Terracotta stamnos (jar)

Barclay Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, woman ladles wine from a stamnos into a phiale (libation bowl) while companions hold phiale and kantharos Reverse, three women holding thyrsoi The women preparing wine and holding thyrsoi, the wands associated with maenads, suggest that this scene relates to a festival of Dionysos Lenaios, celebrated in Athens toward the end of January. The original Dionysos Lenaios was a column with a bearded mask. A number of Athenian vases show this idol surrounded by women ladling wine.

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