Terracotta Megarian bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vase belongs to a select group of bowls decorated in relief with scenes from epic poetry and from Classical Greek tragedy. Depicted here are five scenes from Euripides's play Iphigenia at Aulis, including inscriptions that identify the figures. Represented are: Agamemnon, who has weakened in his resolve to sacrifice his daughter to Artemis, biding his slave to take a letter to his wife, Clytemnestra, instructing her not to send her daughter to Aulis; Menelaos, Agamemnon's brother, taking the letter from the messenger by force; Menelaos, with the letter in hand, blaming Agamemnon for refusing to go through with the sacrifice; a messenger, bringing news to Agamemnon that Iphigenia has arrived; and the cart that has come from Argos, bearing Queen Clytemnestra and her children, Iphigenia and the little Orestes. The story continued on a second bowl, examples of which are preserved, again with five episodes, concluding with Iphigenia's meeting with Achilles. It is likely that a third bowl brought the story to its conclusion with Iphigenia's sacrifice.

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