Peronai

What it is

The peronai is a straight pin, long enough to pass through folded cloth. Greek writers also called it porpe. It worked as a fastener. A woman pushed it through the cloth of her peplos, the outer garment she wore, to stop it slipping from her shoulder. A man could pin a cloak the same way. Finds from ancient Greece come in two lengths, 23 cm and 40 cm, and the metal was bronze, silver or gold. The pin was part of dress, not a jewel pinned on for show.

How it was worn

The clearest image of the pin in use comes from the François Vase. There a woman has put the head of the peronai between two parts of the cloth on her shoulder, so the pin holds the garment while the sharp, bare end points upward. Most surviving pictures show women with it, which suggests the peplos is where it mattered most. Men used it too. In the Odyssey a peronai fastens the mantle of Odysseus, so the pin was not only a woman's accessory.

In Greek stories

Greek literature gives the peronai a second, darker life. In the Iliad, Athena speaks of an Achaian woman who used this pin as a weapon. Legends also tell of people blinded after a woman wounded them with one, and Oedipus and Polymestor are named among them. The same poem records a gentler use: golden peronai given to Hera by Athena Ergane. So the object moves between two worlds in the sources, the ordinary fastening on a shoulder and the weapon in a story.

Later and elsewhere

The peronai remained an accessory until the Classical era, when buttons became more common and the pin lost its place in everyday dress. Beyond Greece, a similar pin with no recorded name was used at Hasanlu in ancient Iran, and women there are described as using it as a weapon as well. The parallel suggests that a long pin of this kind could fasten cloth in one setting and injure in another, which is what the Greek sources show.

How Peronai is kept

There is no ceremony here, only a way of dressing. A woman took a long pin, pushed its head between folds of cloth at her shoulder and left it holding the peplos in place, with the point bare and turned upward. A man could fasten a mantle the same way, as Odysseus does in the Odyssey. Vase images mostly show women doing this. Pins were made of bronze, silver or gold, and two lengths have survived, one near 23 cm and one near 40 cm.

When and where

The sources give no date for its beginning. They record that peronai were worn in ancient Greece and stayed in use as an accessory until the Classical era, when buttons were favoured instead. Being mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey shows the pin was already familiar in the Greek world when those poems were made.

The peronai belongs to ancient Greece, where it fastened clothing and appears in Greek art and poetry. The François Vase is one of the few surviving images of it in use. A comparable unnamed pin is recorded at Hasanlu in ancient Iran, so fastening cloth with a long pin was not a practice limited to one place.

What Peronai means

To the people who wore it, the peronai was a working object before anything else: it held a garment at the shoulder. The sources give it two meanings at once. In daily dress it belongs with the peplos and the mantle, worn by women and men. In legend it turns into a woman's weapon that can take a person's sight. That contrast, a small household pin that can also wound, runs through the Greek mentions of it.

Questions people ask about Peronai

See also

ChitonA draped tunic of wool or linen worn across ancient Greece and RomeTablionAn embroidered panel on the ceremonial mantle of Byzantine courtiers.KynodesmeA cord ancient Greek athletes tied around the foreskin to stay modest in public.PeplosA draped woolen tunic worn by women in ancient Greece, central to Athenian religious festivals.

Good reading and sources

• Peronai on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-10.