Tainia (costume)

In ancient Greek costume, a tainia (Ancient Greek: ταινία; pl.: ταινίαι or Latin: taenia; pl.: taeniae) was a headband, ribbon, or fillet.

The tainia headband was worn with the traditional ancient Greek costume. The headbands were worn at Greek festivals.^[1] The gods also bound their heads with tainiai.^[2]

Cult images,^[3] trees,^[4] urns, monuments, animal sacrifices and the deceased^[5] had tainiai wound around them. They were later adopted by the Romans.^[6] A similar type of headband was the diadema, used as a symbol for kings.

• Coy symposiast playing with his taenia, 450–440 BCE
• Eros bearing tainia, red-figure skyphos, Lucania 420–400 BCE
• Cyprian Aphrodite coiffed with diadem and tainia, 351-332 BCE
• Tainia-bound double cornucopia, Ptolemaic Egypt, 283–246 BCE
• Tetradrachm of Eumenes II, 2nd century BCE

• Clothing in ancient Greece
• Fillet (clothing)
• Wreath (attire)

• Image of a woman wearing a chiton and a broad taenia at Perseus Project