[3] The village of Karyes is the birthplace of the six caryatid maidens which are featured in architecture in the place of columns on the ancient and world famous Erectheion of the Athenian Acropolis.

[6] Geographer Pausanias’ historical account from the second century AD discusses the history behind the Caryatid statues as representing dancers from Karyes.

Vitruvius claims that the caryatids were maidens of Karyes who were held captive as slaves, as a form of punishment for siding with the Persian enemies against the Spartans.

[7] Frank Granger suggested that he perhaps confused Karyes for another town called Caria, of Asia Minor which was said to have been implicated in collaborating with the Persian enemy.

The Peloponnese consisted of a lot of different municipalities, Tegea, Arcadia, Messinia, Laconia (including the city of Sparta) and they all had their own heads of state.

[9]  Karyes was part of Sparta until 338 BC when Philip II of Macedon came to the Peloponnese for a meeting, where all the Greeks except the Spartans recognised him as their leader.

The Goths looted and destroyed everything in these villages[7] but after some time in 403 AD they gained the attention of Roman General Flavius Stilicho who came to the Peloponnese and killed and pushed a lot of them out of the area.

[7]  Due to emperor Constantine's support of Christianity, this period saw the shift away from paganism towards the Christianisation of society,[7] except the north part of Laconia which remained polytheistic up until 867 – 866 AD.

[7] Also during this era, Slavic people came to the area of Laconia and to Karyes and settled peacefully by adopting Christianity and assimilating with the local Greeks.

[9] World War II occurred in Southern Europe in 1941[7] and Karyes was invaded by the Nazi Axes Forces for the first time on 18 December 1942.

[9] At 5am on 19 September 1943, Karyes was invaded again by German troops and the bell of Saint John church rang to give warning to the residents.

As the residents were woken up from their sleep it was too late for them to escape to the mountains[3] and the whole village was seized by panic as flares and machine guns fired and grenades exploded.

This invasion was finally brought to an end when an International Red Cross representative named Alexander Perrson visited Karyes.

In September, as Hitler was losing the war, the troops began to retreat and by 18 October all the bells started to ring and gave the final signal of freedom that all the Germans had left Laconia.

[9] Majority of people from the village work as farmers producing vegetables and fruit and looking after their livestock such as goats, sheep, chickens and tending to their bee farms.