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Date : near 450 B.C.
Material : Terra cotta
Acquisition : Fletcher Fund (1925)
| Eurykleia washinf Odysseus's feet
Item 10 on 36
Greek Antiquities
Sculpture
Vitrine : V01 (Ref. 1028)
Area related
Ile de Milos (Milo) (Greece)
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| Description |  |
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Melian reliefs are a class of terracotta sculptures generally datable to the second and third quarters of the fifth century B.C. They are named after the island of Melos, were several examples were founds and where they are believed to have been made. The reliefs are particularly attractive and important because they depict a considerable range of subjects, mostly narrative. With they original polychromy of which little now survives, they would have appeared even more decorative and lively. Two of the Metropolitan Museum's examples are unusually significant. They illustrate dramatic moments in Odysseus's return to his native Ithaka, as narrated in the Odyssey of Homer.
One of the dramatic threads in the account of Odysseus's return to Ithaka is the gradual revelation of his identity. Here Odysseus appears seated before a columned façade that represents his palace. Before him stand his son, Telemachos, and his wife, Penelope. As the old nurse, Eurykleia, washes Odysseus's feet, she recognizes him from an old scar.
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