What Did the Greek Goddess Athena Wear?
Traditional Greek images and statuary show Athena in typical noble Greek woman’s dress with the addition of a hoplite’s open-face helmet. Athena appears to be dressed in a blend of men’s armor and women’s clothing, though the garments vary to a certain degree.
Athena is generally depicted wearing a full-length woman’s chiton, a type of tunic. According to a document from Central Washington University, sometimes her chiton was topped with a peplos, a garment worn for warmth.
Her arms are bare so she can use her iconic shield and spear. Sometimes she is shown wearing a garment called an aegis, which may have been a type of decorative leather breastplate designed to hold a shield. Athena’s aegis was decorated with the head of the Medusa. According to the Monolith, she almost always wears a hoplite’s crested helmet. When she does not wear this, her head is bare rather than covered as the typical Greek woman’s would have been.
