Terracotta hydria (water jar)

Troilos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Triptolemos in his winged chariot bringing wheat to mankind Athens controlled the sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis and claimed that the goddess had given wheat and the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemos, a local prince. Numerous Attic vases show the youth in a winged chariot setting off to spread knowledge of the cultivation of wheat.

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