Arch. Pl. Telamones. [In pl. a. L. telamōnes, = Gr. τελαμώνες, pl. of Τελαμών πame of a hero in mythology.] A figure of a man used as a column to support an entablature or other structure: = ATLAS sb.1 1 b.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Telamones,… the Images of Men that seem’d to bear up the Out-jettings of Cornishes in the Roman Buildings, which among the Greeks were call’d Atlantes.
1797. Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav. (ed. 2), III. lxiv. 12. Male statues of this kind were called … Telamones.
1831. W. Clark, Pompeii, I. vii. 160. It [the tepidarium] is divided into a number of niches, or compartments, by Telamones, two feet high, carved in high relief, placed against the walls, and supporting a rich cornice.
1882. Fennell, trans. Michaelis’ Anc. Marb. Gt. Brit., 594. A kneeling youth … serves as a Telamon or Atlas, bearing on his head and his fore-arms a large, low cup, which forms the top of the whole candelabrum.
2020. From the Rubble of Atlases, a Colossus Will Rise, in N. Y. Times (5 Oct.). Only one of its [the Doric temple’s] Atlases, or telamones, remains even semi-intact.
