Caryatid from the Erechtheion
- Audio guide stop: 271
- Gallery: Room 19
- Culture: Classical Greek
- Date: 421BC-406BC
- Object type: caryatid
- Materials: marble
- Museum number: 1816,0610.128
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you stands a Caryatid from the Erechtheion, a Classical Greek sculpture carved from Pentelic marble. This female figure was one of six that supported the south porch of the Erechtheion temple on the Acropolis. She wears a peplos, a classic garment pinned at the shoulders, with braided hair styled in a thick braid down her back. Her right leg bears the weight of the structure, cleverly hidden by the heavy folds of her dress.
Though one of her hands is missing, she may have once held a sacrificial vessel. Her head is crowned with a carved capital decorated with beads, reels, and eggs-and-darts – a detail that shows the Greek mastery of form and function.
This piece was purchased in the 19th century from Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and it dates to between 421 and 406 BC.
See it in person
Caryatid from the Erechtheion is on display in Room 19 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 271, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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