Atlantes are related to Atlas the Titan who was sentenced to support the heavens because he joined in a revolt against the gods. Atlantes is one name for the muscular, weary-looking men bowed down by the weight of cornices, balconies, etc. They are also called heroes, perhaps as a result of incorporating this protecting effigy into the building.
Freestanding sculptures that hold up parts of buildings can be traced to legends surrounding the caryatids, the six statues of women that support the roof of the porch, sometimes called ‘the porch of the maidens’ of a building of mysterious use called the Erechtheum which stands on the Acropolis in Athens. Vitruvius wrote that human columns commemorated the punishment of the women of the town of Caryae (Caryatid translates as resident of Caryae) who with their husbands conspired to help the invading Persians defeat the Greeks. After the defeat of the Persians, the Greeks killed the men of Caryae and took the women to Athens as captives, where they were displayed weighted down as punishment for their sins. Turning these women into a permanent moral lesson, if indeed that was the intention behind the sculptures failed, as have many moral lessons in stone.
Although the original caryatids do not seem to be suffering, most other humans who appear in supporting roles in buildings have the distorted faces and contorted postures to be expected from bearing such a painful and permanent burden.
Whatever the origin of this enslavement of humans to architecture, the public exhibition of prisoners of war and other miscreants bound or chained to structures was common practice in many cultures.
Several kinds of detached heads appear on Classical buildings on the keystones of arches, gazing out from under balconies and roofs or festooned with foliage on friezes. These heads are usually bearded males with long curling locks that merge into plant tendrils. This category of ornament has long been labelled “grotesque” and is commonly used to describe something that is distorted or twisted out of its natural state.
Classical male and female heads were fashioned after traditional representations of gods, goddesses, heroes, and typically female personifications of virtues such as justice and truth. Bearded male heads with long tangled locks of hair and fierce expressions may be Titans, the secondary race of gods spawned by Uranus and Gaea, who were giants and therefore capable of bearing heavy loads.
Human heads were used in ornamentation of buildings and were intended to humanize buildings as well as to bring good fortune.
In Classical times, famous temples exemplified its style. The interiors were not used n public rituals so not much is known about its purpose or its appearance. However, the exterior was studied extensively and is still being studied to discover the rules that governed its composition. This has been analyzed down to the smallest detail. However, once understood, the temple was viewed as a kit of parts that could be taken anywhere.