Figure 1.--This vase shows a a gynaeceum cene in the woman's part of the house. This seems to have been a popular scene, we notice very similar depictions on other vases. We don't know the dating of this vase, but we would guess the late-5th century BC. The origin is probably Athens. Here we see a house slave bringing the children to their mother. Both the baby and his elder brother are naked. The age of the children is difficult to judge in the vase decorations. We do not think that this is is an aestetic depiction, but rather a realistic depiction of the children at home. Notice the long hair on the older child.

Greek clothing generally was very basic and the clothes for children tended to be very basic indeed. Younger children of both genders often wore no clothing at all when the weather was mild. Babies might wear cloth diapers for sanitary purposes. This is confirmed by surviving statuary. If it was cold, of course, babies and younger children would be wrapped up. Children might wear a cloth wrapped around their middles which might be liken to shorts leaving their torso bare. Both boys and girls dressed like this. Men would wear garments at least to their knees or longer. There does not appear to have been any specialized garments except for the basic cloth worn around the middle for children before they began wearing adult garments. Boys spent a lot of time naked in athletic training. We hope to acquire some comtemporary images of Greek children such as vase paintings or sculptures which will provide more information as to how children were dressed. We are not sure, for example, just when children began wearing more adult garmebts like tunics and to what extent this was affected by social class. We also note modern artistic scenes with Greek children, but they often are noit accurate depictions. One example is some Greek children playing painted by Swiss genre artist Albert Anker.