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The petasos is a wide-brimmed hat worn by ancient Greek farmers and travelers, made from various materials. It was associated with farm laborers and eventually became part of traditional Greek traveling attire. The hat’s simplicity and functionality helped it survive in later cultures, and it continues to influence modern sun hats.
A petasos is a type of wide-brimmed floppy hat that dates back to ancient Greece. Frequently worn by farmers, the broad brim of the petasos made it well-suited for outdoor work, protecting the wearer’s head from sun and rain. The hat could be made from a variety of materials, including felt, straw, leather, and wool. The petasoi worn by Greek men generally featured low crowns, and those worn by women generally had much higher crowns.
“Petasos” is the Greek and Latin word for “hat.” However, the word has also specifically referred to that wide-brimmed hat worn by the Greeks and other people in the region. Petasos could have appeared as early as 1200 BC. Depictions of the Greek god Hermes, later known to the Romans as Mercury, show the swift-footed deity wearing a version of the hat with small brims on the sides. Many contemporary artists depicted Greek men and women wearing the distinctive headgear.
Because petasos were often worn by Greek farmers, the hat became associated with farm laborers. The protective brim eventually helped the style find favor with travelers, making the hat a part of traditional Greek traveling attire, along with the black cape known as chlamys. The brim of the petasos distinguished it from the pilos, a brimless hat that often had a tall, conical crown and resembled a fez.
The first petasoi are believed to have been made in Thessaly or Crete. Crete is a plausible place of origin because the art of wool felting developed on the island. Petasos were also given different names in many Greek regions, a factor that may have contributed to the confusion over the hat’s origins. Different styles of the hat featured brims that curved up or down. Chin straps were eventually added, allowing the hat to hang freely on the wearer’s neck when not needed.
The simplicity and functionality of the petasos helped the style of the hat to survive in later cultures. Pop culture depictions of ancient Greece and Rome show the hat as it would have been worn by people of the time. In the 1966 film “A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to the Forum,” a petaso continually shadows the grim face of hapless Roman citizen Erronius, played by Buster Keaton. The features of petasos survive on sun hats worn by people in the 21st century; in fact, many of the sun hats favored by modern gardeners are simply petasoi known by other names.
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