Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Introduced on vases and monuments of the sixth century B.C. and becoming less popular after 510 B.C., the motif of Herakles struggling with a sea deity is predominantly Attic. On one side, Herakles stands over Triton, an angry fish-tailed monster; on the other, a calm is represented with Nereus, father of the sea, in the company of two of his daughters, the nereids. It has been suggested that perhaps the story of Herakles and Triton alludes to Athenian maritime victory under the Pisistratid rule.

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