Page:The Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean, including the Shield of Hercules - Elton (1815).djvu/149

And kid-skins 'gainst the rigid season sew^[1]
With sinew of the bull, and sheltering throw
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$Athwart thy shoulders when the rains impend;
And let a well-wrought cap^[2] thy head defend,
And screen thine ears, while drenching showers descend.

1. And kid-skins ’gainst the rigid season sew.] This was a sort of rough cloak of skins common to the country people of Greece.
   Stripp’d of my garberdine of skins, at once
   I will from high leap down into the waves.
   Theocritus, Idyl. iii. 25.
   
   
   Grævius quotes Varro as authority for a similar covering being worn among the Romans: by soldiers in camp, by mariners, and poor people.
2. A well-wrought-cap.] In very ancient times the cap answered no other purpose for the head than the sock, which was worn inside the shoe, did for the foot. The helmets were lined with it. Of this kind was that of the helmet which Ulysses, Odys. x. received from Merion:
   Without it was secured
   With boar’s-teeth ivory-white, inserted thick
   On all sides, and with woollen head-piece lined.
   Cowper.
   
   
   Eustathius tells us, that in after-times they gave the same term, πιλος, to any covering for the head, and thus they ascribed to Ulysses a cap such as they then used. Thus as the club is the badge of Hercules, so is the cap of Ulysses: as appears from coins and other antiques. The ancient Greeks did not use any covering for the head: and it was from them that the Romans borrowed the custom of going bare-headed. They used caps only on journeys; in excessive heat or cold; or in rainy weather.