This is how the ancient Greek girls looked like.
Inspired from the Kore Statue ( The girl with the almond shaped eyes. ) 500 BC
Κάπως έτσι μοιάζανε οι αρχαίες Ελληνίδες και ιδιαίτερα οι Αθηναίες χωρίς βέβαια να αποτελεί μια στερεότυπη προσέγγιση.
Αυτή η αναπαράσταση αρχαϊκής Κόρης μας βοηθάει όμως να τις γνωρίσουμε καλύτερα φυσιογνωμικά.
Η «Κόρη με τα αμυγδαλωτά μάτια» (500 π.Χ. περίπου), ένα από τα ωραιότερα αρχαϊκά αγάλματα της Ακρόπολης, ήταν αφιερωμένη στη θεά Αθηνά, προστάτιδα της Ακρόπολης (εικ. 1). Κατασκευάστηκε από παριανό μάρμαρο, προέρχεται από ιωνικό ή αττικό εργαστήριο και είναι επιζωγραφισμένο (σημ. 5). Τα μάτια και τα μαλλιά της είχαν βαφτεί καστανά. Ταινίες μαιάνδρων καθώς και άνθη στόλιζαν το διάδημα, το χιτώνα και το ιμάτιό της. Τα αυτιά του αγάλματος είναι μεγάλα και αδρά σχεδιασμένα.
This Kore was discovered in 1888 southwest of the Parthenon and was reassembled from four fragments. The head, right hand, parts of the hair and the folds on her right thigh were constructed from separate blocks of marble. Delicate and expressive, with her features highlighted with colour, this Kore is one of the most beautiful statues found on the Acropolis. Due to her almond-shaped eyes, which are strongly accentuated with paint, she is known as the "Kore with Almond Eyes".
She wears a long-sleeved chiton, with a short himation thrown over the top, which passes obliquely under the left arm, while secured on the right with small relief buttons. Her garments were richly decorated with painted rosettes, meander and elaborate motifs. The colors we see today are not the original hues and the intended blue of the chiton, has oxidized through time and now appears as green. In her right hand the Kore would have held an offering to the goddess while with her left she was likely pulling aside her chiton to facilitate her step.
Her hairdo is the typical of the archaic Korai with her long hair falling on her back while three curled locks frame each side of her face and spill to the front. The reddish-brown colour we see today is a result of oxidation or constitutes the undercoat over which the final hue was applied. On her head she has a stephane with a painted meander, part of which was made separately and then added, probably due to a repair, and on her ears, she wears round earrings decorated with rosettes on a dark background. The bronze stem projecting from the top of her head is a meniskos.
The Kore's features are highlighted with colour. Black is used for the eyebrows, the contour of the eyes and their pupils; brown for the irises; and red for the lips. The understatement of her expression, without the "archaic smile" of older Korai, is suggestive of early Classical art and the so-called "Severe Style".
