Antiquities Exhibits

Bronze mirror from the Peloponnesos circa 460 BCE (Inv 566) Surrounded by flowers and pigeons, this mirror features a handle depicting Aphrodite accompanied by two Erotes. It is part of the permanent collection of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dick Osseman. Bronze mirror with Aphrodite handle at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam courtesy of Dick Osseman. Closeup of  Bronze mirror with Aphrodite handle at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam courtesy of Dick Osseman.

The Calydonian boar hunt in ancient art King Oeneus ("wine man") of Calydon, an ancient city of west-central Greece north of the Gulf of Patras, held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods on the sacred hill. One year the king forgot to include Great "Artemis of the Golden Throne" in his offerings. Insulted, Artemis, the "Lady of the Bow", loosed the biggest, most ferocious wild boar imaginable on the countryside of Calydon. It r ampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops, forcing people to take refuge inside the city walls, where they began to starve. Oeneus sent messengers out to look for the best hunters in Greece, offering them the boar's pelt and tusks as a prize. Among those who responded were some of the Argonauts, Oeneus' own son Meleager, and, remarkably for the Hunt's eventual success, one woman— the huntress Atalanta, the "indomitable", who had been suckled by Artemis as a she-bear and raised as a...