FIRST HALF OF 5TH CENTURY B.C.

It has been suggested that these 'Anacreontic' komasts (or more recently 'Booners') depicted on a distinctive group of Attic vases, are evidence of transvestite activity in Archaic and Classical Athens. They wore a costume comprising chiton, himation, mitra (turban-like headdress), boots and were often depicted with earrings and parasols. These distinctive bearded revellers in fancy dress are called 'Anacreontic' after the Greek lyric poet, Anacreon, who came to Athens from East Greece in the late 500s B.C. It has been argued that their clothing was part of a larger infiltration of East Greek art and ideas into Athenian culture beginning in the 520s B.C., and that it was suitable male attire in Lydia and the East Greek colonies. For further discussion of this subject, cf. D. C. Kurtz and J. Boardman, "Booners", Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, 3, Malibu, 1986, pp. 35-70; and M. C. Miller, Re-examining Transvestism in Archaic and Classical Athens: The Zewadski Stamnos, American Journal of Archaeology, 103, no. 2, April 2000.