Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Tithonos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Athena holding spear and helmet Athena, the warlike protector of Athens, appears alert but serene on this vase. Dressed in a full, richly decorated peplos with a diadem in her hair, she holds her helmet in one hand and her spear, pointed downward, in the other. Her aegis, the protective goatskin ringed with snakes' heads, acts as armor.

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