In this book the standard ways of translating items of Greek clothing have been followed, but since they tend to set up some wrong associations in a modern mind, a corrective note is not out of place. Greek clothing for both men and women consisted basically of two lengths of material draped and fastened around the body—one worn as an under garment and the other, when necessary, as an outer garment. The under garment (khiton, or in Herodotus’ dialect kithon) was an oblong piece of linen or wool, usually worn at knee-length by men and ankle-length by women, fastened on one or both shoulders with a brooch, and tied with a belt around the waist. This has been translated ‘tunic’. The outer garment (usually called a himation, though Herodotus also uses the Homeric word heima) was a much larger length of cloth—perhaps as large as 8 feet by 6 feet (2.4 × 1.8m.)—and similarly draped and fastened over the body. This has been translated ‘cloak’. Of course, for some purposes, such as riding or fighting, shorter cloaks were used (as also by children), and there were variations for gender too: each had its own name (e.g. tribon, khlamys, peplos, khlaina, khlanis). An accessible short treatment of Greek clothing may be found in James Laver, A Concise History of Costume (London, 1969).