Ampyx
Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on p91 of
William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.


AMPYX, AMPYCTER, (a[mpux, ajmpukthvr), called by the Romans frontale, was a broad band or plate of metal, which Greek ladies of rank wore upon the forehead as part of the head-dress (Il. xxii.468-470; Aeschyl. Supp. 431; Theocr. i.33). Hence it is attributed to the female divinities. Artemis wears a frontal of gold (crusevan a[mpuka, Eurip. Hec. 464); and the epithet crusavmpukeV is applied by Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar to the Muses, the Hours, and the Fates. From the expression tav kuanavmpuka Qhvban in a fragment of Pindar, we may infer that this ornament was sometimes made of blue steel (kuvanoV) instead of gold; and the Scholiast on the above cited passage of Euripides asserts, that it was sometimes enriched with precious stones.

The frontal of a horse was called by the same name, and was occasionally made of similar rich materials. Hence, in the Iliad, the horses which draw the chariots of Hera and of Ares are called crusavmpukeV.

The annexed woodcut exhibits the frontal on the head of Pegasus, taken from one of Sir William Hamilton's vases, in contrast with the corresponding ornament as shown on the heads of two females in the same collection.


Frontals were also worn by elephants (Liv. xxxviii.40). Hesychius (s.v. Ludivw' Novmw') supposes the men to have worn frontals in Lydia. They appear to have been worn by the Jews and other nations of the East (Deut. vi.8, xi.18).

From:http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Ampyx.html