Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This cup shares some of the characteristics of both band cups and eye cups but also represents individual features, creating an unusual hybrid. As is typical of eye cups, a gorgoneion is depicted on the interior of the vase, and eyes, intended to ward away evil, are placed at the handles instead of palmettes. As is common on band cups, on the handle zone, a figural scene depicts a nude youth chasing a lion. But unlike either eye or band cups, the foot of the vase is without a stem and in the form of a disk.

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