Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Petasus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PET'ASUS (πέτασος). A common felt hat, with a low crown and broad brim, adopted by the Romans from Greece, and worn in both countries as a protection against the sun and weather. (Plaut. Pseud. ii. 4. 45. Amph. i. 1. 190. Compare Suet. Aug. 82.) Hats of this kind were naturally made in many different shapes, according to individual caprice or fashion; but the most usual form approximated closely to that now worn by our country people and railroad labourers, with the exception of being fastened by strings, which either passed under the chin or round the back part of the head. Both of these manners are exhibited in the illustrations (Petasus/1.1), the one from a Pompeian painting, the other from a Greek bas-relief. Most of the horsemen in the Panathenaic procession, from the Parthenon, preserved in the British Museum, wear the petasus; and one of the conventional signs, adopted by the Greek artists, to indicate that a person was represented on a journey, consisted in depicting him with a petasus slung at the back of his neck, as seen on the figure at p. 147.

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  Petasus/1.1