Mustax
μύσταξ
Mustax (μύσταξ), moustaches. The different parts of the beard [BARBA] had different names, which also varied with its age and appearance. The young beard, first appearing on the upper lip, was called ὑπήνη or ὑπήνη πρώτη (Diod. 5.28; Philostr. Sen. Imag. 1.30, 2.7, 9), and the youth just arrived at puberty, who was graced with it, was πρῶτον ὑπηνήτης. (Hom. Il. 24.348, Od. 10.279; Schol. in loc.; Brunck, Anal. 3.44; Aelian, Ael. VH 10.18.) By its growth and development it produced the moustaches, which the Greeks generally cherished as a manly ornament. (Theocrit. 14.4; Antiphanes, ap. Ath. 4.21; Pollux, 2.80, 10.120; Aristoph. Lys. 1072; Vesp. 476.) To this practice, however, there seems to have been one exception. The Spartan EPHORI when they were inducted, made a proclamation requiring the people to shave their moustaches and obey the laws.
(Plut. Cleom. 9.) For what reason they gave the former command does not appear, nor how it is to be reconciled with the passages cited from Aristophanes and Antiphanes, unless we understand it to refer to the young only, which the succeeding sentence seems to imply. (Proclus in Hes. Op. et Dies, 722; Müller, Dor. 3.7.7, 4.2.5; Becker-Göll, Charikles, iii. p. 296.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.