A woman's foot-length gown. But others [say that it is] an elaborate tragedic garment having a mantle. Others [say that it is] a light one, [so called] from [the verb] ἐξύσθαι . But properly [it is] the garment of tragic actors.
Xystis is the word for the saffron-coloured cloak that charioteers still wear when they parade. Kings in tragedy also use it. Attic writers make [the word] xystis proparoxytone [i.e. with acute accent on the first rather than the second syllable]. Aristophanes in Clouds [writes]: 'just like Megacles, having a xystis.'[1]
Xystis is also a garment for horsemen, as Aristophanes [shows] in Clouds.