Miter (ancient)
The miter ( Greek μίτρα "waist band", "belt", "bandage"; Latin miter ) in archaic Greece a part of the armor serving to protect the abdomen . In Minoan archeology, the miter is associated with semicircular bronze sheets from the early Archaic period, particularly found in Crete . The corresponding armor of the Salians , the Roman weapon dance priests, was also called miter .
As an iconographic element of images of gods, the miter is the hair or headband of certain oriental gods or gods associated with the east, especially of Dionysus , which is expressed in the nickname mitrēphóros ( μιτρηφόρος "mitraträger"). As a royal attribute the miter was characteristic of the Cypriot kings in the Hellenistic period , the gilded was mitra synonymous with the King binding ( diadema ).
As Priestly attribute which was Mitra of the dancers the Kybele and the Priests of Hercules to Kos worn., Further from Jewish High Priests and finally by high Christian Priests (see Mitra ).
In the secular area in Greek and Roman antiquity, miter was generally a long (head) scarf, especially the headband worn by young women from the Lydians , the chest band ( fascia pectoralis ) is also known as mitra . The armband of the athletes and the racing drivers is sometimes also called a miter .
After all, every long cloth wrapped around a hat or a kind of turban that was worn by Orientals was called a mitra , which is why in Latin mitra means "turban". Worn by men, it was seen as a sign of effeminacy and stupidity . In the blurred meaning of an oriental headgear par excellence, no precise distinction is made between miter and the likewise oriental tiara . In the modern era, miter got the special meaning of the episcopal headgear, tiara denotes the papal crown and the diadem is a valuable (profane) headdress and is worn with the wedding or ball gown .
literature
- Karl Preisendanz : Mitra (1). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XV, 2, Stuttgart 1932, Col. 2217-2220.
- Hugo Brandenburg : Studies on the Miter. Contributions to the history of weapons and costumes in antiquity. Aschendorff, Münster 1966.
- Rolf Hurschmann : Mitra 1. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , Col. 292 f.
- Ingrid Loschek : Reclam's fashion and costume lexicon. 5th edition Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-010577-3 , p. 373.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Pape : Greek-German concise dictionary. 3rd edition, Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1914, vol. 2, p. 193.
- ↑ Homer Iliad 4, 137; 187; 216; 5, 857.
- ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus Antiquitates Romanae 2, 70; Plutarch Numa 13, 4.
- ↑ Diodor Bibliotheca historica 4, 4.4; Athenaios Deipnosophistae 2, 198d; Properz Elegiae 4, 2, 31.
- ↑ Herodotus Histories 7, 195.
- ↑ Plutarch quaestiones Graecae 304C.
- ↑ Ex 29.6 LXX
- ↑ Alkman 1, 32; Sappho 98 from Diehl; Pliny Naturalis historia 35, 58.
- ↑ Pindar Olympia 9, 82-84; Isthmia 5, 62 and Anthologia Palatina 15, 44.