ZŌNA

also called CINGŬLUM ( ζώνη , ζῶμα , ζωστῆρ , μίτρα ), a girdle or zone, worn about the loins by both sexes. The chief use of this article of dre was to hold up the tunic ( ζώννυσθαι ), which was more especially requisite to be done when persons were at work, on a journey, or engaged in hunting. The zona is also represented in many statues and pictures of men in armour as worn round the cuira . The girdle, mentioned by Homer, seems to have been a constituent part of the cuira , serving to fasten it by means of a buckle, and also affording an additional protection to the body, and having a short kind of petticoat attached to it, as is shown in the figure of the Greek warrior in p. 240 . The cut at p. 4 shows that the ancient cuira did not descend low enough to secure that part of the body which was covered by the ornamental kilt or petticoat. To supply this defect was the design of the mitra ( μίτρα ), a brazen belt lined probably on the inside with leather and stuffed with wool, which was worn next to the body. Men used their girdles to hold money instead of a purse. As the girdle was worn to hold up the garments for the sake of busine or of work requiring despatch, so it was loosened and the tunic was allowed to fall down to the feet to indicate the opposite condition, and more especially in preparing to perform a sacrifice ( veste recincta ), or funeral rites ( discinct i , incinctae ). A girdle was worn by young women, even when their tunic was not girt up, and removed on the day of marriage, and therefore called ζώνη παρθενική .