Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Telephos, Orestes, and Clytemnestra Telephos, king of Mysia, was wounded by the Greek hero Achilles during the Greeks' first offensive against Troy. The Delphic oracle told Telephos that he could be healed only by the offending weapon. In an attempt to secure Achilles' help, he sought out Orestes, the young son of Agamemnon, and threatened to kill him. Achilles finally heeded Telephos' entreaties and furnished scrapings of his spear that healed the festering wound. The story of Telephos was the subject of a play by Euripides performed in 438 B.C. This lekythos is one of several vases inspired by the drama. Here Clytemnestra pleads for her child. This vase is as noteworthy for the rare scene as for the rendering in low relief.

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