man of the house was away, except for female neighbors, and acted as tutors to the young male children.Wives and daughters were not allowed to watch the Olympic Games as the participants in the games did not wear clothes. Chariot racing was the only game women could win, and only then if they owned the horse. If that horse won, they received the prize. . Women spent much of their time in the courtyard of the house, the one place where they could regularly enjoy fresh air. Athenian cooking equipment was small and light and could easily be set up there. In sunny weather, women sat in the roofed over areas of the courtyard, for the ideal in female beauty was a pale complexion.Womens clothes underwent relatively few changes in style. Greek clothing was very simple. Men and women wore linen in the summer and wool in the winter. The ancient Greeks could buy cloth and clothes in the agora, the marketplace, but that was expensive. Most families made their own clothes, which were simple tunics and warm cloaks, made of linen or wool, dyed a bright color, or bleached white. Clothes were made by the mother, her daughters, and female slaves. They were often decorated to represent the city-state in which they lived.The two most commonly worn garments were the chiton or tunic and the himation or cloak. The chiton came in two styles. Its earlier Doric version, preferred by Athenian women until the end of the 6th century BC, was called the peplos and was made of wool. Cut into a simple rectangle measuring half again the height of the person wearing it, it was folded over, wrapped around the body, and pinned at the shoulders and side. It was sleeveless, with large arm openings. Expensive versions were decorated with elaborate woven figures or designs. The Ionian chiton was made of linen that fell into more elaborate vertical folds than its heavier wool counterpart. The sides were sewn up to create a long cylinder, which was then caught, by a girdle or ...
