CARYATIDES
Form: Gr. Karyatides.
A technical term of Greek architecture. Caryatides were female statues clothed in long drapery, used instead of shafts, or columns, to support the entablature of a temple (see cut). The name properly means "maidens of Caryae (Karyai)," a Spartan town on the Arcadian frontier. Here it was the custom for bands of girls to perform their country dances at the yearly festivals of Artemis Karyatis. In doing so they sometimes assumed the attitude which suggested the form adopted by the artists in the statues mentioned above. (See also CANEPHORI.)
Pictures and Media
CARYATID.From the Erectheum, Athens (British Museum).