Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Strophium

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

STROPH'IUM (στρόφιον). A sash, or rather scarf (mitra), twisted or rolled up into a long, round, and even form (tereti strophio, Catull. lxiv. 65. στρογγύλη ζώνη. Hesych.), and fastened round the bust close under the breast, to serve as a support to the bosom for young women who had attained their full development. (Cic. Fragm. ap. Non. s. v. p. 538. Catull. l. c.). It was not flat, nor was it worn next to the skin, like the bosom band (mamillare), but over a little tunic or chemise (tunicula), as is clear from a passage of Turpilius (ap. Non. l. c.), in which a girl is introduced lamenting the loss of a letter that she had deposited between her chemise and strophium  — inter vias epistola cecidit mihi, Infelix, inter tuniculam et strophium quam collocaveram  — and precisely as exhibited by the annexed figure (Strophium/1.1), from a statue believed to represent a young Doric female, dressed for the foot-race (compare Pausan. v. 16. 2., who there describes a costume of exactly the same character as the one her shown). A similar appendage is frequently met with on statues and other representations of Diana, the huntress, which is unaccountably mistaken for the chlamys. We may also infer from these peculiar instances, that it was not intended as a contrivance for compressing the form artificially, nor worn by all females, but only by those whose figures, or active habits of life, rendered such an assistance necessary.

2. A wreath worn round the head, Virg. Cop. 31., where it is made of roses: see the wood-cuts s. CORONA, 10. and 11.

3. The cable of an anchor. Apul. Met. xi. p. 250. ANCORALE, and wood-cut s. v.

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  Strophium/1.1