One of the most characteristic features of the ancient Albanian Arvanites and Souliotes was the shaved front of the head and temples, while they left behind a lush and long mane of hair. This is the hairstyle that Aristides Kollias describes as “ὄπισθεν κομῶντες”. Kollias writes that it was not a simple fashion. He believes that it was an old martial custom, which was preserved for many centuries in Arvanite society. For this reason, he uses as examples Theodor Bythguri (Kolloktroni) and a Souliotis in Corfu.
In the book’s image we see Kolokotronis on the left, in a drawing that the caption attributes to the French colonel Voutier, and on the right, “Souliotis in Corfu”, a work by Louis Dupré. In both, the shaved front of the head and the temples are clearly visible, while long hair remains behind.
Therefore, this particular hairstyle is not something that some painter imagined later. We see it in drawings from the same era and on people who lived during the years of the Revolution.
Kollias connects this Arvanite custom with the ancient references to the Avantes and the Kouretes of Euboea.
Homer, in the Second Rhapsody of the “Iliad”, already mentions the warriors Avantes of Euboea and characterizes them:
“Those who go forth… will come back.”
That is, fast warriors who left their hair long at the back of their heads. These Avantes lived in Chalkis, Eretria, Istiaia, Karystos and other areas of Euboea and took part in the Trojan War under the leadership of Elephenor.
Plutarch, in his “Life of Theseus”, explains the custom even more clearly. He writes that Theseus cut only the front part of his hair, as the Avantes did, and that this hairstyle was called “Theseus’s haircut”.
According to Plutarch, the Avantes were warriors who fought at close quarters, hand to hand. They therefore cut their hair in front so that the enemy could not grab them by the hair and throw them down. For the same reason, he mentions that Alexander the Great ordered the Macedonian soldiers to shave their beards, because they were an easy point of capture in battle.
We find the exact same warlike explanation in Strabo. Strabo, citing the Euboean historian Archemachus, writes that the Kouretes of Chalkis were fighting for the Lelantian field. Because the enemies grabbed their front hair and pulled them down, they began to let their hair grow long at the back and cut the front hair:
“Behind coming to be, the four are to be ordained before.”
That is: “they left their hair long at the back and cut the front.”
Kollias also mentions that the Albanian Ali Pasha once tried to forbid his young men from shaving the front of their heads and temples. According to the author, such a backlash erupted that Ali Pasha was forced to withdraw his order.
Kollias himself does not consider this similarity to be accidental. He sees in the headdress of the Arvanites and Souliotes an ancient warlike remnant, which already appears among the Avantes and Kouretes of ancient Euboea and was preserved in modern times.
What is certain is that ancient sources describe this hairstyle among the Avantes and the Kouretes, while 19th-century works show the same form of hairstyle among Arvanites and Souliotes fighters. The direct historical continuity is the interpretation supported by Kollias, based on this striking similarity.
No matter how one looks at it, this is a real and distinctive element of the Albanian martial appearance, which deserves to be recorded and made known.
Sources
Aristides P. Kollias, “Arvanites and the Origin of the Greeks”, section 17 “Those Coming Behind”, pp. 296–298.
Ancient sources: Homer, “Iliad”, II 536–545 · Plutarch, “Theseus”, 5 · Strabo, “Geography”, 10.3.6.
