S.G. Rowland

[ID: A page of a play. It reads as follows, "Theseus: Stop. Give me your hand. I am your friend. / Herakles: I fear to stain your clothes with blood. / Theseus: Stain them, I don't care." End text.]

Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, 552-569. Translation by Richard Jebb.

Theseus I cannot counsel you . . . rather than to go on suffering. There is not a man alive that has wholly escaped misfortune's taint, [1315] nor any god either, if what poets sing is true. Have they not intermarried in ways that law forbids? Have they not thrown fathers into ignominious chains to gain the sovereign power? Still they inhabit Olympus and brave the issue of their crimes. [1320] And yet what shall you say in your defence, if you, a child of man, take your fate excessively hard, while they, as gods, do not? No, then, leave Thebes in compliance with the law, and come with me to the city of Pallas. There, when I have purified you of your pollution, [1325] I will give you homes and the half of all I have. Yes, I will give you all those presents I received from the citizens for saving their fourteen children, when I slew the bull of Crete; for I have plots of land assigned me throughout the country; these shall henceforth [1330] be called after you by men, while you live; and at your death, when you have gone to Hades' halls, the whole city of Athens shall exalt your honor with sacrifices and a monument of stone. For it is a noble crown of a good reputation [1335] for citizens to win from Hellas, by helping a man of worth. This is the return that I will make you for saving me, for now you are in need of friends. But when the gods honor a man, he has no need of friends; for the god's aid, when he chooses to give it, is enough.

Euripides' Heracles, 1313-1339. Translation by E.P. Coleridge.

Fleeing blood pollution: Philochoros says that the Pallantidai were destroyed by Theseus in the following way [frg. 108]. “When Pallas had in mind to attack the Athenians, he openly set out with his force towards the city, taking the route from Sphettos. Meanwhile his sons, in accordance with their father’s plan, set up an ambush at Gargettos with their companions. The intention was for Pallas to make a synchronized attack, when the sons made their sortie against the Athenians. With this first assault, they hoped to take the city. A man who acted as herald for Pallas, informed Theseus of what was happening. Theseus immediately attacking with his companions, annihilated them.” The story goes like this: Nisos and Pallas and Aigeus were three brothers, all sons of Pandion. Nisos dwelt at Megara, while Aigeus and Pallas came from separate districts since synoecism had not yet taken place in Attika. It is said that Theseus, who was first cousin of the sons of Pallas, destroyed one of them who was plotting to claim the kingdom. [Others told the story thus. They say that Theseus destroyed the Pallantid sons, while they were lying in ambush in order to attack the city.] But there was a law that, because of the pollution, those who shed the blood of kindred and relatives should suffer a year’s banishment: he therefore made himself an exile. He also transferred his wife to nearby Troizen (where he had kindred), separating himself from her and from the whole Peloponnese. It was customary for those avoiding trial for murder to spend one year in exile from the fatherland.

Scholia in Euripidem, vol. 2, ed. E. Schwartz. Berlin 1891. Hippolytos 35 – pp. 9-10. Translation by Mary Emerson.

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!