Bronze hydria (water jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the handle plaque, Dionysos and Ariadne In the fourth century B.C., bronze hydriae were embellished with a separately attached relief under the vertical handle. The subjects included scenes of abduction, Eros, or, as here, Dionysos, the god of wine, and his wife, Ariadne. The expensive vessels may have been given as wedding gifts and then used for special occasions. Many were placed in tombs, sometimes as containers for the ashes of the deceased.

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