The Caryatids on the Erechtheion serve as columns, supporting the Porch of the Maidens on the Acropolis of Athens.
The porch is a south-facing Ionic structure with six sculpted female figures, or korai, standing on a low wall. Instead of ordinary stone shafts, the figures carry the architectural load visually and symbolically, making them one of the most recognizable solutions in classical architecture.
Although commonly called Caryatids, the Erechtheion’s building accounts refer to the figures simply as maidens. Their original lower arms are missing, but copies discovered at Tivoli suggest that they may once have held shallow offering bowls called phialai. Each figure has subtle differences in pose, drapery, and hairstyle rather than being an identical repeated mold.
The answer is not capitals: capitals sit at the tops of columns, while these sculpted figures replace the supporting shafts themselves. One original is in the Acropolis Museum; the remaining originals are protected in Athens, while a figure associated with the British Museum is widely disputed.