Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Sappho Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thetis in chariot with winged horses flying over the sea accompanied by the messenger gods, Iris and Hermes. This scene may reflect a passage in the last book of the Iliad (book 24, lines 95-96). Summoned to Mount Olympos, the sea nymph Thetis is ordered by Zeus to convince her son, Achilles, to return the body of his enemy Hector to Priam, the king of Troy, for proper burial.

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