Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Diosphos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Perseus flying away with the head of Medusa, while Pegasos springs from her severed neck Perseus, son of the god Zeus and the human princess, Danae, was given the task of beheading Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, whose faces were so horrible that seeing them turned men to stone. With the help of a magic cap and winged shoes given to him by Athena, Perseus became invisible and flew to the place where the three sisters were asleep. There he cut off Medusa's head. On this vase, Perseus flees with the head in a sack as the immortal winged horse Pegasos springs from the body of the dead Gorgon. Perseus and the horse are shown in the traditional black-figure manner, while the Gorgon is drawn in outline, probably influenced by the newly developed red-figure technique.

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