Terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, seated woman, holding openwork processional basket and accompanied by two other women, Eros, and satyr Reverse, seated woman with standing servant, Eros, and satyr Openwork baskets of this type holding implements of sacrifice were carried by women in religious processions. The presence of a satyr and Eros on both sides of this vase suggests that the festival being celebrated is the Anthesteria. On the second day of this important Attic celebration devoted to Dionysos, the god of wine, he was united in marriage in a secret ritual to the wife of a high honorary official of Athens. It was apparently also a popular time for weddings in the city, and the seated woman on the back of this vase may be a bride being prepared for marriage. The basket and details of jewelry are in slight relief and gilded.

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