Ah. I knew of these objects but didn't know their names before. (Or if I ever did, I had forgotten them.) For anyone else in that boat, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Caryatid, in classical architecture, draped female figure used instead of a column as a support. ... According to a story related by the 1st-century-bc Roman architectural writer Vitruvius, caryatids represented the women of Caryae, who were doomed to hard labour because the town sided with the Persians in 480 bc during their second invasion of Greece." Atlantes, on the other hand, come from Atlas. Who actually held the sky (or the world, depending on the myth version) rather than a building. And on his shoulders, rather than his head. But it's near enough for a metaphor.
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