caryatid(e)
caryatid(e) (pl. caryatid(e)s). Carved, draped, straight, standing female figure (cora), supporting on its head an astragal (enriched with bead-and-reel), ovolo (enriched with egg-and-dart), and square abacus, used as a substitute for a column, and supporting an entablature. The best-known example of the use of caryatids in Greek Antiquity was the south porch of the Erechtheion, Athens (c.421–407 bc), where six figures supported the roof. A similar draped female figure with a basket-like form over the head instead of the astragal-ovolo-abacus capital arrangement is a canephora (pl. canephorae). See atlas, herm, persian, telamon, term.
Bibliography
Dinsmoor (1950)
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caryatid(e)
