Arch. Pl. usually in L. form caryatides; also caryatids, and (erron.) 8 careatides, 9 caryatidæ. [ad. L. caryātid-es, a. Gr. Καρυᾱτιδες, pl. of Caryātis, Καρυᾶτις a priestess of Artemis at Caryae (Καρύαι a village in Laconia), also a female figure as below.]
A female figure used as a column to support an entablature. Also attrib., as in caryatid figures.
1563. Shute, Archit., B iij a. Ymages, figured like women … named Cariatides … for pillers.
1679. [C. Cotton], The Confinement: a Poem, 9.
| For there, alas, the Order solely is, | |
| That of the captiv’d Cariatides. |
1776. R. Chandler, Trav. Greece (1823), II. 86. The entablature is supported by women, called caryatides. The Greeks … destroyed Carya, a city which had favoured the common enemy, cut off the males, and carried into captivity the women, whom they compelled to retain their dress … in a state of servitude.
1804. Ann. Rev., II. 351. To place like caryatids our perfection in our supportance.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, III. VII. viii. 156. Caryatides carved in dark oak.
1846. Ellis, Elgin Marbles, II. 39. Caryatid figures.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 183. Two great statues, Art And Science, Caryatids, lifted up A weight of emblem.
Hence Caryatidal, Caryatidean, Caryatidic adjs., like, or of the nature of, a Caryatid.
1835. Gentl. Mag., III. 192/2. Cariatidal statues.
1865. Ellen C. Clayton, Cruel Fortune, I. 143. Slipshod women who lounge in Caryatidean attitudes against the door-posts.
1881. E. O’Donovan, Merv Oasis, xxxvii. (1882), II. 126. Caryatidic appendages of the architecture of my residence.
