Quezi

A Caryatid - courtesy portableantiquities - CC-BY

Caryatids are draped female figures used instead of columns to support the entablatures of buildings. They are named after the Karyatides, who were priestesses at the temple of Artemis at Karyai.  They have never been considered an architectural ‘order’ in their own right.

The most famous caryatids are the figures fronting the Erechtheion on the Athenian Acropolis.

The Athenian caryatids do not resemble Athenian women. Their hair style is different and resembles that of Peloponnesian women. Some look for a Persian antecedent for the caryatids, because there are no obvious antecedents in Greek art.

So how were these women introduced into Greek art? One explanation is offered by Vitruvius, a Roman architect who wrote a textbook On architecture. He writes – “Should any one wish for information on the origin of those draped matronal figures [...] called caryatids, I will explain it by the following story. Carya, a city of Peloponnese, joined the Persians in their war against the Greeks. These in return for the treachery, after having freed themselves by a most glorious victory from the intended Persian yoke, unanimously resolved to launch a war against the Caryans. Carya was taken and destroyed, its male population extinguished, and its matrons carried into slavery. To ensure that these circumstances might be better remembered, and the nature of the triumph perpetuated, the victors represented the matrons draped, and apparently suffering under the burden with which they were loaded, to expiate the crime of their native city. Thus, in their edifices, did the ancient architects, by the use of these statues, hand down to posterity a memorial of the crime of the Caryans.” – [Vitruvius, On architecture 1.1.5]

So, I guess the lesson is, caryatids are not only statues which function like columns, but also express the idea you were not supposed to collaborate with the enemy, because you would be defeated, humiliated, and punished.

Caryatids can also be seen on other structures than the Erechtheion.

For more information about Classical architecture