or PEPLUS, was a large full robe or shawl worn by Grecian women, and was much larger than either the chlamys or pallium, as well as finer and thinner than the latter. It was without sleeves, and was fastened by a clasp. It was worn above the common dress, and fell in rich folds around the person, sometimes, in the case of women of rank, trailing upon the ground, as alluded to by Homer, in his epithet of "trailing-the-robe" (διακερασμός), applied to the Trojan ladies. (II. vi. 442.) The peplum was occasionally used to veil the head. It was the most costly and ornamental of all the productions of the loom, and the art of manufacturing it was entirely oriental. The peplum was the robe of state of Minerva at Athens, with which her statue was solemnly invested every five years at the panathenaea.