Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Loeschcke Type 8. Mold-made, with ring handle. Discus: in high relief, an eagle standing facing with wings at sides and head turned upward to right; a single filling hole towards right edge, and two grooves flanking a raised band at edge of discus; a broad, sloping, and undecorated shoulder. Two incised lines on front edge of handle. An incised base ring, and a shallow concave base. Intact. The eagle was the symbol of the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter, the father of the gods. Under the Romans, the bird also became associated with the emperor and so acquired an imperial connotation.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art