Abstract

Among the clothes Ariadne is wearing in this scene is a finely woven headdress which Catullus terms a ‘mitra’ . Commentators have defined this mitra variously as a ‘scarf’ , a ‘cap or bonnet’ and a ‘kind of hairnet’ . In Greek literature, a ‘mitra’ is any piece of cloth worn by women in various ways to tie up their hair. While the word came to be used by Latin writers, it seems to have retained its specifically Greek associations. Varro refers to ‘mitra’ as a Greek word: mitra et reliqua ferre in capite postea addita cum vocabulis Graecisd