thumb|The [[Mourning Athena relief with Athena wearing a peplos, ]]
A peplos () is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by , 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. The top third of the cloth could also be folded over to create an over-fold, called the apoptygma (),
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.
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. The main scene of the Parthenon frieze is believed, although not without disagreement, to represent this peplos scene during the Panathenaea. 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
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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
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, –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.