Bronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youth

Bronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the late sixth and fifth centuries B.C., paterae with figural handles were produced in Greece as well as Southern Italy. The cicada-like insect under the youth's feet recalls the myth of Eos, the goddess of dawn, and her Trojan lover, Tithonos, whom the god Zeus made immortal at Eos's behest. Because she forgot to request eternal youth for Tithonos, he grew old and shriveled away until nothing remained but a wizened, chirping cicada.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youthBronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youthBronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youthBronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youthBronze handle of a patera (shallow basin) in the form of a youth

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.