Headwear in the Ancient World: Its History and Legacy

 by Rowan R

A conical pileus hat, 4th century BC

Hats are a ubiquitous part of our lives, although we do not often stop to consider them. They have remained virtually unchanged for thousands upon thousands of years, but, of course, they did not always exist. One of the first and most ancient paintings of a hat being worn can be found in a tomb, in Thebes, Egypt, depicting a man wearing a conical straw hat not dissimilar to the sunhats commonly worn today. This hat may have been an ancestor of some of the first widely worn and manufactured hats, which were first produced in Ancient Greece before spreading across the Mediterranean and eventually the world.

Very few ancient hats, or even depictions of hats, survive, but it can be hypothesised that this ancient Egyptian straw hat may have been related to the petatsos, a kind of ancient Greek sunhat often made from woven straw, leather or wool. Its brim was broad to protect the wearer from the sun - in fact, it is the first recorded hat to have a brim. For women, the hat had a tall, conical crown, whereas for men it was usually lower, as this was more practical.

However, women rarely wore hats - they typically did not work outside in the sunlight as men did, and so wore hats primarily as a fashion accessory or to cover their hair rather than to keep the sun or rain off. Women in ancient Greek art are typically depicted wearing veils or with their hair bound or garlanded with flowers, but men can often be seen wearing the pileus or petatsos in art, especially in red-figure pottery. A famous figure characteristically depicted as wearing the petatsos is Hermes - like most of his associated symbols, the hat has small wings. Another set of mythological figures often depicted as wearing hats are the Dioscuri, better known as the mythical twins Castor and Pollux, whose pileus caps were often explained as being the remnants of the egg from which they hatched. This significance led to the petatsos being regarded as somewhat of a status symbol, as well as being often used in art to denote certain important mythological figures.

Ancient Greece, being a country with scorching summers and wet winters, had various different types of hats to protect their wearers from the elements. Likely the most famous of these is the pileus: a brimless, roughly conical felt hat 

The pileus was adopted by many cultures, including early mediaeval mainland and western Europe, as well as parts of Italy - especially Rome. The pileus bore some resemblance to the Phrygian cap, which was almost identical other than the fact its top point was curled forwards: it was a hat that became an important symbol in many cultures, especially in Rome, where it grew to be emblematic of manumission.Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. When a slave was granted citizenship as a free man in Rome, their head was shaved, and they were allowed to wear a pileus - a right not given to those who were enslaved. The significance of the pileus as a symbol of freedom was also emphasised by the fact that Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, carried a pileus as well as a rod, another component of the ritual of manumission, as easily identifiable emblems of liberty. The pileus was such an ubiquitous part of Greek society that it was adapted into the form of a conical bronze helmet, sometimes decorated with a horsehair crest, from around the 5th century - this type of helmet was named the pilos helmet after it, and in fact the pileus was probably worn under it to protect the wearer’s head. This shape or helmet would have been useful for infantry as it allowed for a much wider range of vision and movement than traditional Greek helmets, but it was not widely adopted. 

Overall, the pileus and the petatsos were without a doubt some of the most widespread and influential ancient hats, reaching a wide number of different countries and having great cultural significance.