PEPLUM

An upper garment anciently wom by the Grecian, and especially by the A then i an females: it was without sleeves, and fastened by a clasp on the arm or shoulder. The celebrated peplum of Minerva was carried every year, in the Panathenaic proce ions of Minerva, from the Ceramic us to the temple of Ceres, and thence to the Par the non, where it was offered to the godde . The antiquity of this kind of ceremony is evinced by the pa age in the Iliad (book v.) where the Trojan women offer a similar robe. [s. 930]