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Volume 99 No. 4
October 1995
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The Kanephoros and Her Festival Mantle in Greek Art
Linda Jones Roccos
In ancient Greece, the kanephoros usually led the procession to sacrifice at festivals, carrying the kanoun, or ritual basket, on her head. The position of kanephoros was ceremonial and honorary since no one cult was involved, but the kanephoros was important to Greek society--she represented the ideal maiden. Every girl might be a parthenos before her marriage, but only a select few were chosen to be kanephoroi.
The kanephoros was always richly garbed with a festival mantle that changed in the way it was worn over the years. In the Archaic period, the kanephoros wore a voluminous mantle that hung over her shoulders in front and back nearly to the ground. In earlier Greek art, the kanephoros was only recognized by the basket she carried on her head, since she wore the same long festival mantle worn also by others. From the mid-fifth century on, the kanephoros was recognized without her basket by her distinctive festival mantle. The maidens, or parthenoi, on the Parthenon frieze were represented as kanephoroi; they have the same festival shoulder-mantle as the kanephoros on a contemporary volute krater by the Kleophon Painter from Spina. In later Greek art, the kanephoros rarely appeared carrying the basket. She was recognized at that time by garments worn only by these special maidens: peplos and festival back-mantle pinned on the shoulders.
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