C is for Caryatids

Caryatids are a specific form of column, used in Classical Greece and to a lesser extent in Rome, where the main body of the column is carved into a human figure, usually female I think, but some males exist (as 'Atlas' . . . architecture stuff is all in the garage!), and occasionally only half-columns (like relief-flats) coming forward from a load-bearing wall, due to their being less able to take weight, but a small temple with a relatively light roof, or a porch for a small building have whole caryatids - I think there's one among the ruins on the hill-side at the Acropolis.

The TARDIS Temple to Aphrodite! Hic!

My mate John Begg - who some of you will know has links to Greece - had one of these on his mantelpiece as a memento, and when he was visiting Greece I asked him if he could get me one, empty or full of ouzo. . . a couple of weeks later he gave me this; empty, sadly!

I had intended to undo the caryatids and hot-glue them (polyethylene!) back to back to make two full-round columns, as photo-accessories/scenics. Two of the faces would have needed to be turned into hair, and a fair bit of fettling and filling would have been required around the join-line, the whole then needing painting, but in the end I didn't have the heart to damage them, so it is still in its little bag, marked Ouzounis 'Maiden Ouzo'!

All polyethylene; I hope you can see from the photo's the 'miniature' bottle is a blow-mould with the wide shoulders on top of the flocked 'box', the caryatids come as a flattish moulding with thin hinge-joints between the figures allowing it/them to be wrapped around the 'box' and clipped into place, the clips are under the stickers somewhere, if they exist; the stickers may be the 'clips', the column bases also become the bottom of the bottle and the figures are 45/50mm?