In ancient Greece, both men and women wore a chiton, or tunic, of wool or linen, pinned together at the shoulders. Greeks considered it a mark of fine breeding to be able to drape your chiton artfully. Men wore it to the knee, women to the ankle. Women sometimes wore an outer robe, or peplos, belted at the waist.

A Spartan trollop

Athenians were scandalized when they encountered girls from the neighboring (and rival) city-state, Sparta, who left the sides of their chitons unsewn, exposing a good part of the thigh when they walked. And the Athenians were further shocked that Spartan girls dropped their peplos altogether and entered athletic contests naked, alongside boys. An outraged Athenian writer named Euripides sputtered, “Wish as you might, a Spartan girl never could be virtuous. They gad abroad with young men with naked thighs, and with clothes discarded, they race with ‘em, wrestle with ‘em. Intolerable!”

At the Olympic games, the athletes—all male of course—competed naked. Not only were women forbidden to compete, they couldn’t even watch. Any woman caught in the audience could be hurled to her death from the Typaeum Rock.

Only one case is known of a woman who defied the rule. The mother of one of the athletes disguised herself as a male trainer to watch her son. When he won his contest, she leapt up to cheer, forgetting her disguise, and her cloak slipped off her shoulders, revealing her to be a woman. She was spared death because her son had won a victory wreath.