Gold fillet with a Herakles knot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The central ornament of the fillet is a Herakles knot. Two palmettes with a rosette in the middle fill the center of the knot, while the four ends terminate in lion heads. Between the pairs of lion heads on the knot are two exquisitely finished female heads. At the clasp end of the chains are lion-head terminals, each with a ring in its mouth.

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