Peplos
{{Short description|Garment worn by women of Ancient Greece}}
File:Acropole Musée Athéna pensante.JPG relief with Athena wearing a peplos, {{circa|460 BC}}{{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}}]]
File:Exaltation fleur Louvre Ma701.jpg" (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.]]
A peplos ({{langx|el|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. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down about halfway, so that what was the top of the rectangle was now draped below the waist, and the bottom of the rectangle was at the ankle. One side of the peplos could be left open, or pinned or sewn together,[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grdr/hd_grdr.htm "Ancient Greek Dress"]. Heilbronn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013. with a type of brooch later called "fibula".{{Cite web |last=Koda |first=Authors: Harold |title=The Chiton, Peplos, and Himation in Modern Dress {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/god3/hd_god3.htm |access-date=2024-09-21 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |language=en}} In Latin and in a Roman context, it could be called a palla.{{Cite book |last=Radicke |first=Jan |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110711554-019/html |title=3 palla – (1) precious cloak and (2) 'peplos' |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2022 |pages=285–298 |isbn=978-3-11-071155-4 |location=Berlin |language= |doi=10.1515/9783110711554-019}}
It should not be confused with the Ionic chiton, which was a piece of fabric folded over and sewn together along the longer side to form a tube. The Classical garment is represented in Greek vase painting from the 5th century BC and in the metopes of temples in the Doric order.
Spartan women continued to wear the peplos much later in history than other Greek cultures. It was also shorter and with slits on the side causing other Greeks to call them phainomērídes (φαινομηρίδες), the "thigh-showers".
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.{{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}} The main scene of the Parthenon frieze is believed, although not without disagreement, to represent this peplos scene during the Panathenaea.{{Cite book |last=Neils |first=Jenifer |title=The Parthenon Frieze |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=6}} 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.
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, 5th 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 5th century BC
File:Caryatid Erechtheion BM Sc407.jpg|Caryatid from the Erechtheion wearing a peplos. Note the blousing, or kolpos, over the zone
File:Danzatrice.JPG|Fastening a peplos
File:Peplófora.JPG|Fastened
File:Naples Archaeology Museum (5914748008).jpg|Pulling it over the head. Note remnants of red border
Image:Terrkottastatue einer Griechin im Mantel 2 Jhdt v Chr.jpg|Woman wearing the fold of her peplos over her head, 2nd century BC
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, a later style
See also
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}}