Himation

Himation: A himation is another garment made from an uncut piece of cloth. Other such garments are Chiton (yesterday's post), Dhoti (India), Sarong (Malaysia), and Shuka (Maasai). In order to better understand the cost and importance of cloth in pre-industrial societies and why people might be inclined to search for ways to use entire pieces of cloth, read Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times - a wonderful history of weaving.

A himation was usually made of heavier cloth than the chiton and was simply wrapped around the wearer like a clock. It might be worn alone or over a chiton.

I clutched his gift under my himation as I walked through the abandoned streets to the stew I had gone to before.

Note: Stew is a Shakespearean English term for a prostitute or a brothel. How this terms made it into a book set in ancient Greece is beyond me.