Terracotta Hadra hydria (water jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Faint traces of an elaborate helmet with a griffin crest, a shield bearing the snakey head of Medusa, and a cuirass, are evident on this white-ground hydria. A warrior's armor was a common subject for vases destined for burial, since it alluded to the both the heroic character of the deceased, as well as the manner of death. Sites in Alexandria have yielded hydriai with similar motifs in much better states of preservation, thus providing an idea of the original appearence of this vase.

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