linen only, dyed blue with indigo; but those of better fortune have a black cloak over their linen shirt."
The coarse linen of the Ancient Egyptians was called (
Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Phôsôn).
It was made of thick flax, and was used for towels ((Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: soudaria), Julius Pollux, vii. c. 16.), and for sails ((Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Phôssônas), Lycophron, v.
26.)[1]. (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Phôsôn) may be translated canvass, or sail-cloth.
Fine linen, on the other hand, was called (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Othonê). This term,
as well as the preceding, was in all probability an Egyptian
word, adopted by the Greeks to denote the commodity, to which
the Egyptians themselves applied it. It seems to correspond,
as Salmasius[2], Celsius[3], Forster[4], and Jablonski[5] have observed,
to the (Hebrew characters) "Fine linen of Egypt," in Proverbs vii. 16.
For (Hebrew characters), put into Greek letters and with Greek terminations,
becomes (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonê) and (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonion). Hesychius states, no doubt correctly,
that (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonê) was applied by the Greeks to any fine and thin cloth,
though not of linen[6]. But this was in later times and by a
general and secondary application of the term.
It appears also that in later times (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonê) was not restricted to fine
linen. It is used for a sail by Achilles Tatius in describing a
storm (l. iii.), and by the Scholiast on Homer, Il. (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: s).
Agreeably to the preceding remarks, the (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonai) mentioned in
the two passages of the Iliad may be supposed to have been
procured from Egypt. Helen, when she goes to meet the senators
of Ilium at the Scæan Gate, wraps herself in a white
sheet of fine linen (Il. (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: g). 141.). The women, dancing on the
shield of Achilles (Il. (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: s). 595.), wear thin sheets. These thin
sheets must be supposed to have been worn as shawls, or girt
about the bodies of the dancers. Helen would wear hers so as
to veil her whole person agreeably to the representation of the
- ↑ Jablonski Glossarium Vocum Ægyptiarum, in Valpy's edition of Steph. Thesaur. tom. i. p. CCXCV.
- ↑ Salmasius in Achill. Tat. l. viii. c. 13, (
Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonês chitôn)
- ↑ Celsii Hierobotanicon, t. ii. p. 90.
- ↑ Forster, De Bysso, p. 74.
- ↑ Ubi supra, p. CCXVII.
- ↑ The ancient Scholia (published by Mai and Butmann) on Od. (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: ê) . 107, state
that (Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: othonai) were made both of flax and of wool. The silks of India are called
(Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Othonai sêrika).
