VIII Footgear Footgear
The practice of covering the feet seems to have varied somewhat among the Greeks. In all probability it was the custom to go barefoot indoors, and the habit prevailed among certain classes of going always unshod in the street also. It was a mark of hardihood in the Spartan youths always to go barefoot, and at Athens, in addition to the lower orders, who probably never wore shoes, philosophers and those who affected a simple life were in the habit of going unshod. That Socrates rarely covered his feet is proved by more than one reference in Plato’s Dialogues;—Phædrus187 speaks of him as ἀεὶ ἀνυπόδητος, “always unshod,” and in the Symposium188 we learn that for the occasion of Agathon’s banquet Socrates has washed and put on his shoes, ἃ ὀλιγάκις ἐποίει, “which he seldom did.”
Other references in literature show that he was not the only philosopher who preferred to have his feet untrammelled.189
The normal fashion, however, for people of good breeding was to wear sandals or shoes out of doors, and we learn from Aristophanes190 that the Athenians at least were particular about the fit;—to “swim about” in large boots was a mark of boorishness. Xenophon191 notices the division of labour in the shoemakers’ trade, where he mentions at least four different hands employed in making a pair of shoes.
The simplest form of footgear was the sandal, the πέδιλον of Homer, the ὑπόδημα of later times; this consisted of a leather sole cut to the shape of the foot and fastened on by means of straps or thongs, passing sometimes round the instep, sometimes between the toes and round the heel and ankle.192 At times a piece of skin was attached to the sandal at the back, so as to cover the back of the heel, or even to wrap round the instep entirely, leaving only the toes bare;193 from this form of sandal the ἔμβας, or slipper, was probably developed. This is described by Pollux194 as εὐτελὲς μὲν ὑπόδεμα, Θράκιον δὲ τὸ εὕρημα, “a cheap shoe, of Thracian invention.” Its name suffices to show that the foot was inserted into the ἔμβας, in contradistinction to the sandal, which was bound under the foot; and the epithet signifies that it covered the foot completely. This description could be applied to many varieties of shoes and boots represented in extant art. Fig. 46 (e and f) gives two examples of shoes—e being an ordinary soft shoe covering the foot completely to the ankle, f is turned up at the toes, like a modern Greek shoe, and reaches above the ankle at the back. A vase at the British Museum represents a woman cleaning a shoe of this shape. We learn from Aristophanes195 that shoes were cleaned with blacking made of pitch and applied with a sponge; they were usually black, except when the leather was allowed to retain its natural colour. The word ἔμβας seems to have been used for various kinds of foot-covering; in Aristophanes it refers sometimes to a kind of easy slipper worn by old men,196 and in other instances it is used of any ordinary shoe or boot. The mention by Pollux of its Thracian origin perhaps refers to the high boot turned over at the top, frequently represented on vase-paintings as being worn by horsemen with the Thracian cloak and petasos.197 Different varieties of this kind of boot are to be seen in Fig. 46 (g, h, i, and j).
An article in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire suggests an Asiatic origin, and indeed the resemblance between Greek boots and those represented on Assyrian monuments is striking. A comparison is actually made by Herodotus198 between Assyrian boots and Bœotian ἐμβάδες.
It is quite possible that boots of this kind may have come to Greece from the East by way of Thrace, and the fact that Dionysus is very frequently represented wearing them seems to add confirmation to this conjecture.
A variety of the ἐμβάδες is to be found in the ἐνδρομίδες, a kind of boot worn by runners, as also by Hermes, Artemis, and the Amazons. They seem to have had no flap at the top, and to have been laced over a tongue either through holes or round buttons.199 Another kind seems to have consisted of strips of cloth or leather, or possibly felt, wound round the legs like the modern puttees.
The word κρηπίδες is frequently used of some kind of foot-covering, and we learn from Theocritus200 and from Pollux201 that these were worn by soldiers. The κρῆπις was probably some kind of sandal with a thick sole and stout straps interlacing one another in such a way as to form a protection for the heel and instep.202 Pliny203 tells us that sometimes they had nails in them.
Many varieties of shoes or boots are mentioned by Pollux204 and other ancient writers. We read of ἀρβύλαι, ἀρβυλίδες, a cheap kind of boot worn on journeys; βλαυταί, light sandals with latchets, called also κονιπόδες, from the fact that they allowed the feet to get covered with dust; εὐμάριδες, Persian slippers of yellow kid; Περσικαί, cheap white shoes worn by women, especially by hetairæ; Λακωνικαί, distinguished by their red colour—these were probably the same as the Ἁμυκλαί mentioned by Theocritus. One of the archaic female statues in the Acropolis Museum at Athens wears red shoes. Wood was sometimes used for sandals. Pollux tells us that κρουπέζια were a special kind of wooden sandal used for dancing, and that Pheidias represented Athene Parthenos wearing Τυρρηνικά, sandals with high rectangular wooden soles and gold latchets.
Other shoes are too numerous to mention, and cannot be identified with certainty.