Silk was the traditional and timeless fiber of the ancient world. Men women and children of all stations wore silk. Made from the cocoons of hungry worms that resurrect, if not disturbed, as gorgeous moths, silk is both utilitarian and symbolic. Since time immemorial, silk was traded along routes that threaded in and out of cities and villages. The Silk Road was as intricate and manifold as the veins and capillaries in the human body.
Sericulture (silk production) and silk trade provided much economic infrastructure. Pure silk handloom brocade, valued by brides of the first century, is still made by the Kasim Family of Varanasi, India, and sold online at Exotic India. Ikat the tie-dyed rainbows characterize the radiant unique taste and values of the Jews. A recent exhibit at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., Colors of the Oasis featured stunning silk Ikat form Uzbekistan.
Valued for dowries and symbolizing love and honor, understanding silk is necessary for comprehending the Torah, the Bible, as well as Greek and Roman literature and art and all of the culture of the ancient world.
According to the Silk Road Foundation Home Page:
“For centuries the West knew very little about silk and the people who made it. Chinese legend gives the title Goddess of Silk to Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor, who was said to have ruled China in about 3000 BC. She is credited with the introduction of silkworm rearing and the invention of the loom. Half a silkworm cocoon unearthed in 1927 from the loess soil astride the Yellow River in Shanxi Province, in northern China, has been dated between 2600 and 2300 BC. Another example is a group of ribbons, threads and woven fragments, dated about 3000 BC, and found at Qianshanyang in Zhejiang province. More recent archeological finds – a small ivory cup carved with a silkworm design and thought to be between 6000 and 7000 years old, and spinning tools, silk thread and fabric fragments from sites along the lower Yangzi River – reveal the origins of sericulture to be even earlier.
The Greeks clothed themselves and their goddesses in beautiful diaphones silk. Aristophanes’ play, Lysistrata, performed in 441 BC in Athens, speaks of silk:
CALONICE
How could we do?
Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell
Quietly adorning ourselves in a back-room
With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy toilets
Of stately silk and dainty little slippers….
LYSISTRATA
But still at home, ignoring him, I’ll stay,
CALONICE
But still at home, ignoring him, I’ll stay,
LYSISTRATA
Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day.
Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day.
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata: 441 BC in Athens:
CALONICE
How could we do?
Such a big wise deed? We women who dwell
Quietly adorning ourselves in a back-room
With gowns of lucid gold and gawdy toilets
Of stately silk and dainty little slippers….
LYSISTRATA
But still at home, ignoring him, I’ll stay,
CALONICE
But still at home, ignoring him, I’ll stay,
LYSISTRATA
Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day.
Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day.
King James Bible, Proverbs, and Ezekiel echo resounding affirmations of the presence of silk.
King James Bible, Proverbs 31: 10-21-22.
“10: Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies…21: She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22: She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.”
-Ezekiel 16.10
“I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.”
The Story of Mary Magdalene