Editing Hand fan (section)

=== Ancient Europe ===
[[File:Milano - Museo archeologico - Vaso apulo con Eros - Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto - 25-7-2003.jpg|thumb|[[Eros]] offering a fan and a mirror to a lady. [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] [[amphora]] from [[Apulia]], Archaeological Museum in Milan, Italy]]Archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that the hand fan was used in [[ancient Greece]] at least from the 4th century BC and was known as a {{transliteration|grc|rhipis , rhipister or rhipidion}} ({{langx|grc|ῥιπίς, ῥιπιστήρ or ῥιπίδιον}}).<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities">[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DF%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dflabellum-cn A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Flabellum]</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dr%28ipi%2Fs ῥιπίς], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> Fans were also used to keep flies away (like a fly-flapper), this kind of fan was less stiff and was named μυιoσόβη.<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities"/> Another use for a fan was to fan the flame, e.g. in cookery or at the altar.<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities"/>

Christian Europe's earliest known fan was the [[flabellum]] (ceremonial fan), which dates from the 6th century. It was used during services to drive insects away from the consecrated bread and wine. Its use died out in western Europe, but continues in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Ethiopian Church]]es.