Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

Brygos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thracian woman The large piece of patterned cloth used as a shield identifies the figure as Thracian. She hastens forward holding a spear in her right hand. The characterization suggests that she is an excerpt from a larger scene depicting the death of Orpheus, the irresistible musician. After losing his wife, Eurydice, Orpheus became a recluse. Thus spurned, the enraged women of Thrace killed him. In one version, they tore him to pieces.

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