Caryatids

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sculpted female figures used as architectural supports or columns
2. Statues resembling women that stand in place of conventional upright supports in structures
3. Decorative elements that merge art and functionality by serving as support while embodying feminine form

Etymology: The most surprising thing about these figures is that they began as dancers. The ancient Greeks had a festival dance performed by women at Karyai, a town in Laconia with a temple of Artemis, and its dancers were known as karyatides. The name came from the town itself, and the figures carved to hold up roofs took their name from those performers, probably because the women were thought of as bearing weight in their dance or ritual. The Greek word passed into Latin as "caryatides" and from there into Middle French as "cariatide", and English borrowed the term from that French form. The Greek word itself names a priestess of Artemis as well as the sculpted figures, so the connection between worshipper and architecture runs through the whole family of meanings. The most famous examples stand on the Erechtheion, a temple on the Acropolis in Athens, where six female figures replace columns on the south porch. Their stone bodies carry the entablature overhead, which is why the term now refers to any sculpted female support in a building.