Terracotta hydria: kalpis (water jar)

Nausicaä Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The infant Herakles strangling snakes sent by the goddess Hera Herakles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, was one of twins conceived in a night when Alkmene, the wife of Amphitryon, was visited by both her husband and the god Zeus. Angered by his infidelity, Zeus's wife, Hera, tried to kill the infant Herakles with snakes. Here the child strangles them in the presence of his parents and Athena, his protective goddess.

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