Peplos in the context of "Peplos Kore"

The statue of Athena Parthenos (Ancient Greek: Παρθένος Ἀθηνᾶ, lit. 'Athena the Virgin') was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering from the city of Athens to Athena, its tutelary deity. The naos of the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens was designed exclusively to accommodate it.

Many artists and craftsmen worked on the realization of the sculpture, which was probably built around a core of cypress wood, and then paneled with gold and ivory plates. At about 13 meters high, the statue reflected the established aesthetic canon of the severe style (clothing) while adopting the innovations of the high classical (leg position). She was helmeted and held a large round shield and spear, placed on the ground to her left, next to her sacred snake. Clothes, jewellery, accessories, and even the statue base were decorated, mainly with the snake and gorgon motif.

Archon basileus (Ancient Greek: ἄρχων βασιλεύς, árchōn basileús) was a Greek title, meaning "king magistrate"; the term is derived from the words archon "magistrate" and basileus "king" or "sovereign".

A himation (/hɪˈmætiɒn, -iən/ him-AT-ee-on, -⁠ən; Ancient Greek: ἱμάτιον) was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic period through the Hellenistic period (c. 750–30 BC). It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of heavier drape and played the role of a cloak or shawl. When the himation was used alone, without a chiton, it served both as a chiton and as a cloak. The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil covering their faces.

The himation continued into the Byzantine era as "iconographic dress" used in art and by the lower classes, worn by Christ, the Virgin Mary, and biblical figures.

A chiton (/ˈkaɪtɒn, -tən/; Ancient Greek: χιτών, romanized: khitṓn [kʰitɔ̌ːn]) is a form of tunic that fastens at the shoulder, worn by men and women of ancient Greece and Rome. There are two forms of chiton: the Doric and the later Ionic. According to Herodotus, popular legend was that Athenian women began to wear the chiton as opposed to the peplos after several women stabbed a messenger to death with the bronze pins characteristic of the peplos.

In Greek mythology, Glauce (/ˈɡlɔːsiː/; Ancient Greek: Γλαύκη Glaukê means 'blue-gray' or 'gleaming'), Latin Glauca, refers to different people:

• Glauce, an Arcadian nymph, one of the nurses of Zeus. She and the other nurses were represented on the altar of Athena Alea at Tegea.
• Glauce, twin sister of Pluto who died as an infant according to Euhemerus.
• Glauce, one of the Melian nymphs.
• Glauce, one of the 50 Nereids, marine-nymph daughters of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris. She personifies the color of the sea which can be attributed to her name that signifies "sea-green" or "bright green". Glauce and her other sisters appear to Thetis when she cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles at the slaying of his friend Patroclus.
• Glauce, mother, by Upis, of "the third" Artemis in Cicero's rationalized genealogy of the Greek gods.
• Glauce, a Libyan princess as one of the Danaïdes, daughters of King Danaus. Her mother was either Atlanteia or Phoebe, both were hamadryads. Glauce married and murdered her cousin Alces, son of King Aegyptus of Egypt by an Arabian woman.
• Glauce, a Corinthian princess as the daughter of King Creon. Also known by the name Creusa, predominantly in Latin authors, e.g. Seneca and Propertius. Hyginus uses both names interchangeably. In Cherubini's opera Medea she is known as Dircé. She married Jason. Creusa was killed, along with her father, by Medea, who either sent her a peplos steeped in flammable poison or set fire to the royal palace. In the local Corinthian tradition, Glauce threw herself into a well in a vain attempt to wash off Medea's poison; from this circumstance the well became known as the Well of Glauce.
• Glauce, an Amazon. Some say that it was she, and not Antiope, who was abducted by Theseus and became his wife.
• Glauce, a Salaminian princess as the daughter of King Cychreus, son of Poseidon and Salamis. Some sources say that Glauce married Actaeus and bore him a son Telamon. Others say that Telamon was her husband and that, after her death, he married Periboea, mother of Ajax.
• Glauce, a princess of Colonae as daughter of King Cycnus, sister of Cobis and Corianus. During the Trojan campaign, she was taken captive by the Greeks and was given to Ajax, by whom she became mother of Aeantides.

Kore (Greek: κόρη "maiden"; plural korai) is the modern term given to a type of free-standing ancient Greek sculpture of the Archaic period depicting female figures, always of a young age. Kouroi are the youthful male equivalent of kore statues.

Korai show the restrained "archaic smile", which did not demonstrate emotion. It was the symbol of the ideal, transcending the hardships of the world. Unlike the nude kouroi, korai are depicted in thick and sometimes elaborate drapery. As fashions changed, so did the type of clothing they wore. Over time, korai went from the heavy peplos to lighter garments such as the chiton. Their posture is rigid and column-like, sometimes with an extended arm. Some korai were painted colorfully to enhance the visual impact of the garments and for narrative purposes.

The palla was an elegant cloak or mantle that was wrapped around the body. It was worn outside the house by (affluent) Roman women. It was a luxurious version of the Roman men's pallium. The palla was a traditional ancient Roman mantle worn by women, fastened by brooches. The shape was rectangular instead of semi-circular, as with the traditional toga. The garment dates to the 3rd century BC, but the type of dress must be much older. In Latin literature, the term palla is used ambiguously. It can denote not only a cloak, but also a foot-length sleeveless dress with straps (or a brooch) worn directly on the skin. The second is a common dress form in the entire Mediterranean world. In a Greek cultural context, this is called peplos. In a Roman cultural context, if worn by a Roman matron, it also takes the name stola.

Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pl.: pepla), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.

The term "peplum" (a Latin word referring to the ancient Greek garment peplos) was introduced by French film critics in the 1960s. The terms "peplum" and "sword-and-sandal" were used in a condescending way by film critics. Later, the terms were embraced by fans of the films, similar to the terms "spaghetti Western" or "shoot-'em-ups". In their English versions, peplum films can be immediately differentiated from their Hollywood counterparts by their use of "clumsy and inadequate" English language dubbing. A 100-minute documentary on the history of Italy's peplum genre was produced and directed by Antonio Avati in 1977 titled Kolossal: i magnifici Macisti (aka Kino Kolossal).