Omphale figure

Omphale figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Long termed Baubo figures, figures of a woman with legs raised to expose her genitals have recently been identified as Ompahle. Omphale was a figure of Greek mythology whose liaison with Herakles gave her power over the womb and the travails of childbirth and, by extension, over rebirth after death.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.