Himations and Fancy Hairdos: A Note on 1 Peter 3.3 1

At 1 Pet. 3.3, Peter describes and criticizes elaborate female hairstyles and adornment. His criticism has been interpreted as a call for women of the Christian faith to adopt modest and undecorated forms of dress. ² Peter was not alone in this sentiment; many male-authored ancient literary sources express disapproval of the elaborate coiffures and decorated attire that women of the imperial court adopted throughout the early and high imperial periods. ³ Peter’s description and criticism of the female hairdo and costume, however, may not be limited to simply admonishing the fashionable dress of Roman women. It may also relate to a rejection of Roman female attire connected with ritual. The embraided hairstyle (ἐμπλοκής τριχῶν) ⁴ that Peter mentions bears similarity to the infulae and vittae with which Roman women supposedly adorned themselves during ritual. These associations are not necessarily explicit. As Mary T. Harlow and Marie-Louise Nosch (2014: 10) explain:

[I]t is often not clear to the modern reader (especially in translation) just exactly what type of garment is being described or how one … garment, essentially the same shape and function as another should have a series of different names … do these refer to the way it was worn, the material it was made out of, the gender of the wearer or any combination of reasons?

Accordingly, I draw these associations from the similarities evident in descriptions that various ancient authors provide.

The similarities of ἐμπλοκής τριχῶν with infulae and vittae become apparent when we consider the occurrence of the neuter plural ἐμπλόκια, which refers to removable accessories (headbands) that could be inserted into a person’s hair. ⁵ Peter’s qualification of the term with the genitive τριχῶν (‘of hair’) suggests that the headband was made from, or consisted of, additional hair from a source other than the person’s natural hair (Martin 2018: 1-22). Infulae and vittae, we know, were primarily made of wool. ⁶ Priests decorated themselves, the sacrificial victim and the temple with infulae during sacrifice, and women also wore infulae as headbands woven into their hair. ⁷ Regarding the ritual significance of these adornments, Seneca and Pliny the Elder describe infulae as possessing inviolable qualities and indicate that they may have functioned as a kind of spiritual protection of virginal chastity for Roman women. ⁸ Roman women, therefore, probably wore these items during occasions of ritual significance. ⁹ Vittae functioned as part of the infulae, hanging from either side of the infulae and were ‘generally broad and twisted (or braided) from white and scarlet threads’. ¹⁰ Accordingly, a clear similarity exists between the way woollen infulae and vittae were woven into female hair, and the ‘embraiding of hairs’ that Peter describes.

We must consider, of course, the prescriptive nature of this male-authored literary evidence (Olson 2008: 11). As Elaine Fantham contends, the practical use of infulae and vittae likely fell out of favour with Roman women by the early imperial period (Fantham 2008: 168). ¹¹ Elaborate Flavian coiffures, which emphasized bold arrangements of meticulous curls, left little-to-no room for embraided headbands or head coverings for that matter (MacMullen 1980: 208-18). In early imperial Latin literature, infulae and vittae thereby served as a kind of epithet for Roman female morality. To signify the inviolability or chastity of a Roman woman, the author could invoke that she wore infulae or vittae. ¹²

The similarity of the ἱμάτιον that Peter describes to the Roman mantle known as the palla also relates to this invocation. Palla and ἱμάτιον serve as somewhat interchangeable terms for the same large rectangular garment used primarily by women to cover the shoulders and arms (Stears 2010: 227). Depending on the circumstances, it could also be pulled up at the back to cover part, or all, of the head. Statuary depictions of women demonstrate that, where a palla features as a part of the drapery, rendering the head covered or uncovered was of a nearly equal possibility. ¹³ The garment has been associated with married Roman women, ¹⁴ but could also serve as a kind of epithet in early imperial poetry for goddesses who exhibit deviant or transgressive behaviour. ¹⁵ Henry Bender notes that in the Aeneid, for example, Vergil employs the palla as ‘an ominous symbol suggesting doom either to its wearer or to those who … must confront the rage of its wearer’ (Bender 1994: 150). Whether or not Peter intended to evoke these associations of the palla by using the term ἱμάτιον remains unclear. The palla was, nevertheless, much like infulae and vittae, inextricably linked with the ancient (male) ideal for the costume of Roman matronae. ¹⁶

Consideration of the prescriptive nature of the ancient literary sources that mention infulae, vittae and the palla necessarily impacts our own interpretation of Peter’s description and criticism of the similar, and possibly related, ἐμπλοκής τριχῶν and ἐνδύσεως ἱματίων. Peter, rather than painting a picture of the day-to-day dress of Roman matronae, rejects the (male) normative ideal for Roman attire and its ritual associations, in favour of his own, equally prescribed, ideal for women following the Christian faith. Current commentaries on the phrases ὁ ἔξωθεν ἐμπλοκῆς τριχῶν and ἐνδύσεως ἱματίων in 1 Pet. 3.3 do not link the hairdo (ἐμπλοκῆς) nor the garment (ἱματίων) to the Roman infulae, vittae or palla. ¹⁷ This possibility is undoubtedly worthy of further consideration.