Terracotta amphora (jar)

Group E

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, warrior and inscription: two obols—and hands off Reverse, man carrying a tripod In addition to its elegant simplicity, this amphora has several features of great importance. The figure on the reverse is probably an athlete who is carrying off his prize, a bronze tripod. Greek literature provides numerous references to tripods as prizes and dedications. A representation such as this shows their scale and how such objects were carried. The inscription on the obverse permits different interpretations. An obol was a unit of weight and a coin.

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