Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

Princeton Group

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Herakles; reverse, Geryon. On the neck, obverse and reverse, a flute-player leading a procession of youths and men One of the labors of Herakles was to obtain the cattle of Geryon, a creature composed of three fully-armed bodies. Geryon lived on an island in the far west with his herdsman, Eurytion, and dog, Orthros. Here, Herakles takes aim with his arrow against Geryon, one of whose bodies is falling. The subject was popular in the sixth century B.C.; several representations in stone can be seen in the Cypriot galleries on the second floor. The vase is exceptional for its broad and sharply tapering shape that lacks a foot. It is also one of the earliest instances where the protagonists of a story are placed on opposite sides of the body.

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