Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

Pistoxenos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interior, kithara player Exterior, obverse and reverse, symposium (drinking party) The decoration of the exterior is carefully placed. When the cup was suspended, the underside of the foot with the black band melded with the impression of the continuous couch on which the figures are reclining. A representation such as this one implies the homosexual relationships between men and youths that were part of an Athenian male's culture.

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