Note 1116 — Chapter III · VICTOR STATUES REPRESENTED AT REST.

J. H. S., I, 1880, p. 177. In older days the athletic fillet was called μίτρα (Lat. mitella): Pindar, Ol., IX, 84; Isthm., V, 62 (of wool); Boeckh, Explic. ad Pind., p. 193. In the Iliad μίτρα was the kilt or apron worn around the waist under the cuirass (a ζωστήρ being worn outside): IV, 137; IV, 187; V, 857; etc. It was used also later as a wrestler’s girdle: A. G., XV, 44; and for women’s headbands: Alkm., I; cf. Eurip., Bacchae, 833. Athletes on vase-paintings representing palæstra scenes often wear the fillet: e. g., the wrestlers and other athletes on the Philadelphia r.-f. kylix pictured in Fig. 50, have red bands in their hair. Later the μίτρα was specially used of women; if of men, it was a sign of effeminacy: Aristoph., Thesmophoriazusae, 163. The home of the μίτρα appears to have been Asia, as it was commonly worn by Asiatics: see Hdt., I, 195; VII, 62 (head-dress); Virgil, Aen., IV, 216. We learn from Alkman that it came from Lydia to Greece: fragm. 23, verses 67 f. On it, see Bekker, Charikles, II, pp. 393 f., and Pauly-Wissowa, VII, 2, p. 2033 (Bremer).