Terracotta oinochoe (jug)

Disney Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Archer, probably Odysseus In the Odyssey, Homer recounted the homecoming of the Greek hero Odysseus after years of wandering at the end of the Trojan War. He found his house filled with suitors for the hand of his wife, Penelope, and managed single-handedly to kill them with his powerful bow and arrows. The archer on this vase probably can be identified as Odysseus, because of his obviously unkempt hair, an indication of the vicissitudes the hero had undergone. Moreover, a similar figure appears on several more complete ancient representations of the scene.

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