{{Short description|Garment worn by women of Ancient Greece}} [[File:Acropole Musée Athéna pensante.JPG|thumb|The ''Mourning Athena'' relief with Athena wearing a peplos, {{circa|460 BC}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Relief of the "Pensive Athena" |url=https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/relief-pensive-athena |access-date=May 11, 2025 |website=The Acropolis Museum |language=en}}</ref>]] A '''peplos''' ({{langx|grc|πέπλος}}) is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by {{circa|500 BC}}, during the late Archaic and Classical period. The peplos was a rectangular piece of woollen cloth that was folded loosely down one side (leaving the garment open down the other side) and pinned at both shoulders, then allowed to drape down around the body.<ref name="Nigro-2022">{{Cite journal |last=Nigro |first=Jeff |date=2022-02-01 |title=Ancient Greek Dress: The Classic Look |website=Art Institute of Chicago |url=https://www.artic.edu/articles/966/ancient-greek-dress-the-classic-look |language=en}}</ref><ref name="MOMA-2003">{{Cite web |title=Ancient Greek Dress |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grdr/hd_grdr.htm |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=October 2003 |language=en}}</ref> The top third of the cloth could also be folded over to create an over-fold, called the ''apoptygma'' ({{lang|grc|ἀπόπτυγμα}}),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0004:entry=apoptygma |title=Perseus Encyclopedia |entry=Apoptygma |publisher=Tufts University}}</ref><ref name="MOMA-2003" /> with the shoulder fastenings at the top of this fold. A girdle or belt was used to fasten the garment at the waist and create another fold, to adjust its length for the height of the wearer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Mireille M. |title=Body, dress, and identity in ancient Greece |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-05536-0 |location=New York |pages=158–159}}</ref><ref name="Nigro-2022" /> Variations of the peplos were worn by women in many periods such as the archaic, early classical, and classical periods of ancient Greece.<ref name="Art-2003">{{Cite web |author=Department of Greek and Roman Art|date=2003-10-01 |title=Ancient Greek Dress - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/ancient-greek-dress |access-date=2025-06-13 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref>
It may be compared with the Ionic chiton, which was a piece of fabric folded over and sewn together along the longer side to form a tube.
Spartan women continued to wear the peplos much later in history than other Greek cultures. Theirs was shorter than fashionable in the rest of Greece and with slits on the side.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pomeroy|first1=Sarah B.|title=Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity|date=1994|publisher=Pimlico|location=London|isbn=978-0-712-66054-9 |page=36}}</ref>
==Rituals==
On the last day of the month Pyanepsion, the priestess of Athena Polias and the Arrephoroi, a group of girls chosen to help in the making of the sacred peplos, set up the loom on which the enormous peplos was to be woven by the Ergastinai, another group of girls chosen to spend about nine months making the sacred peplos. They had to weave a theme of Athena's defeat of Enkelados and the Olympian's defeat of the Giants. The peplos of the statue was changed each year during the Plynteria.
The peplos played a role in the Athenian festival of the Great Panathenaea. Nine months before the festival, at the arts and crafts festival titled ''Chalkeia'', a special peplos would begin to be woven by young women. During the Panathenaea, the peplos was taken up to the Acropolis of Athens to be presented to the wooden statue of Athena Polias in the Erechtheion, opposite the Parthenon.<ref name="Titi-2023">{{Cite book |last=Titi |first=Catharine |author-link=Catharine Titi |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6 |title=The Parthenon Marbles and International Law |date=2023 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-031-26356-9 |pages=44, 46 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-26357-6}}</ref> The main scene of the Parthenon frieze is believed, although not without disagreement, to represent this peplos scene during the Panathenaea.<ref name="Titi-2023" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Neils |first=Jenifer |title=The Parthenon Frieze |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=6}}</ref> The peplos had images of the mythic battle between gods and giants woven into its material and usually consisted of purple and saffron yellow cloth.
==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed" heights="240px"> File:Peplos scene BM EV.JPG|The Panathenaea peplos, from the Parthenon frieze File:Istanbul - Museo archeologico - Mostra sul colore nell'antichità 02 - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006sm.jpg|The ''Peplos Kore'', colour reconstruction of statue of {{circa|530 BC}} File:Athena Parthenos Louvre Ma91.jpg|Athena wearing a luxurious peplos, one that uses a lot of fabric, fifth century BC File:Peplofora, Neo-Attic, 50 BC to 50 AD, marble - Galleria Borghese - Rome, Italy - DSC04821.jpg|A wide peplos with the width gathered at the side to be used as sleeves File:Bronze Nike Louvre Br1679.jpg|Nike wearing a peplos on top of a chiton, second quarter of fifth century BC File:Caryatid Erechtheion BM Sc407.jpg|Caryatid from the Erechtheion wearing a peplos. Note the blousing, or kolpos, over the zone File:Statuette of a female figure (5th cent. B.C.) in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 28 September 2018.jpg|Wearing a peplos over a chiton, (fifth century BC) File:Terrkottastatue einer Griechin im Mantel 2 Jhdt v Chr.jpg|Woman wearing the fold of her peplos over her head, second century BC File:Exaltation fleur Louvre Ma701.jpg|"Exaltation de la Fleur" (exaltation of the flower), fragments from a secondary grave stele: two women wearing a peplos and kekryphalos (hairnet), hold poppy or pomegranate flowers, and maybe a small bag of seeds. Parian marble, {{circa|470}}–460 BC. From Pharsalos, Thessaly. File:Red-figure stamnos by the Chicago Painter (Chicago Art Institute 1889.22) side A.jpg|Vase showing young woman in a peplos (centre), accompanied on either side by women wearing chitons and himations, c. 450 BC.<ref name="Nigro-2022" /> File:Hestia Giustiniani.jpg|The Hestia Giustiniani, a Roman probable copy in marble of Greeek bronze of c. 450 BC, wearing a peplos and a veil </gallery> {{gallery| title=Peplos in Roman sculptures from Herculaneum, before 79 CE |mode=nolines ||height=240 |File:Peplophora 10a.jpg|Fastening a peplos |File:Peplophora 10b.jpg|Detail of fastening mechanism |File:Peplophora 10c.jpg|Side view |File:Peplophora 10d.jpg|Rear view, showing the ''apoptygma''
|File:Peplófora.JPG|Fastened |File:Naples Archaeology Museum (5914748008).jpg|Pulling it over the head. Remnants of a red border may be visible. }}
==See also== *Clothing in ancient Greece *Clothing in the ancient world * {{anl|Delphos gown}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Cc}} *[http://seegras.discordia.ch/Medieval/Kleidung/Peplos.phtml Peplos] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20151105022544/http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/things/romanlife/greekdress.htm Greek Dress] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120419145811/http://whowhatwear.com/website/full-article/trend-report-peplum-dresses/ Peplum dresses]
{{Historical clothing|state=expanded}}
Category:Greek clothing Category:Religious clothing Category:Athena Category:Women's clothing Category:Women in ancient Greece