There is a goddess tradition originating from Isianism, that we only look on
the uncovered face of the Goddess when we are dead. I'm not certain but I
think this is quite late Egyptian as in Romano-Egyptian or not much before.
Although the blazing vision of Isis in the Golden Ass appears to her
struggling initiate unveiled.

A case can be made that this might be an Isian development after the
Alexandrian conquest.  Alexander and the dynasty his general founded were
devotees of the Hellene culture where women were secluded in the gynaecium
(cf harem area) and unless slave or lower class prostitute did not set foot
in the street unveiled or unaccompanied. So the concept of the secluded face
of the Goddess may have derived its awesome/ erotic charisma from the
artificially enhanced femininity that is hidden.

However I think the idea may well have been adapted and interpreted for
patriarchal purposes, but is also much older. (cf menstrual seclusion, later
used to define unclean, but highly likely earlier used by women to ensure a
healthy sacred retreat period.)

In the Sumerian Innanna mythos, the Goddess of Life goes to visit her sister
the Goddess of Death (her other side). Much is made in this that all who go
to face sister Death must relinquish all and therefore go naked into her
presence. Even sister Life herself must strip. She does so, and after all
the outward tokens of her powers are given up, the seventh relinquishing is
her veil, or robe. This is a metaphor for her body itself.

The mythos, like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, reveals what we can expect
after dying. So here it is the devotee who must unveil. From this we can
read it that in an older version to be veiled is to be protected, in charge,
not connected. To be unveiled is to be vulnerable, available, intimate. This
would also fit the idea of the face of the Goddess before we die being
separated from us by veils of living experience: so veiled she is further
away, more remote and queenly/ unveiled she comes close to us as a mother's
naked face comes close to her child.

Looking to the Tuareg is also instructive. Until very recently Tuareg were
nomadic, and the women owned most of the valuable property and were the key
community decision makers (once in houses that the men were granted as
settlements this has quickly disintegrated). However Tuareg males were
famous for their veils. Various stories were given to account for veiled men
and unveiled women. The main functional root may be that it is the men who
rode out into the desert sand winds.
Here the veil does not denote a power imbalance. But my model of the veil as
a distancing device would hold as outdoor riding does not favour intimate
distances/ communication.

I think it is quite possible that veils were once signs of wealthy women, eg
traders, priestesses, technologists, landowners. A veil has to be made of
very finely woven fabric and weaving was predominantly a women's craft. So a
delicate veil would be prized as a lovely thing and as a status symbol.
Older women / people are more likely to be wealthy, while younger women/
people are more likely to want to show off their abundant glossy hair.
Once used in such simple functions, veils would rapidly become useful power
strategies. Talking to a veiled person (sibyl, governor, trader) puts you at
a great disadvantage in negotiation. The other is othered or blanked, again,
distanced, awesome. The priestess Veleda (a title) among the Gauls was never
seen but always veiled, and her power was absolute among her people.

I am not at all denying the way the veil has been used to disempower and
over-eroticise women. But it's interesting how it can have been used quite
otherwise, to enrich authority and personal space.




----- Original Message -----
From: Dagmar Gollatz
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 12:15 AM
Subject: veils


I have tried this question on other lists already, but with little results:


Were women in ancient Greece supposed to wear veils? All women? (married,
prostitutes, priestesses...). Judging from greek art, there must have been
some women veiled and some without a veil.
Where does the costum of veiling (for women) come from? What was its
function?

I hope someone can help me,
Dagmar