Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Pharos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two women wrapped in one cloak Lekythoi were traditionally placed as offerings in tombs or on grave monuments. The elongated shape of this example is typical of the earliest form. The subject of two women wrapped in one mantle was favored by the Pharos Painter (pharos is a word for "cloak"). There are also contemporary representations of two males with one cloak. The meaning may be sexual.

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