Erechtheum

She’s likewise a New World caryatid, a personified pillar that held up the entablature in ancient Greek temples, such as the Erechtheum on the Acropolis.

The line of carved stone eggs, each one separated by a dart or arrow pointing downwards, was first used by the Greeks on the Erechtheum behind the Acropolis.

It is not because the world has grown and given her more with which to compete that she has fallen into lesser and lesser significance; for though the world has increased in latitude and longitude, it has not yet carved another Hermes like that of Praxiteles; and though it has added three continents since his day, it has never equalled in marbles the fluttering draperies of the Flying Victory, nor the carvings over the doorway of the Erechtheum.

Its Greek origin is undoubted, and it is supposed to be the missing figure from the Erechtheum at Athens.

Ionic like the Temple of Nike, but much larger, the Erechtheum stands beyond the Propyl�a, and not far from the Parthenon, at the edge of the precipice beneath which lies the greater part of Athens.