Defining national identity is an ongoing and open-ended process, which is pursued constantly and competitively through every available medium. Identity can be defined by what we have to say about ourselves as a group, or about individuals who seem to embody characteristics considered either desirable or undesirable for the group as a whole. It is defined too by what we have to say about others, because at the same time we are thereby defining ourselves. It is also defined by what others have to say - or choose to leave unsaid - about us. Further definitions are also created when, as is often the case, a national group also finds itself a subgroup of a wider linguistic entity. English and Scots, Americans and Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, metropolitan and colonial French, Chileans and Argentinians - the modern list is almost endless, just as it was in ancient Greece with its plethora of rival city states, all speaking a common language yet all with their own distinct political traditions, systems of coinage, dialects, and social structures.

Past readings of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (458 BC) have spawned numerous theories about the nature and significance of the cloth stage prop central to the ‘Carpet Scene’ (783-974). Kenneth Morrell has pointed out that ‘recent critics at best emphasize the ambiguous nature of the “fabric” ’, which the critics refer to variously as something carpet-like, as rugs or blankets, as garment-like tapestries or loosely-fitting garments, as draperies, and more generally as the household's treasure. But what fabric, if any, would have been versatile enough to function as a tapestry, a robe, and a blanket, and would have inspired outrage when used as a rug?

More symbolically significant than the most luxurious carpet, the fabric strewn on the ground before Agamemnon strongly suggests a bridal cloth, an object replete with symbolism, which would have served as both a nuptial robe and a coverlet for the marriage bed. Scholars who discuss Athenian weddings in the context of the Oresteia have overlooked the nuptial nuances of the ‘carpet’.