Caryatid from the Erechtheum
The Erechtheum, named after an early mythical king of Athens, Erechtheus, stands on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens. It is unusual in that it has an asymmetric shape and is built on different levels.
Also unusual is that the six columns of its south porch are caryatids, that is, they are female figures. Although these are not the first such columns in ancient art, they are by far the most famous. The caryatids we see today on the Erechtheum are replicas
London British Museum 407
Purchased from the Paris Beaux Arts in 1884
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 192 (n.4), pl. 70.2
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), fig.502
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 67, no.307
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 220
Bulle: Der Schöne Mensch im Altertum (1922), 89, pl. 129
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 893, no.275
Hurwit: The Athenian Acropolis (1999), 204
Removed from the Erechtheum by Lord Elgin