Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar)

Ethiop Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, the Greek hero Ajax seizes Cassandra, a Trojan princess and prophetess, during the sack of Troy Reverse, a youth A number of ancient Greek texts recount that, when the Greeks sacked Troy, Cassandra, the most beautiful daughter of the Trojan king Priam, took refuge at the statue of Athena, but Ajax tore her away and raped her, thus committing sacrilege against Athena. The legendary actions of heroes were the basis for numerous rituals that took place in Greece. In Locris, which was Ajax's native region, the citizens expiated his crime for a thousand years by sending two virgins every year to serve in the temple of Athena at Troy.

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