Socks with sandals? Yup, completely accurate; archaeologists found evidence of it being done in Northern Britannia (shreds of fabric mixed up with the leatherwork of discarded caligae (military sandals). In addition, one of the Vindolanda Tablets (”postcards” written on thin wood) mentions that a care package sent by his family to a soldier serving on the Wall included socks, sandals and underpants.
Art suggests that the Ancient Greeks were less concerned about underpants, but then they weren’t standing guard on the damp and chilly edge of Empire. The “almost-out” part of wearing a chlamys didn’t seem a great cause for concern, and though art is probably more idealised than reality, Greek culture certainly considered that If the gods gave someone a good body there was nothing wrong about showing it off. What WAS wrong was to dishonour the gift by letting it go to seed and gave extra emphasis to “religiously hitting the gym”.
Since gym(nasium) comes from gymnos - γυμνός, “naked” - and working-out was done in the buff, there was no hiding a lack of reps under baggy sweats.
To evade the stupid porn-not-art bots, I’m not posting full-frontal examples of what happened to a chlamys when the wearer moved - there are plenty if you Google, and this would be typical if complete…
…but the ones I’ve included give a good idea of how much it covered or didn’t.
Figures wearing a chlamys often also wear boots and a broad-brimmed hat called a petasos, sometimes pushed back to give a halo effect. This seems to be visual shorthand for someone on a journey; Odysseus certainly qualifies.
Behind him on the right is Hermes; a hat, chlamys, short chiton (tunic), trademark winged heels / boots and caduceus snake-staff or herald’’s wand are his typical attributes-in-art. (Side note: the double-snake staff isn’t medical, despite appearing on US badges; an Asklepios medical rod has just one snake.)
Sometimes his Roman representations are a bit more, uh, cheeky.
The chlamys looks like something developed by a culture which wore towels at the shoulder rather than round the waist, then decided “bodies are nothing to be ashamed of and we have a hot climate, so why not outdoors as well…”
Oddly enough the Aztecs had a cape or mantle called a tilmàtli which was secured at one shoulder in almost exactly the same way…
…but that’s another post…
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