peplos

(noun)

An Ancient Greek garment, worn by women, made of a tubular piece of cloth, which is folded back upon itself halfway down, until the top of the tube is worn around the waist, and the bottom covers the legs down to the ankles; the open top is then worn over the shoulders, and draped, in folds, down to the waist.

Related Terms

Examples of peplos in the following topics:

  • Sculpture in the Greek Archaic Period

    • The Peplos Kore (c. 530 BCE) depicts a young woman wearing a peplos, a heavy wool garment that drapes over the whole body, obscuring most of it.

  • The Parthenon

    • The Panathenaic procession occurred yearly through the city, leading from the Dipylon Gate to the Acropolis and culminated in a ritual changing of the peplos worn by the ancient olive-wood statue of Athena.
    • The central image depicts Athenian maidens with textiles, replacing the old peplos with a new one.

  • The Acropolis

    • The Panathenaic procession occurred yearly through the city, leading from the Dipylon Gate to the Acropolis and culminated in a ritual changing of the peplos worn by the ancient olive-wood statue of Athena.
    • The central image depicts Athenian maidens with textiles, replacing the old peplos with a new one.
    • Because of its mythic significance and its religious relics, the Erechtheion was the ending site of the Panathenaic festival, when the peplos on the olive-wood statue of Athena was annually replaced with new clothing with due pomp and ritual.

  • Sparta

    • Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots.

  • The Propylaea and the Erechtheion

    • Because of its mythic significance and its religious relics, the Erechtheion was the ending site of the Panathenaic festival, when the peplos on the olive-wood statue of Athena was annually replaced with new clothing with due pomp and ritual.

  • Culture in Classical Sparta

    • Unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore dresses (peplos) slit up the side to allow freer movement and moved freely about the city, either walking or driving chariots.