Terracotta neck-amphora with twisted handles (jar)

Pilos Head Group

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, young warrior seated on an altar and bearded warrior. Reverse, youth On the neck, obverse, head of youth with pilos (pointed cap). Reverse, female head The protagonist of the main scene has been identified as either Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Klytemnestra, or Neoptolemos, son of Achilles and Deidameia. In one account, both men vied for the hand of Hermione, daughter of Menelaos and Helen, resulting in Orestes' murder of Neoptolemos. The representation poignantly conveys the misfortune visited upon the children of Greece's greatest heroes.

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