KARIATIS PANTS

[ΚΑΡΥΑΤΙΣ] / Karr-ee-át-id/ Ancient Greek: Καρυάτις, pl. Καρυάτιδες 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. From 1801 to 1812, agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheum. One of the six female figures that supported the architrave in the south porch of the Erechtheion is in the British Museum.