Terracotta vase in the form of a ketos (sea monster)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This spirited sculptural vase is among the earliest extant representations of a Greek ketos, or sea monster. The creature has a formidable leonine head with big eyes and a goatee, a striped belly, scales, and two flipperlike fins. With its long, furry ears pressed back and its large, prominent teeth bared, it gestures menacingly. A hole in the top of the head would have been used to fill the vase, and liquid would have poured out through the hole in the tongue between the large fangs. Except for the loss of the end of the body and tail, the vase is remarkably well preserved, with much added red paint on the ears, face, and alternating scales. The iconography of the Greek ketos was established in the Archaic period (ca. 600–480 B.C.) and remained amazingly consistent for centuries, long into Roman Imperial times. It is one of the creatures that after the conquests of Alexander the Great (r. 331–323 B.C.) traveled to the East, where it appeared in Gandharan art and influenced representations of monsters from Afghanistan to India. The ketos has even been suggested as a partial inspiration for the Chinese dragon.
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.