BARBA
BARBA,
Greek
(
πώγων, γένειον, ὑπήνη). Of these,
γένειον properly
“chin,” is the earliest word, for
πώγων is not found in Homer, and
ὑπήνη only in the epithet of
πρῶτον ὑπηνήτης, a youth with his first beard. (
Il. 24.348;
Od.
10.279.)
Μύσταξ is the
moustache;
πάππος the hair on the
nether lip;
χνόος or
ἴουλος the first down.
ὑπήνη is sometimes restricted to the hair
about the upper and lower lips, that is to the
μύσταξ, and the
πάππος
combined;
γένειον to the beard proper,
the hair on the chin. (Cf. Poll. 2.80, 10.120.) There is no special word
for the whiskers.
The beard was regarded by the Greeks, like other ancient nations, as a
type of manhood, which it was a disgrace to be without; while in the
Homeric times it had even that sanctity which it had among the Jews, a
common form of entreaty being to touch the beard of the person
addressed. (
Hom. Il. 8.371.) The
different modes of wearing the beard are seen in the statues of gods, of
which the head of the Olympian Zeus is the most striking. It was only
shaven in sign of mourning, although in this case it was often not
shaven, but left untrimmed and a smooth face was sneered at as a sign of
effeminacy. (Aristoph.
Thesm.
|
Head of Olympian Zeus. (Visconti, Mus. Pio Clem.,
vol. vi., tav. 1.)
|
218 ;
Athen. 13.565 a.) The
Spartans punished cowards (
τρέσαντες)
by shaving off part of their beards (
Plut.
Ages. 30), just as Hanun
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Etruscans, with pointed beards. (Dennis, Etruria, i. p. 262.)
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treated the ambassadors of David (2 Sam.. 10.4). From the
earliest times, however, it seems to have been customary to shave the
moustache; and on the most ancient vases men are represented with the
space round either lip clear, and with a pointed beard, as in the above
figures from a painted tile in an Etruscan tomb, representing two
grey-headed men in conversation.
[p. 1.286]
There was a curious custom at Sparta, which may have existed from very
early times, that the Ephors on assuming office issued an edict to the
citizens “to shave the moustache and obey the laws”
(
κείρεσθαι τὸν μύστακα καὶ προσέχειν
τοῖς νόμοις,
Plut. Cleom. 9); although the Spartans
were in general derided for their carelessness in the treatment of their
hair (
Aristoph. Wasps 476;
Lysist. 1022). For to leave the beard and whiskers
untrimmed was with the Greeks as much a sign of boorishness as to shave
them entirely was a sign of effeminacy; and we hear of various styles of
trimming them, one of which, the “wedge beard” (
σφηνοπώγων), was used on the stage for masks
of attendants and old men (
θεράποντες
and
πρεσβῦται ὑποδύστροποι, Poll.
4.137, 145).
In the time of Alexander the Great the custom of smooth shaving was
introduced (Chrysippus ap.
Athen. 13.565 a,
τὸ ξύρεσθαι τὸν πώγωνα
κατ̓ Ἀλέξανδρον προῆκται, τῶν προτέρων οὐ χρωμένων
αὐτῷ), and spread from the Macedonians (whose kings are
represented on coins, &c. with smooth faces) throughout the
whole Greek world. Laws were passed against it without effect at Rhodes
and Byzantium (Ath.
l.c.); and even Aristotle,
we are told, conformed to the new custom (
D. L.
5.1; cf. the statue of Aristotle in the Palazzo Spada, Visconti,
Iconogr. i. pl. 20), unlike the other philosophers,
who retained the beard as a badge of their profession. A “man with
a beard” (
πωγωνοτρόφος after
the Macedonian period implies a philosopher (cf. Pers.
Sat. 4.1,
magister
barbatus, of Socrates), and we have many
allusions to this custom of the later philosophers in such proverbs as
“the beard does not make the sage” (
πωγωνοτροφία φιλόσοφον οὐ ποιεῖ, Plut.
de Is. et Osir. 3: cf.
ἐκ
πώγωνος σοφός, Dio Chrys. 72.2).
[
W.M.L]
2. Roman
The Romans in early times wore the beard uncut, as we learn from the
insult offered by the Gaul to M. Papirius (
Liv.
5.41), and from Cicero (
pro Cael. 14; cf. Sen.
Nat. Q. 1.17, 7; Hor.
Od.
2.15,
11;
Tib. 2.1,
34;
Ov. Fast. 2.30;
Verg. A. 6.809); and, according to Varro (
de Re Rust. 2.11) and Pliny (
7.211), the Roman beards were not shaven till B.C. 300, when
P. Ticinius Menas brought over a barber from Sicily; and Pliny adds,
that the first Roman who was shaved (
rasus)
every day was Scipio Africanus. (Cf.
Gel.
3.4.) His custom, however, was soon followed, and shaving became
a regular thing. The lower orders, then as now, were not always able to
do the same, and hence the jeers of Martial (
7.95,
12.59). In the later times of
the republic there were many
juvenes who
shaved the beard only partially, and trimmed it, so as to give it an
ornamental form; to them the terms
bene
barbati (
Cic. Catil. 2.1.
0) and
barbatuli (
Cic. Att. 1.1. 4,
16;
pro Cael. 14) are
applied.
In the general way in Rome at this time, a long beard (
barba promissa,
Liv. 27.34) was considered a mark of
slovenliness and squalor. The censors, L. Veturius and P. Licinius,
compelled M. Livius, who had been banished, on his restoration to the
city, to be shaved, and to lay aside his dirty appearance (
tonderi et squalorem deponere), and then, but
not till then, to come into the senate, &c. (
Liv. 27.34.) The first time of shaving was
regarded as the beginning of manhood, and the day on which this took
place was celebrated as a festival. (Juv.
Sat. 3.186.) There was no particular time fixed for this to
be done. Usually, however, it was when the young Roman assumed the toga
virilis (Suet.
Calig. 10). Augustus did it in his
twenty-fourth year; Caligula in his twentieth. The hair cut off on such
occasions was consecrated to some god. Thus Nero put his up in a gold
box, set with pearls, and dedicated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. (
Suet. Nero 12.)
With the Emperor Hadrian the beard began to revive. (
D. C. 68.15.) Plutarch says that the emperor
wore it to hide some scars on his face. The practice afterwards became
common, and till the time of Constantine the Great the emperors appear
in busts and coins with beards; but Constantine and his successors to
the end of the 6th century, with the exception of Julian, are
represented as beardless. The contrast between the custom of the early
emperors and those of Hadrian and his successors as to the beard is seen
in the annexed coins. The Romans, unlike the Greeks, let their
|
Coin of Augustus. Coin of Hadrian. (British Museum.)
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beards grow in time of mourning; so Augustus did (
Suet. Aug. 23) for the death of Julius
Caesar, and the time when he had it shaved off he made a season of
festivity. (
D. C. 48.34; cf.
Cic. in Verr. 2.12) Other
occasions of mourning on which the beard was allowed to grow were,
appearance as a
reus, condemnation, or some
public calamity. (
Liv. 6.16,
27.34;
Mart. 2.36,
3; Ulp. in
Dig.
47,
10,
15.27;
Suet. Jul. 67,
Oct. 23;
Caes. Gal.
5.24; Plut.
Cat. min. 53,
Anton.
18.) Tacitus (
Germ. 100.3) says that the Chatti let their
hair and beard grow, and would not have them cut till they had slain an
enemy. For an account of barbers, see TONSOR.
(Becker-Göll,
Gallus, iii. p. 237,
foll.)
[
J.H.F] [
W.S]