Tainia (costume)

This article is about a ribbon worn in the hair. For an element of Doric architecture, see Taenia (architecture). For other uses, see Taenia (disambiguation).

Judge awarding the tainia to a young athlete, detail from an Attic red-figure hydria (510–500 BCE)

In ancient Greek costume, a tainia (Ancient Greek: ταινία; pl.: ταινίαι or Latin: taenia; pl.: taeniae) was a headband, ribbon, or fillet.

The tainia headband was worn with the traditional ancient Greek costume. The headbands were worn at Greek festivals. The gods also bound their heads with tainiai.

Cult images, trees, urns, monuments, animal sacrifices and the deceased had tainiai wound around them. They were later adopted by the Romans. A similar type of headband was the diadema, used as a symbol for kings.

Tainia in art

• 
  Coy symposiast playing with his taenia, 450–440 BCE
• 
  Eros bearing tainia, red-figure skyphos, Lucania 420–400 BCE
• 
  Cyprian Aphrodite coiffed with diadem and tainia, 351-332 BCE
• 
  Tainia-bound double cornucopia, Ptolemaic Egypt, 283–246 BCE
• 
  Tetradrachm of Eumenes II, 2nd century BCE

See also

• Clothing in ancient Greece
• Fillet (clothing)
• Wreath (attire)

External links

• Image of a woman wearing a chiton and a broad taenia at Perseus Project