cymae

Acanthus blossoms, drying like immortelles, “bloom continually” (Hellanicus, ap. Athen. XV, 680 a). Therefore carved acanthus garlands adorn the Erechtheum, while the plant is carved on cymae, stelae-acroteria (Conze, Attische Grabreliefs, pl. clxv) and antefixes (Lycian Payava Tomb), and is sketched from life on white Athenian lecythi (Brit. Mus. Coll. pl. xiv), which, conventionalized, it constantly encircles.