Antiquities Exhibits

This pair of terracotta altars depicts the death of Adonis, a god of vegetation, and the rituals that were celebrated in his honor. On the altar on the right, Adonis, looking weak, sits supported in the arms of his lover Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Adonis was born of an incestuous love between the Assyrian king Theias and his daughter Myrrha; Aphrodite was smitten by the infant Adonis's great beauty and hid him in a box (cista), which she entrusted to Persephone. When Persephone opened the box, she too fell in love with the beautiful infant and decided not to give him back to Aphrodite. Zeus interceded in the quarrel between the two goddesses and ordered that Adonis should spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third with Persephone, and the last third wherever he liked— Adonis chose to devote that time to Aphrodite as well. The woman at bottom right, sitting on the box, is likely to be Persephone. On the left altar, three women rush to the scene, carrying musical instrume...

 In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the god Achelous (also Acheloos or Acheloios) was associated with the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece. According to Hesiod, he was the son of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. He was also said to be the father of the Sirens, several nymphs, and other offspring. Achelous was able to change his shape, and in the form of a bull, he wrestled Heracles for the right to marry Deianeira, daughter of the king of Calydon, but lost.  This myth is retold in a 7th century BCE poem by Archilochus.  In the 5th century BCE, Pindar claimed Heracles broke off one of Achelous's horns, and the river-god was able to get his horn back by trading it for a horn from Amalthea, foster mother of Zeus. In his play, Women of Trachis, Sophocles relates Deianeira's account of the courtship: "For my suitor was a river-god, Achelous, who in three shapes was always asking me from my father—coming now as a bull in visible form, now as a serpent, sheeny and...

Domesticated dogs appeared in prehistoric paintings at sites like Bhimbetka in central India that date back more than 100,000 years. During the Bronze Age statues, children's toys, and ceramics depicted dogs. Hunting dogs were most commonly portrayed but pet dogs, valued for their faithfulness and courage were also subjects of ancient art. Dogs were often seen on Greek and Roman reliefs and ceramics as symbols of fidelity and given as gifts among lovers.  Homer's Odyssey reinforced this concept of a dog's faithfulness by telling the story of Odysseus' dog who was the only one that recognized him when he returned home after years of wanderings, even though he was disguised to conceal his appearance. Sadly, because dogs were revered for their loyalty, they were also sometimes sacrificed in special religious rituals.  During Xanthika, a spring purification of the Macedonian army, a dog was sacrificed.  The Spartans sacrificed a dog to Enyalius, the son of Ares, in one o...

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia The name, Iphigenia, means "born to strength" and her strength is revealed in a number of 5th century Greek plays by Euripides, Ennius, and others. In Greek mythology, while gathering his fleet in preparation for the war against Troy, Mycenaean king Agamemnon accidentally kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artermis. To punish him, Artemis conjurs up strong winds so the king's fleet cannot sail. A seer, Calchas reveals that, to appease Artemis, Agamemnon must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia in an act of aparchai, the surrender of his "first fruits.". From the Archaic to the Hellenistic period (700-31 BCE), Greeks engaged in aparchai and dekatai, a type of religious tithe, which were deployed not only in a religious context but in politics and constituted a means of settling men's debts to the gods as an expression of human dependence on them. Most scholars have dismissed such tales of human sacrfice as purel...