Kay

Ancient Greece was not a monolithic culture: customs varied fom city to city in Greece. Ovid (43 BC–AD 17), in the generation preceding Paul, provides an impressive testimony to the sad state of Roman morals in his book Ars Amatoria, with much discussion of female dress and hairstyles. His advice to ladies concerning hairstyles and wigs would be pointless if the ladies went out with their heads covered. If Ovid’s representation of society is at all accurate, it is hard to believe that there was any strict observance of headcovering customs in daily life. Likewise, the Apostle Paul’s remark about braided hair in 1 Timothy implies that in his experience women prided themselves on elaborate hairstyles, which is impossible with a headcovering.