Together with the Maritime Theater, the Canopus is the iconic building of Villa Adriana, one of the most famous and photographed. It is preceded by a water basin called Euripus, 111 meters long and 18 meters wide, which was dug into the tuff bank.
At the end of the Euripus there is the actual building, the so-called Serapeum, which has a main hall covered by a grandiose umbrella dome, surrounded by nymphaea and various rooms. It was a spectacular summer triclinium, intended for the emperor's official banquets, which took place in the evening, in the cool, with the suggestive flames of the torches that were reflected in the water basin in front.

The Euripus basin remained completely buried until 1951-1955, when it was excavated by Salvatore Aurigemma, rediscovering the long canal dug into the tuff, whose white marble covering had already been removed in ancient times.

Inside the the canal, on the longer side, four statues of Caryatids and two of Sileni canefori (i.e. with a basket on their head) were found. On the short semicircular side other sculptures were found, including two Amazons, the Tiber and the Nile. Today they are all in the Museum of the Villa, and on the outside they have been replaced by copies.

The Caryatids are identical to those of the Erechtheion in Athens, and since they were better preserved it was possible to reconstruct missing details of the originals: the hairstyle, the hands that still held the paterae, and the drapery. Only one of them still had the capital with ovoli on the head.
It is interesting to note that other copies of the Caryatids existed in the Forum of Augustus in Rome, where they alternated with large round shields; one of them is in the Museum of Trajan's Markets in Rome.
By placing the copies of the Caryatids in his Villa, the emperor Hadrian wanted to recall  and mention those of the Forum of Augustus: it was a way of underlining his relationship with Augustus, of whom he proposed himself as the ideal heir and successor. Like him he had tried to limit the wars of conquest and secure the borders; like him he had promoted important public works, building or restoring temples, as he did for example with the Pantheon. It was a form of imperial propaganda that celebrated the virtues of the emperor.

The two Sileni hold a basket with fruit and grapes, which alludes to the god of wine, Dionysus. Together with the Maenads, the Satyrs and the Centaurs, the Sileni were part of the Dionysian Procession. Sculptures with Dionysian iconography were found in the Accademia of Villa Adriana, which is located on the Accademia Esplanade above the Canopus: the Centaurs in grey-brown marble and the Faun in red marble, as well as a statue of the child Dionysus. In our book «Villa Adriana. Architettura Celeste. I segreti dei Solstizi» we explain in detail the symbolic meaning of these sculptures and of the Accademia itself.

The statues of Caryatids can also be connected to the cult of Dionysus, because Caria (the daughter of the king of Laconia from whom they take their name) was transformed by Dionysus into a walnut tree and in the Eleusinian Mysteries the priestesses danced around a walnut tree.

The discovery of the Caryatids occurred a few years before that of the statue of Ulysses blinding Polyphemus in the Grotto of the Villa of Tiberius in Sperlonga, which dates back to 1957. In both cases, in addition to the media hype, an antiquarian and nineteenth-century approach prevailed: the publications focused mainly on the sculptures, neglecting the architecture. The excavation of Euripus could have been the first ‘modern’ and well-documented excavation, providing valuable information on the stratigraphy and dates, and on the phases of abandonment of the Villa. Instead, the excavation is poorly documented, even in the archives of the Superintendency.