The east half of the building was devoted to Athenè Polias, whose archaic statue was placed in it.
The remainder of the building was associated with the cults of Poseidon, Erechtheus, Pandrosos, and others. The arrangement has been a subject of much controversy. The passage at the west of the cella probably contained altars of Poseidon (with Erechtheus), of Boutes, and of Hephaestos; the tokens of Poseidon, namely the salt spring, and the marks of the trident, were either in the west central chamber or below the north portico. The south porch served as an additional entrance, but it also contained the tomb of Cecrops. The Pandroseion, which contained the sacred olive-tree of Athenè, and a small shrine of Pandrosos, was annexed to the outside of the west end of the building.
The Elgin Collection contains several specimens of the architectural decorations of the Erechtheion. In the above plan (fig. 18), those parts of the building are indicated by letters from which fragments have been obtained. In some instances the exact position is uncertain.
For a discussion of the Erechtheion, see Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, p. 481.
407. So-called Caryatid, or Canephoros, κανηφόρος (fig. 19). One of the six female figures which served as columns in the southern portico of the Erechtheion. In the survey of the building these figures are called Korae, "maidens." They have been called Canephori (see p. [149]) by Visconti (Memoirs on the Sculptures of the Earl of Elgin, p. 122), and others. It is true that the maidens here represented are such as those represented on the Parthenon frieze. But there is nothing that specially connects them with the Canephori, or persons who bore the sacred vessels on their heads. By some writers they have been called Caryatids, on account of a statement of Vitruvius (i., chap. 1) that women of Carya, a town of Arcadia, were represented as architectural supports—a punishment which they incurred for betraying the Greeks to the Persians.
Fig. 19.—Caryatid of the Erechtheion.
The figure here described wears a long chiton, which is drawn up under the girdle, falling in rich folds, and is fastened on each shoulder by a circular brooch. Attached to this is the diploïdion, which falls down before and behind. In front it falls to the waist; behind it would trail on the ground, if a part were not looped up to the shoulders, so as to make a deep fold, falling as low as the hips. The hair from the back of the head falls in a thick mass between the shoulders, tied together with a band. The hair gathered from the forehead is woven into tresses. Two fall on each shoulder; the others are twisted round the head in the form of the krobylos (cf. p. 87). The arms are wanting from above the elbows. The right hand probably hung by the side, where the surface of the drapery is seen to have been protected from corrosion. The left hand has drawn from behind one corner of the diploïdion.
The head supports a capital, consisting first of a pad or cushion τύλη, such as was, and still is, used to support weights. (Compare the east frieze of the Parthenon, Nos. 30, 31.) From this the transition to the square abacus is effected by an egg and tongue and a bead and reel moulding.