What are the Caryatids?

The Caryatids are six sculpted marble figures of women that serve as columns, holding up the roof of the south porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens. Instead of ordinary columns, the ancient architects used the bodies of women — each standing calmly, one knee slightly bent, carrying the weight of the entablature on her head. They date to the late fifth century BC and are among the most admired works of Classical Greek sculpture. A Caryatid is, in the simplest terms, a column shaped like a woman.

Where are the original Caryatids now?

Five of the six original Caryatids are displayed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, where they stand together in a dedicated gallery, protected from the pollution and weather that were slowly dissolving them outdoors. The sixth original was removed from the Acropolis in the early nineteenth century by Lord Elgin's agents and is held in the British Museum in London. The figures you see on the Erechtheion itself today are faithful casts, placed there so the porch keeps its form while the originals are preserved indoors.

Why are the Caryatids not identical?

Although they share the same pose and scale, the six Caryatids are not copies of one another. Look closely and you notice differences in the arrangement of the drapery, the fall of the hair, and which leg carries the flex of the knee — the figures on one side mirror those on the other. This subtle variation gives the group a living quality, as if six real women were standing together rather than a row of repeated columns. The absence of one original in the museum line-up is felt precisely because each figure is her own.

Should I call the Caryatids "koures" or "kouroi"?

No. The correct word is Caryatids. A kouros (plural kouroi) is something quite different: a type of free-standing male statue from the Archaic period, typically a nude young man standing stiffly with one foot forward, made a century or more before the Caryatids. The two belong to different eras, genders and purposes. Using the right term matters, and "Caryatid" is the name that has been attached to these figures since antiquity.

Teleporio™ — Greek Island Travel Intelligence

The Caryatids: The Women Who Became Architecture

Six sculpted women hold up the Erechtheion's porch. Where the originals are, what to look for, and why the Caryatids still stop visitors mid-step.

Teleporio™ travel intelligence — Updated 2026-07-24

Most visitors climb the Acropolis for the Parthenon, but a short turn to the north brings you to something stranger and, for many, more moving: a porch held up not by ordinary columns but by six sculpted women. They stand at ease, weight on one leg, drapery falling like water, carrying the stone roof on their heads as they have since the late fifth century BC. These are the Caryatids, and understanding them is one of the quiet pleasures of an Athens visit.

The Erechtheion and its porch

The porch belongs to the Erechtheion, the temple bound up with the oldest cults of Athens. Built across uneven sacred ground, the Erechtheion sheltered ancient shrines and the marks tied to the mythical contest between Athena and Poseidon. On its south side, facing the Parthenon, the six figures replace columns entirely: the slab above their heads is the capital, and the whole arrangement carries the roof exactly as a colonnade would. The engineering is genuine; the poetry is that it does not look like engineering.

Sculpture that does a column's job

Each Caryatid is two things at once and fails at neither. As architecture she bears a real load, her body a column and her head the point where weight meets roof. As sculpture she is unmistakably a person, the drapery gathering around a body that reads as flesh. The vertical folds down each standing leg deliberately echo the flutes of a column, letting the eye accept her as structural while the heart reads her as human.

Six women, not one repeated

The figures are not identical. The three on the left flex one knee, the three on the right the other, so the group turns gently in toward its centre. The drapery and the braided hair differ from figure to figure, and the thick hair also strengthens each vulnerable neck. This individuality is why the missing figure is felt so keenly: the group was composed as a community.

Where the originals are

The figures on the Erechtheion today are faithful casts. Centuries of Athenian air, especially modern pollution, were dissolving the marble, so the originals were brought indoors. Five originals now stand together in the Acropolis Museum, where visitors can walk around them. The sixth was removed from Athens in the early nineteenth century by agents of Lord Elgin and is held in the British Museum in London — part of the wider debate over the Parthenon Sculptures. The gap in the museum's row of five marks that absence.

Caryatids, never koures

The correct name is Caryatids. They should never be called koures. A kouros (plural kouroi) is a completely different thing: a type of free-standing male statue from the earlier Archaic period, a nude young man standing stiffly with one foot forward. Kouroi belong to a different century, gender and purpose. Getting the word right is part of seeing the figures clearly.

How to look at them

See them twice. On the Acropolis, take in the whole idea at once — six women, one roof. Then in the Acropolis Museum go close, walk behind them, study the hair and the worn faces, and find the empty place where the sixth should be. The rock gives you the concept; the museum gives you the individuals.