#well as old as velificatio actually; but only on seraphim who covered their faces hands and feet with their wings

[cthulhubert]

"Scarf/veil worn over the elbows" - like Aqua in Konosuba? Yeah, what is that? Seems tonbe associated with holy/divine characters, so maybe it's referencing some religious art?

In reference to my tags on this post.

They don't always seem to draw her with it, so for a minute I thought you were talking about those detached sleeves, LOL

But yes, exactly!

I actually had a dream, and while it was tangential, one element was an ancient aliens esque theory, that angels/gods were real beings, because of the consistency of this sash/stole/shawl/ribbon thing shown in art across the world.

Unfortunately for the theorists in my dream, we actually know pretty well how it went.

The ancient Romans just really liked showing deities framed by a billowing garment, "Velificatio ... represents 'vigorous movement,' an epiphany, or 'the vault of heaven,' often appearing with celestial, weather, or sea deities."

The etymology is roughly "setting sail", and Pliny the Elder describes a wind god as "Making a sail of her garment."

I sometimes call it a veil because well, the Japanese version is always really diaphanous, but as you can see in the wikipedia article, it's sometimes associated with initiations into mystery religions, where it's related to the veil or shroud Romans would put over their dead, so removing it symbolized rebirth, and (stretching a little here) it billowing around someone showed them as near but aside from death.

It's shown a lot of ways (there's this little known painting called Birth of Venus from the 15th century, check out Zephyrus in it), but, well, here's Neptune from the 3rd century:

Familiar, huh?

Art meets silk road, and a sash becomes really popular in depictions of celestial, flying apsaras:

I think this guy's from 500ce or so.

The cloth itself doesn't really have a name, but in Japan the tennin (lit, heavenly people, analogous to angels) wear hagoromo (feathered rainment) that they sometimes need to fly.

Here's a guy doing a selkie to one. "Marry me or you'll never return to the heavens."

As you can see, a hagoromo (center) includes this exact windy sash, but there's also more to it.

I don't really have a conclusion, but thanks for the ask, prompting me to retrace my path learning about it.