Terracotta hydria (water jar)

Meidias Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thamyris and the Muses Vases associated with the Meidias Painter are often exceptionally interesting iconographically and very poorly preserved. Thamyris was a mythological musician who boasted that he could sing more beautifully than the Muses. He was blinded for his arrogance. While some representations reflect his fate, this hydria is among those that do not. Thamyris appears in an outdoor setting among music-making women and Erotes. Particularly noteworthy is a small platform beneath his feet with three figures of diminishing size. They are identified as representations of the Muses, making the location of the scene a sanctuary devoted to them.

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