Tainia (costume)

Headband or fillet of Ancient Greece From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In ancient Greek costume, a tainia (Ancient Greek: ταινία; pl.: ταινίαι or Latin: taenia; pl.: taeniae) was a headband, ribbon, or fillet.

Judge awarding the tainia to a young athlete, detail from an Attic red-figure hydria (510–500 BCE)

The tainia headband was worn with the traditional ancient Greek costume. The headbands were worn at Greek festivals.[1] The gods also bound their heads with tainiai.[2]

Cult images,[3] trees,[4] urns, monuments, animal sacrifices and the deceased[5] had tainiai wound around them. They were later adopted by the Romans.[6] A similar type of headband was the diadema, used as a symbol for kings.

Tainia in art

  • Coy symposiast playing with his taenia, 450–440 BCE
    Coy symposiast playing with his taenia, 450–440 BCE
  • Eros bearing tainia, red-figure skyphos, Lucania 420–400 BCE
    Eros bearing tainia, red-figure skyphos, Lucania 420–400 BCE
  • Cyprian Aphrodite coiffed with diadem and tainia, 351-332 BCE
    Cyprian Aphrodite coiffed with diadem and tainia, 351-332 BCE
  • Tainia-bound double cornucopia, Ptolemaic Egypt, 283–246 BCE
    Tainia-bound double cornucopia, Ptolemaic Egypt, 283–246 BCE
  • Tetradrachm of Eumenes II, 2nd century BCE
    Tetradrachm of Eumenes II, 2nd century BCE

See also

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