Bronze statuette of Aphrodite with silver eyes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Aphrodite holds up in contemplation the apple given to her by the Trojan prince Paris as a prize for being the fairest of the Greek goddesses. This poignant image reinforces that distinction but also recalls the cause of the Trojan war. In exchange for the apple, Aphrodite offered Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaos. In Classical Greek art, scenes of the myth do not illustrate the apple, which appeared first in the Hellenistic period.

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