Koan Silk

Lat: Coa Vestis

And I noted the tunic about his body, all shining as is the sheen upon the skin of a dried onion, so soft it was; and it glistened like the sun. Verily many women gazed at him in wonder.

— Homer, The Odyssey XIX.233

Wild silk from the Mediterranean moth Pachypasa otus, a cloth known to the Romans as coa vestis, was produced exclusively on the Island of Kos, off the southwestern coast of Anatolia. The production process remained a closely guarded secret, but cocoons would have been gathered in the summer, after the moths emerged, and processed into fibers which would then be woven into cloth.

History & Usage

History

Historicity Note

In the 13th Century BCE, silk production was long-established in the Shang Dynasty of China and the Vedic Civilization of Northern India. However, regular trade routes to Hellas from these areas cannot be verified. Wild silk from the Greek island of Kos was known in Classical period, as was sea silk made from fibers attached to some mollusk shells, but these also can't be reliably dated to the 13th Century BCE. The silky fabric described by Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey might be anachronistic. However, a sample of silk found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy of the 21st dynasty, dated to around 1070 BCE, establishes silk only about 150 years after this story in the hands of a known Mycenaean trading partner. Because fabrics don't survive well in the historical record, this might be the closest we can come.

Discovery

Discovered by Pamphila of Kos, daughter of Plateas

Type

Textile