In The Iliad it's mentioned that Helen wears a veil. With "veil" I automatically imagined something similar to what is often used in weddings nowadays (more specifically, translucent ones) but tied back with some accessory instead of covering her face (the translation I read of The Iliad says that Helen has "beautiful braids", so I imagine she had an intricate hairstyle. Considering she is shown having female servants, I imagine they did them for Helen) and probably with a colorful color. I looked up Greek veils to get an idea and it seemed to me that they were more non-translucent cloths that sat on top of the head, some tied to cover the hair and others kind of loose (I saw statues and images of them that showed them kind of long when placed loosely, including). Some seemed to be "fitting" into the dresses, but that could just be me being confused by the images I saw being colorless.
My ask is: do you have any idea what kind of ancient Greek veil Homer was probably referring to?
Hello! It's very unlikely that the Iliad was written by one person, and it's more likely that many Greek artists throughout the centuries added their own parts or embellished some existing lyrics. There are many clear anachronisms in the text. Likely, the geometric era gals did not cover their hair (from the art I've seen) but a singer in the classical era considered it weird to sing a song about a queen with uncovered hair.
It might be that the old text remained next to the new one, that's why you see the braids and also the veil. But it could also be a narrative trick where the reader/listener can know about both the veil and the braids underneath the veil.
Our ancient, medieval, and traditional head coverings were not translucent. Only in the last decades that we gotten rid of them, we wear transparent ones at weddings. The ancient veils (himatia/pepla) I've seen in ancient Greek art are separate from the dress and worn over it, perhaps wrapped around the dress in various ways. Not having color doesn't help the eye much 😅
Like this figure here, the fabrics may appear to be continuous but it's likely there's two of them, seamlessly wrapped.
Ancient Greek Terracotta Veiled female figure. H. 21.5 cm. 4th Century BC.
Limestone statue of a veiled female votary. Cypriot 1st century BCE
Veiled women dancing to a double flute Clay, red-figure, 450-440 BCE
Some more possible styles:
Spartan women also veiled in later centuries, since the hair was considered a means to attract a husband through beauty (according to Plutarch). Unmarried women didn't have to veil but married women should. This tradition has lasted until the last century in Greece - and it's also in the tradition of other nations. But as you can see the degree of veiling could differ.
