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Greek city of
Thessalonica in
Macedonia
Pseudo-Autonomous Issue
Bronze 19mm (2.35 grams) Struck circa 50 B.C. – 50 A.D.
Reference: Moushmov 6616; SNG Ans. 816-7
ΘЄССΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ, Woman’s veiled head with
turreted crown, right.
ΘЄС-СΑΛΟ-ΝΙΚE-ΩN in four lines within laurel
wreath.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
A veil is an article of clothing or cloth hanging that is intended to
cover some part of the
head
or
face, or an object of some significance. It is especially associated
with women and sacred objects.
One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an
object or space. The actual sociocultural, psychological, and sociosexual
functions of veils have not been studied extensively but most likely include the
maintenance of social distance and the communication of social status and
cultural identity. In Islamic society, various forms of the veil have been
adopted from the Arab culture in which Islam arose. The
Quran
has no requirement that women cover their
faces with a veil, or cover their bodies with the full-body
burqua
or
chador
.
History
The first recorded instance of veiling for women is recorded in an
Assyrian
legal text from the 13th century BC,
which restricted its use to noble women and forbade prostitutes and common women
from adopting it.[citation
needed] The
Mycenaean Greek
term a-pu-ko-wo-ko
meaning “craftsman of horse veil” written in
Linear B
syllabic script is also attested since
ca. 1300 BC. In
ancient Greek
the word for veil was “καλύπτρα”
(kaluptra,
Ionic Greek
“καλύπτρη” – kaluptrē, from
the verb “καλύπτω” – kaluptō, “I cover”) and is first attested in the
works of Homer
.
Classical Greek and Hellenistic statues sometimes depict Greek women with
both their head and face covered by a veil. Caroline Galt and Lloyd
Llewellyn-Jones have both argued from such representations and literary
references that it was commonplace for women (at least those of higher status)
in ancient Greece to cover their hair and face in public.
For many centuries, until around 1175,
Anglo-Saxon
and then
Anglo-Norman
women, with the exception of young
unmarried girls, wore veils that entirely covered their hair, and often their
necks up to their chins (see
wimple
). Only in the
Tudor period
(1485), when
hoods
became increasingly popular, did veils of
this type become less common.
For centuries, women have worn sheer veils, but only under certain
circumstances. Sometimes a veil of this type was draped over and pinned to the
bonnet
or hat of a woman in
mourning
, especially at the
funeral
and during the subsequent period of
“high mourning”. They would also have been used, as an alternative to a
mask, as a simple method of hiding the identity of a woman who was
traveling to meet a lover, or doing anything she didn’t want other people to
find out about. More pragmatically, veils were also sometimes worn to protect
the complexion from sun and wind damage (when un-tanned skin was fashionable),
or to keep dust out of a woman’s face, much as the
keffiyeh
is used today.
Religion
In Judaism
,
Christianity
and
Islam
the concept of covering the head is or
was associated with propriety and modesty. Most traditional depictions of the
Virgin Mary
, the mother of
Christ
, show her veiled. During the
Middle Ages
most European and Byzantine married
women covered their hair rather than their face, with a variety of styles of
wimple
, kerchiefs and headscarfs. Veiling,
covering the hair rather than the face, was a common practice with church-going
women until the 1960s, typically using
lace, and a number of very traditional churches retain the custom.
Lace face-veils are still often worn by female relatives at funerals.
In North India, Hindu women may often veil for traditional purposes, it is
often the custom in rural areas to veil in front of male elders. This veil is
called the Ghoonghat
or Laaj. This is to show humility and
respect to those elder to the woman, in particular elder males. The ghoonghat is
customary especially in the westerly states of
Gujarat
and
Rajasthan
.
Although religion stands as a commonly held reason for choosing to veil, it
has also reflects on political regimes and personal conviction, allowing it to
serve as a medium through which personal character can be revealed.
Praying Jewish woman wearing
Tichel
Judaism
After the
destruction of the Temple
in
Jerusalem
, the
synagogues
that were established took the
design of the
Tabernacle
as their plan. The
Ark of the Law
, which contains the
scrolls
of the
Torah
, is covered with an embroidered curtain
or veil called a
parokhet
. (See also
below
regarding the veiling – and unveiling –
of the bride.)
The
Veil of our Lady
is a liturgical feast
celebrating the protection afforded by the
intercessions
of the Virgin Mary.
Traditionally, in Christianity, women were enjoined to cover their heads in
church, just as it was (and still is) customary for men to remove their hat as a
sign of respect. This practice is based on
1 Corinthians 11:4–16
, where
St. Paul
writes:
Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon
his head. But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled
brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had
had her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may
as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her
hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil. A man, on the
other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of
God, but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but
woman from man; nor was man created for woman, but woman for man; for this
reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the
angels. Woman is not independent of man or man of woman in the Lord. For
just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are
from God. Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with
her head unveiled? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears his
hair long it is a disgrace to him, whereas if a woman has long hair it is
her glory, because long hair has been given (her) for a covering? But if
anyone is inclined to be argumentative, we do not have such a custom, nor do
the churches of God (New
American Bible translation)
In many traditional
Eastern Orthodox Churches
, and in some very
conservative
Protestant
churches as well, the custom
continues of women covering their heads in church (or even when praying
privately at home).
In the
Roman Catholic Church
, it was customary in most
places before the 1960s for women to wear a headcovering in the form of a scarf,
cap, veil or hat when entering a church. The practice now continues where it is
seen as a matter of etiquette, courtesy, tradition or fashionable elegance
rather than strictly of canon law.
Traditionalist Catholics
also maintain the
practice.
The wearing of a headcovering was for the first time mandated as a universal
rule for the
Latin Rite
by the
Code of Canon Law of 1917
, which code was
abrogated by the advent of the present (1983) Code of Canon Law. Traditionalist
Catholics majorly still follow it, generally as a matter of ancient custom and
biblically approved aptness, some also supposing St. Paul’s directive in full
force today as an ordinance of its own right, without a canon law rule enforcing
it. The photograph here of Mass in the
Netherlands
in about 1946, two decades before
the changes that followed the
Second Vatican Council
, shows that, even at
that time, when a hat was still considered part of formal dress for both women
and men, wearing a headcovering at Mass was not a universal practice for
Catholic women.
A veil over the hair rather than the face forms part of the headdress of some
religiouss
of
nuns or
religious
sisters; this is why a woman who
becomes a nun is said “to take the veil”. In medieval times married women
normally covered their hair outside the house, and nun’s veils are based on
secular medieval styles, reflecting nuns position as “brides of Christ”. In many
institutes, a white veil is used as the “veil of probation” during
novitiate
, and a dark veil for the “veil of
profession” once religious vows are taken – the color scheme varies with the
color scheme of the habit of the order. A veil of
consecration
, longer and fuller, is used by
some orders for final profession of
solemn vows
.
Nuns
also wear veils
Nuns are the female counterparts of
monks, and many
monastic orders
of women have retained the
veil. Regarding other institutes of religious sisters who are not
cloistered
but who work as teachers, nurses or
in other “active” apostolates outside of a nunnery or monastery, some wear the
veil, while some others have abolished the use of the veil, a few never had a
veil to start with, but used a bonnet-style headdress even a century ago, as in
the case of
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
.
The fullest versions of the nun’s veil cover the top of the head and flow
down around and over the shoulders. In Western Christianity, it does not wrap
around the neck or face. In those orders that retain one, the starched white
covering about the face neck and shoulders is known as a
wimple
and is a separate garment.
The Catholic Church has revived the ancient practice of allowing women to
profess a solemn vow as
consecrated virgins
. These women are set aside
as sacred persons who belong only to Christ and the service of the church. They
are under the direct care of the local
bishop
, without belonging to a particular order
and receive the veil as a
sign
of
consecration
.
There has also been renewed interest in the last half century in the ancient
practice of women and men dedicating themselves as
anchorites
or
hermits
, and there is a formal process whereby
such persons can seek recognition of their vows by the local bishop – a veil for
these women would also be traditional.
Some Anglican
women’s religious orders also wear a
veil, differing according to the traditions of each order.
In
Eastern Orthodoxy
and in the
Eastern Rites
of the Catholic Church, a veil
called an
epanokamelavkion
is used by both nuns and
monks, in both cases covering completely the
kamilavkion
, a cylindrical hat they both
wear. In
Slavic
practice, when the veil is worn over the
hat, the entire headdress
is referred to as a
klobuk
. Nuns wear an additional veil under
the klobuk, called an
apostolnik
, which is drawn together to
cover the neck and shoulders as well as their heads, leaving the face itself
open.
Islam
A variety of headdresses worn by
Muslim women
and girls in accordance with
hijab
(the principle of dressing modestly)
are sometimes referred to as veils. The principal aim of the Muslim veil is to
hide that which men find sexually attractive. Many of these garments cover the
hair, ears and throat, but do not cover the face. The
khimar
is a type of
headscarf
. The
niqāb
and
burqa
are two kinds of veils that cover
most of the face except for a slit or hole for the eyes.
The Afghan
burqa covers the entire body, obscuring
the face completely, except for a grille or netting over the eyes to allow the
wearer to see. The
boshiya
is a veil that may be worn over a
headscarf; it covers the entire face and is made of a sheer fabric so the wearer
is able to see through it. It has been suggested that
the practice of wearing a veil
– uncommon among
the Arab
tribes prior to the rise of
Islam
– originated in the
Byzantine Empire
, and then spread.
The wearing of head and especially face coverings by Muslim women has raised
political issues in the West; see for example
Hijab controversy in Quebec
,
Islamic dress controversy in Europe
,
Islamic scarf controversy in France
, and
United Kingdom debate over veils
. There is also
high debate of the veil in
Turkey
, a
Muslim majority country
but secular, which
banned the headscarves in universities and government buildings, due to the
türban (a Turkish styled headscarf) being viewed as
a political symbol of Islam
, see
Headscarf controversy in Turkey
.
Frances Perkins
wearing a veil
after the death of U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hats
Veils pinned to hats have survived the changing fashions of the centuries and
are still common today on formal occasions that require women to wear a hat.
However, these veils are generally made of netting or another material not
actually designed to hide the face from view, even if the veil can be pulled
down.
Wedding veils
An occasion on which a Western woman is likely to wear a veil is on her
white wedding
day.
Brides
once used to wear their hair flowing
down their back at their wedding to symbolise their virginity. Veils covering
the hair and face became a symbolic reference to the virginity of the bride
thereafter. Often in modern weddings, the ceremony of removing a face veil after
the wedding to present the groom with a virgin bride is skipped, since many
couples have already entered into conjugal relations prior to their wedding
day – the bride either wears no face veil, or it is lifted before the ceremony
begins, but this is not always the case. Further, if a bride is a virgin, she
often wears the face veil through the ceremony, and then either her father lifts
the veil, presenting the bride to her groom, or the groom lifts the veil to
symbolically consummate the marriage, which will later become literal. Brides
who are virgins may make use of the veil to symbolize and emphasize their status
of purity during their wedding however, and if they do, the lifting of the veil
may be ceremonially recognized as the crowning event of the wedding, when the
beauty of the bride is finally revealed to the groom and the guests. It is not
altogether clear that the wedding veil is a non-religious use of this item,
since weddings have almost always had religious underpinnings, especially in the
West. Veils, however, had been used in the West for weddings long before this.
Roman brides, for instance, wore an intensely flame-colored and fulsome veil,
called the flammeum, apparently intended to protect the bride from
evil spirits
on her wedding day. Later, the
so-called velatio virginum became part of the rite of the
consecration of virgins
, the liturgical rite in
which the church sets aside the virgin as a sacred person who belongs only to
Christ.
In the 19th century, wedding veils came to symbolize the woman’s
virginity
and
modesty
. The tradition of a veiled bride’s face
continues even today wherein, a virgin bride, especially in Christian or Jewish
culture, enters the marriage ritual with a veiled face and head, and remains
fully veiled, both head and face, until the ceremony concludes. After the full
conclusion of the wedding ceremony, either the bride’s father lifts the veil
giving the bride to the groom who then kisses her, or the new groom lifts her
face veil in order to kiss her, which symbolizes the groom’s right to enter into
conjugal relations with his bride.
The lifting of the veil was often a part of ancient wedding ritual,
symbolizing the
groom
taking possession of the wife, either as
lover or as property, or the revelation of the bride by her parents to the groom
for his approval.
A bride wearing a typical wedding veil
In Judaism, the tradition of wearing a veil dates back to biblical times.
According to the Torah in
Genesis 24:65
, Isaac is brought Rebekah to
marry by his father Abraham’s servant. It is important to note that Rebekah did
not veil herself when traveling with her lady attendants and Abraham’s servant
and his men to meet Isaac, but she only did so when Isaac was approaching. Just
before the wedding ceremony the
badeken
or bedeken is held. The groom places
the veil over the bride’s face, and either he or the officiating Rabbi gives her
a blessing. The veil stays on her face until just before the end of the wedding
ceremony – when they are legally married according to Jewish law – then the
groom helps lift the veil from off her face.
The most often cited interpretation for the
badeken
is that, according to
Genesis 29
, when Jacob went to marry Rachel,
his father in law Laban tricked him into marrying Leah, Rachel’s older and
homlier sister. Many say that the veiling ceremony takes place to make sure that
the groom is marrying the right bride. Some say that as the groom places the
veil over his bride, he makes an implicit promise to clothe and protect her.
Finally, by covering her face, the groom recognizes that he his marrying the
bride for her inner beauty; while looks will fade with time, his love will be
everlasting. In some ultra-orthodox traditions the bride wears an opaque veil as
she is escorted down the aisle to meet her groom. This shows her complete
willingness to enter into the marriage and her absolute trust that she is
marrying the right man. In Judaism, a wedding is not considered valid unless the
bride willingly consents to it.
In ancient Judaism
the lifting of the veil took place just
prior to the consummation of the marriage in sexual union. The uncovering or
unveiling that takes place in the
wedding ceremony
is a symbol of what will take
place in the marriage bed. Just as the two become one through their words spoken
in wedding vows, so these words are a sign of the physical oneness that they
will consummate later on. The lifting of the veil is a symbol and an
anticipation of this.
In the
Western world
,
St. Paul’s
words concerning how marriage
symbolizes the union of Christ and His Church may underlie part of the tradition
of veiling in the marriage ceremony.
Dance
Veils are part of the stereotypical images of courtesans and harem women.
Here, the mysterious veil hints at sensuality, an example being the dance of the
seven veils. This is the context into which belly dancing veils fall, with a
large repertoire of ways to wear and hold the veil, framing the body and
accentuating movements. Dancing veils can be as small as a scarf or two, silk
veils mounted on fans, a half circle, three-quarter circle, full circle, a
rectangle up to four feet long, and as large as huge Isis wings with sticks for
extensions. There is also a giant canopy type veil used by a group of dancers.
Veils are made of rayon, silk, polyester, mylar and other fabrics (never wool,
though). Rarely used in Egyptian cabaret style, veil dancing has always played
an important part in the international world of belly dance, extending the range
of the dance and offering lovely transitory imagery.
Courtesans
Conversely, veils are often part of the stereotypical image of the
courtesan
and
harem
woman. Here, rather than the virginity of
the bride’s veil, modesty of the Muslim scarf or the piety of the nun’s
headdress, the mysterious veil hints at sensuality and the unknown. An example
of the veil’s erotic potential is the
dance of the seven veils
.
In this context, the term may refer to a piece of sheer cloth approximately 3
x 1.5 metres, sometimes trimmed with sequins or coins, which is used in various
styles of belly dancing
. A large repertoire of ways to
wear and hold the veil exists, many of which are intended to frame the body from
the perspective of the audience.
Veils for men
Among the
Tuareg
,
Songhai
,
Moors
,
Hausa
. and
Fulani
of
West Africa
, women do not traditionally wear
the veil, while men do. The men’s facial covering originates from the belief
that such action wards off evil spirits, but most probably relates to protection
against the harsh desert sands as well; in any event, it is a firmly established
tradition. Men begin wearing a veil at age 25 which conceals their entire face
excluding their eyes. This veil is never removed, even in front of family
members.
In India
,
Pakistan
,
Bangladesh
, and
Nepal
, men wear a
sehra
on their wedding day. This is a male
veil covering the whole face and neck. The sehra is made from either flowers,
beads, tinsel, dry leaves, or coconuts. The most common sehra is made from fresh
marigolds. The groom wears this throughout the day concealing his face even
during the wedding ceremony. In India today you can see the groom arriving on a
horse with the sehra wrapped around his head.
Etymology
“Veil” came from Latin
vēlum, which also means “sail“.
There are two theories about the origin of the word vēlum:-
- Via the “covering” meaning, from (Indo-European
root
) *wel– = “to cover, to
enclose”.
- Via the “sail” meaning, from Indo-European *weghslom, from root *wegh-
= “way” or “carry in a vehicle”, because it makes the ship move.
The city Thessalonica in Macedonia was founded around
315 BC
by the
King
Cassander of Macedon
, on or near the site of the ancient town of
Therma
and
twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife
Thessalonike
, a half-sister of
Alexander the Great
. She gained her name (“victory of Thessalians”: Gk
nikē
“victory”) from her father,
Philip II
, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over
the
Phocians
, who were defeated with the help of
Thessalian
horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki developed
rapidly and as early as the
2nd
century BC
the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was an
autonomous part of the Kingdom of
Macedon
, with its own parliament where the King was represented and could
interfere in the city’s domestic affairs.
Roman
era
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in
168 BC
,
Thessalonica became a city of the
Roman Republic
. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the
Via
Egnatia
, the
Roman road
connecting
Byzantium
(later
Constantinople
), with
Dyrrhachium
(now Durrës
in
Albania
), and
facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one
of the four Roman districts of Macedonia; it kept its privileges but was ruled
by a praetor
and had a Roman garrison, while for a short time in the
1st
century BC
, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form
of the name). Due to the city’s key commercial importance, a spacious harbour
was built by the Romans, the famous Burrowed Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that
accommodated the town’s trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help
of silt deposits from the river
Axios
, it was
reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour’s
docks can be found in the present day under Odos Frangon Street, near the
Catholic Church.
Thessaloniki’s
acropolis
,
located in the northern hills, was built in
55 BC
after
Thracian
raids in the city’s outskirts, for security reasons.
The city had a
Jewish
colony, established during the
first
century
, and was to be an early centre of
Christianity
. On his second missionary journey,
Paul
of Tarsus
, born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city’s synagogue,
the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the
foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and
he fled to
Veroia
. Paul wrote two of his
epistles
to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
and the
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
.
Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint,
St. Demetrius
, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved
the city, and was the Roman
Proconsul
of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor
Maximian
,
later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies the
Church of St. Demetrius
, first built by the Roman sub-prefect of
Illyricum
Leontios in 463. Other important remains from this period include
the
Arch and Tomb of Galerius
, located near the centre of the modern city.
A sacrificial tripod was a type of
altar
used by the
ancient Greeks. The most famous was the
Delphic
tripod
, on
which the Pythian
priestess
took her seat to deliver the
oracles
of the
deity. The seat was formed by a circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which
a branch of
laurel
was deposited when it was unoccupied by the priestess. In this sense,
by Classical times the tripod was sacred to
Apollo
. The
mytheme
of
Heracles
contesting with Apollo for the tripod appears in vase-paintings older than the
oldest written literature. The oracle originally may have been related to the
primal deity, the Earth.
The city was founded around
315 BC
by the
King
Cassander of Macedon
, on or near the site of the ancient town of
Therma
and
twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife
Thessalonike
, a half-sister of
Alexander the Great
. She gained her name (“victory of Thessalians”: Gk
nikē
“victory”) from her father,
Philip II
, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over
the
Phocians
, who were defeated with the help of
Thessalian
horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki developed
rapidly and as early as the
2nd
century BC
the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was an
autonomous part of the Kingdom of
Macedon
, with its own parliament where the King was represented and could
interfere in the city’s domestic affairs.
Roman
era
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in
168 BC
,
Thessalonica became a city of the
Roman Republic
. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the
Via
Egnatia
, the
Roman road
connecting
Byzantium
(later
Constantinople
), with
Dyrrhachium
(now Durrës
in
Albania
), and
facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one
of the four Roman districts of Macedonia; it kept its privileges but was ruled
by a praetor
and had a Roman garrison, while for a short time in the
1st
century BC
, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form
of the name). Due to the city’s key commercial importance, a spacious harbour
was built by the Romans, the famous Burrowed Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that
accommodated the town’s trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help
of silt deposits from the river
Axios
, it was
reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour’s
docks can be found in the present day under Odos Frangon Street, near the
Catholic Church.
Thessaloniki’s
acropolis
,
located in the northern hills, was built in
55 BC
after
Thracian
raids in the city’s outskirts, for security reasons.
The city had a
Jewish
colony, established during the
first
century
, and was to be an early centre of
Christianity
. On his second missionary journey,
Paul
of Tarsus
, born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city’s synagogue,
the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the
foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and
he fled to
Veroia
. Paul wrote two of his
epistles
to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
and the
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
.
Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint,
St. Demetrius
, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved
the city, and was the Roman
Proconsul
of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor
Maximian
,
later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies the
Church of St. Demetrius
, first built by the Roman sub-prefect of
Illyricum
Leontios in 463. Other important remains from this period include
the
Arch and Tomb of Galerius
, located near the centre of the modern city.
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