, seem to designate that singular style of coiffure which is observable in Etruscan and early Greek works, and common to both sexes, as is seen in the casts from the temple of Athené at Aegina in the British Museum.

Besides the generic coma, the Romans made use of the following terms, expressive of some peculiar qualities in the hair, or particular mode of arrangement: (1) Capillus, according to the old etymologists, quasi capitis pilus.

(2) Crinis, the hair when carefully dressed.

(3) Caesaries, which is said, though without much probability, to be connected with caedo, the hair of the male sex, because they wore it short, whereas the women did not.

(4) Cincinnus, κίκιννος, the hair when platted and dressed in circles, like the head on page 17 (s.v. Acus), as it is still worn by the women of Mola di Gaieta (Formiae). Martial terms these circles anuli, and Claudian orbes.

(5) Cirrus, a lock of curly hair. The locks which fell over the forehead were termed capronae (προκόμιον), the modern “bang” or “fringe”; those which fell from the temples over the ears, antiae. Both the antiae and capronae are accurately traced in the figure of Cupid bending his bow, in the British Museum, from which the accompanying illustration is taken.

All the Greek divinities are distinguished by a characteristic coiffure, modified in some respects as the arts progressed, but never altered in character from the original model; so that any person tolerably conversant with the works of Greek art may almost invariably recognize the deity represented from the disposition of the hair. We proceed to specify some of the principal ones.

The head of the lion is the type upon which that of Zeus is formed, particularly in the disposition of the hair, which rises from the forehead and falls back in loose curls down the sides of the face, until it forms a junction with the beard. This is made clear by the two preceding illustrations, one of which is from a statue of Zeus in the Vatican, supposed to be a copy of the Phidian Zeus; and the other is a lion's head from the British Museum. The same disposition of the hair is likewise preserved in all the real or pretended descendants from Zeus, such as Aesculapius, Alexander, etc.

Pluto or Serapis has the hair longer, straighter, and lower over the forehead, in order to give severity to the aspect, and with the modius on his head, as represented in the above drawing from the British Museum. The modius is decorated with an olive branch, for oil was used instead of wine in sacrifices to Pluto.

The hair of Poseidon is cut finer and sharper than that of Zeus. It rises from the forehead, and then falls down in flakes, as if wet, in the manner represented in the accompanying head from the British Museum.

Apollo is usually represented with the κρώβυλος; but when the hair is not tied up on the top of the head it is always long and flowing over the neck and shoulders, as represented in the annexed illustration from a very beautiful and early Greek sculpture in the British Museum. Hence he is called intonsus and ἀκερσεκόμης.

Dionysus also wears his hair unshorn; for he, as well as Apollo, is typical of perpetual youth.

In the mature age of Greek art, Hermes has short curly hair, as represented by the head on the left hand in the illustration below, from a statue in the Vatican, which was for a long time falsely ascribed to Antinoüs; but in very early Greek works he is represented with braided hair, in the Etruscan style, and a sharp-pointed beard (see the right-hand illustration, from an altar in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome), whence he is termed σφηνοπώγων.

Hercules has short, crisp hair, like the curls between the horns of a bull, the head of which animal formed the model for his, as is exemplified in the subjoined drawings, one being the head of the Farnese Hercules, the other that of a bull, from a bas-relief at Rome, in which all the characteristics of Hercules, the small head, thick neck, and particular form of the hair, are strongly preserved.

The hair of Heré or Iuno is parted in the front, and on the top of the head is a kind of diadem, called in Latin corona, and in Greek σφενδόνη, from its resemblance to a sling, the broad part of which is placed above the forehead, while the two lashes act as bands to confine the hair on the sides of the head and fasten it behind, in the manner represented in the annexed illustration from the British Museum.

Pallas is rarely seen without her helmet; but when portrayed with her head uncovered the hair is tied up in a knot at some distance from the head, and then falls from the band in long parallel curls.

Aphrodité and Artemis are sometimes adorned with the κόρυμβος; but both these divinities are more frequently represented with their hair dressed in the simple style of the young Greek girls, whose hair is parted in front, and conducted round to the back, so as to conceal the upper part of the ears. It is then tied in a plain knot at the nape of the neck, or, at other times, though less frequently, at the top of the head; both of which fashions are represented in the two illustrations subjoined; one, that on the right, Niobé, and the other from a bas-relief at Rome.

False hair, or wigs, φενάκη, πηϝίκη, κόμαι προσθέται, τριχὲς προσθέται, galerus, corymbium, caliendrum, capillamentum, were also worn by the people of both countries (Mart.v. 68; xii. 23), and much esteemed by them.

Several passages of Latin literature show the fondness of the Roman women for blond hair, quantities of which were imported from Germany to be made up into wigs. (See Juv. vi. 120; Ovid. A. A. iii. 163.) Hence, in some of the statues, the hair was gilt, remains of which are discernible in the Venus dei Medici and in the Apollo of the Capitol; and both sexes dyed their hair when it grew gray (Plin. H. N. xxvi. 164).

In very early times the Romans wore their hair long, as was represented in the oldest statues during the age of Varro, and hence the Romans of the Augustan Age designated their ancestors intonsi and capillati. But this fashion did not last after the year B.C. 300, as appears by the remaining works of art. The women, too, dressed their hair with simplicity, at least until the time of the emperors, and probably much in the same style as those of Greece; but at the Augustan period a variety of different head-dresses came into fashion, many of which are described by Ovid. Four specimens of different periods are given below. The first head on the left represents Octavia, the niece of Augustus, from the Museum in the Capitol at Rome; the next, Messalina, fifth wife of the emperor Claudius; the one below, on the left, Sabina, the wife of Hadrian; and the next, Plautilla, the wife of Caracalla, which last three are from the British Museum.

Both countries had some peculiar customs connected with the growth of their hair and illustrative of their moral or physical conditions. The Spartans combed and dressed their heads with especial care when about to encounter any great danger, in which act Leonidas and his followers were discovered by the spies of Xerxes before the battle of Thermopylae. The sailors of both nations shaved off their hair after an escape from shipwreck or other heavy calamity and dedicated it to the gods. In the earlier ages, the Greeks of both sexes cut their hair close in mourning; but subsequently this practice was more exclusively confined to the women, the men leaving theirs long and neglected, as was the custom among the Romans.

In childhood—that is, up to the age of puberty— the hair of the males was suffered to grow long among both nations, when it was clipped and dedicated to some river or deity, from thence called κουροτρόφος by the poets, and therefore to cut off the hair means to take the toga virilis. At Athens this ceremony was performed on the third day of the festival Apaturia, which is therefore termed κουρεῶτις.

In both countries the slaves were shaved as a mark of servitude. On barbers, see Tonsor.

The Vestal Virgins also cut their hair short upon taking their vows; which rite still remains in the Roman Church, in which all women have their hair cut close upon taking the veil. The hair was fastened up with hair-pins (acus crinales) and combs (pectines), which we find made of boxwood, ivory, and tortoise-shell. The hair was also at times fastened with bands (diademata) of gold set with jewels, like the Greek στεφάνη. As to nets, the women used to wear reticula, sometimes made of gold threads. The mitra (Juv.iii. 66) has been explained elsewhere, and the calautica, or calantica, or calvatica was a cap with lappets covering the ears and with two strings for tying under the chin. Nonius says it was worn by women only. For other matters relating to the modes of dressing the hair, etc., see Acus; Diadema; Mitra; Pecten; Reticulum.