Caryatid

created by Webster 1913

(thing) by brainwave (5 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) Sun Sep 10 2000 at 7:13:57

Just as Webster 1913 says a Caryatid is a female statue used in place of a pillar. The best known Caryatides (or Caryatids) are those in the Erechtheum on the Acropolis. Also as The Custodian points out there is a well known statue by Rodin: A Fallen Caryatid Holding Her Stone.

According to a classics professor I recently consulted: Caryatid is now essentially an architectural term. However at one point or another it also had a mythological aspect to it. It was some kind of lesser deity or spirit responsible for putting the dew on the grass in the morning.

The male counterparts of the Caryatids are called by a number of names including: Atlantes, Telamones, and Persians

(thing) by Semisane (7.6 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) Mon Jan 28 2002 at 4:21:18

Caryatids are female figures serving as supports. The most likely derivation of their name is from the young women of Sparta who danced every year in honour of Artemis Karyatis ('Artemis of the Walnut Tree').

One of the most well known Caryatids is the Caryatid from the Erechtheion from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. It was made around 420 BC. This is one of six caryatids that held up the roof of the temple on the Acropolis known as the Erechtheion. She wears a peplos, a simple tunic pinned on each shoulder. Her hair is braided and falls in a thick rope down her back. She probably held a sacrificial vessel in one of the missing hands.

The figure strongly resembles the women of the east frieze of the Parthenon, which had just been completed when work on the Erechtheion began. She carries an architectural capital like a basket on her head. From the side, her burden seems to bear down upon her; the weight is taken on the right leg, encased in perpendicular folds arranged like the fluting of a column shaft. The other leg is flexed with the drapery moulded to it. Between 1800 and 1803 G.B. Lusieri, acting on behalf of Lord Elgin, removed this caryatid, which stood second from the left on the front of the south porch. During the Greek War of Independence (1821-33) the Erectheion was reduced to ruins, although the caryatids survived. It has since been reconstructed. The British Museum's caryatid is better preserved than her sisters, which have now severely weathered. They have recently been removed to the Acropolis Museum and replaced by casts. This statue stands presently in the British Museum in London, England. Room 19, Greece: the Acropolis & the late 5th century BC, South West corner

(definition) by Webster 1913 (print) Tue Dec 21 1999 at 22:22:38

Car`y*at"ic (?), Car`y*at"id (?), a.

Of or pertaining to a caryatid.

Car`y*at"id (?), n.; pl. Caryatids (#) [See Caryatides.]

(Arch.) A draped female figure supporting an entablature, in the place of a column or pilaster.

printable version
chaos

A Fallen Caryatid Holding Her Stone	\m/	Caryatides	transhumanism
Telamones	Atlantes	acropolis	Parthenon marbles
Caryatic	atlantid	Saint Pancras	Acrolith
slack variable	Things you would bring with you if you were ever invited to shower with jessicapierce	Atlas	Highgate
Acheron	Mythological	Parliament	Babysitter Lolita
Doom 3	plinth

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