#mycenaean

[hellenicgoddess]

Detail of the “Saffron Gatherers” 3,675-year-old fresco from Akrotiri, the Bronze Age city of Santorini entombed by volcanic ash.

© Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Santorini, Greece

[victoriantomodern]

Sword blades, Mycenae, 1570-1500 BCE, gold inlay on bronze, Ethnikon Archaiologikon Mouseion. From the Visual Arts Legacy Collection (JSTOR)

[asha-dasha]

lil bit of casual reading

[bronzeageecho]

animal figurine, perhaps a child's toy | c. 1350-1250 BCE | mycenaean

in the acropolis museum collection

[marysmirages]

Achilles at the funeral pyre of Patroclus (2026)

[mikeybooch]

Question: where do you find your sources for ancient greek clothing? Do you follow a specific time or region of fashion or go with the garments most often depicted in sculptures?

Great question! The short answer is, I like to rely on books or reputable websites. The internet has always been a dubious place for trustworthy sourcing, and now with the advent of AI, it’s gotten worse. Within my own Mythological art-making journey, I would say that historical “accuracy” (in quotations because true historical accuracy is impossible since we just don’t have many sources into the scope and detail of how the different periods and regions encompassed within “Ancient Greece” dressed) has become more important. When I started drawing mythological subjects, I looked at it as a character design challenge, where I would “enhance” historical details with my own aesthetic sensibilities and symbolic references to create my own sort of MikeyBooch Greek-Myth Universe (The MGU if you will). Then, I started to lean more on historical conventions, but in kind of hodge hodge fashion (ex. Aphrodite might be Hellenistic while Apollo would be Archaic) still will the idea of creating the Ultimate character design for my MGU. Now I’m simultaneously more loose and strict. Loose in the sense that I’m not really precious about having a single signature character design for these figures (which, for me, is unrealistic anyway since gods and heroes had so many incarnations/interpretations and could shift their shapes at a whim) and more strict in that, if I’m portraying characters in a scene, I want them to exist within the same time period.    

And now, TO THE SOURCES! 

WEBSITES: 

The Beazley Archive Pottery Database is a great way to search through ancient Greek pottery. There’s great search options like time period, technique, or subject matter. 

Theoi Project. A great overview of mythological figures, with a selection of images and sources from works in which they are featured.  

Leoni di Nemea. This is an ancient Greek historical reconstruction group. For me, it’s especially helpful to see how clothing/armor interacts with the human form. 

BOOKS: 

Overall I’m going to say Peter Connolly is the GOAT. Some of his stuff is a little outdated, but his illustrations are gorgeous and his books will often have the archaeological findings he based his designs off of, so it’s kind of a two in one. Not a lot of his books are in print, so if you can find a copy secondhand I would highly recommend getting it. 

For Bronze Age, the best sources (in my opinion) are the Age of Bronze series by Eric Shanower, and one of my faves “The Ancient Greece of Odysseus” by Peter Connolly. I will often look at their works, look at the evidence from actual Bronze Age sources, and come up with a happy medium that is a design of my own.

For Ancient Greek costume reference I use:

 “Greek Dress” by Ethel Beatrice Abrahams, which is okay. The illustrations in it are very sparse, and I wish she was a little more specific in her descriptions. She will also just use the Greek words without any translation, but it was an affordable option and in some occasions it has been able to fill in the blanks for questions I’ve had about how something might work. 

“Costumes of the Greeks and Romans” by Thomas Hope. Again, this is also okay and I think a great book if you’re looking to get better at drawing Ancient Greek/Roman clothing. It’s a good starting point, but once you become used to the conventions of Ancient clothing, it sort of loses its luster. The illustrations in it are clear and based off of figures from ancient art. 

“Ancient Greece” by Peter Connolly. This is really an overview on Ancient Greek life, with cross-sections of buildings, and other such diagrams along with a basic overview on clothing and hairstyles. Again, Peter Connolly can do no wrong in my eyes. 

ARTISTS:

As I said, it’s helpful for me to see how clothing works on a more realistic figure, and while I love Ancient pottery, it can sometimes be difficult for me to conceive of how something might look realistically. Historical genre painters can be a great reference for that. 

J.W Godward (left) painted almost exclusively women, but his work is clear and offers a nice variety in how garments worked.

Henryk Siemiradzki (top right). This painting is called “Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis” and as you can see, there’s a lot of variation within clothing that can give you an idea of how to style different figures to keep your designs interesting.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (bottom right). Out of the three, he probably has the largest and best known body of work for historical genre paintings featuring women and men.

Of course, these all serve as supplements when looking at ancient works of art and filling in the blanks to make something work in my style. But there you have it!

[memories-of-ancients]

Bronze dagger with gold and silver riverside landscape scene, Mycenaean Greece, 16th century BC

from The National Archaeological Museum, Athens

[tridentandtales]

Mycenaean bell krater with a bird (cattle egret) removing a tick from a bull's hide

1300 - 1200 BCE

British Museum 1897,0401.1150