uses are not definitely known;
while in the lead, on each side, are two maidens, bearing nothing in
their hands--probably the Arrephorae, whose duties have been already
performed. Both in costume and in coiffure these maidens represent what
was characteristic of their age and sex in Athens during the supremacy
of Pericles. Next comes a group of men, probably the magistrates
appointed to await the arrival of the procession on the Acropolis. They
border the seated divinities who have assembled to do honor to Athens at
its greatest festival--seven figures on each side of the central slab,
directly over the door of the temple, whereon is represented the climax
of the solemn occasion,--the delivery of the new peplus to the priest or
magistrate, whose office it was to receive it; while at his side stands
the priestess of Athena, receiving from two attendants certain objects
of unknown significance.

Other pieces of sculpture on the Acropolis magnify the office of woman
in the religious ceremonials in honor of the patron goddess. One of the
porticoes of the Erectheum represents maidens of dignified mien and
great beauty holding up the entablature with perfect ease and stately
grace. These figures are usually called Caryatides, a name applied by
the architect Vitruvius to designate figures of this kind; he ascribes
its origin to the destruction of the town of Carya, in the Peloponnesus,
by the Athenians, because it espoused the Persian side, the women of the
town being sold into slavery; but surely the Athenians would not have so
honored the disgraced women of a hostile city. Could they not portray,
in marble, the Arrephoric maidens, and could not the basket-like
burdens on their heads represent the burdens which they carried down
from the Acropolis, and those which they received instead? The
Athenians, indeed, called the figures merely _Korai_, or "the maidens."

Furthermore, excavations at Athens made in 1886 brought to light a
number of statues of maidens, which now adorn one of the rooms of the
Acropolis Museum. They are all of one type,--life-size figures of young
women, all standing in the same attitude, with one arm extended from the
elbow, while the other hand holds the long and elegant drapery close
about the figure; their hair is elaborately arranged, and ringlets fall
over their necks and shoulders. These statues are relics of days before
the Persian War. The Persians sacked Athens in B.C. 480, and wrought
general