The Missing Sixth Caryatid Statue

The Caryatids are a set of six statues that held up Erechtheion, an ancient temple dedicated to Athena and Poseidon. The statues, which depicted maidens, were created around  421 BC – 406 BC. There is a mystery surrounding the location of a missing maiden statue, thanks to the efforts of Thomas Bruce, the seventh Lord Elgin, who served as Great Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Today, the remaining original caryatids are stored and preserved in the Acropolis Museum for their protection, conservation, and restoration.

Image credit: Harrieta171 /CC BY-SA 3.0