CARYA or CARYATIS, in Grecian antiquity, a festival celebrated yearly at Caryæ, a village of Laconia, in honour of Diana surnamed Caryatis. The chief ceremony was the performance by Lacedæmonian maidens of a lively kind of dance, said to have been first instituted by Castor and Pollux. When Xerxes invaded Greece, the Laconians did not appear before the enemy for fear of displeasing the goddess by omitting to celebrate her festival as usual; but the neighbouring swains assembled at the place and sung pastorals or bucolismi; to which circumstance some have referred the origin of bucolic poetry.