Caryatid Statue-Bronze Color Effect-Marble Base-Architectural Support,Column of the Erechtheion-Acropolis-Athens-Ancient buying Greece

Caryatid Statue-Bronze Color Effect-Marble Base-Architectural Support,Column of the Erechtheion-Acropolis-Athens-Ancient Greece

Details:
Condition: New, Handmade in Greece
Material: Casting stone
Height: 19 cm(7.5 inches)
Width: 6 cm(2.3 inches)
Weight: 300 g

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants". A caryatid supporting a basket on her head is called a canephora ("basket-bearer"), representing one of the maidens who carried sacred objects used at feasts of the goddesses Athena and Artemis. The Erectheion buying caryatids, in a shrine dedicated to an archaic king of Athens, may therefore represent priestesses of Artemis in Caryae, a place named for the "nut-tree sisterhood" – apparently in Mycenaean times, like other plural feminine toponyms, such as Hyrai or Athens itself.(01-535-A)