NARRATOR: These three terracotta plaques each tell a story. They’re made of clay that has been hardened in a hot oven called a kiln. Each plaque has a picture molded in relief, standing out from the surface of the clay. Look closely at the plaque on top. Pieces are missing, but you can still make out four people: an older man with a beard sitting on the left… …a young man standing in the center… …and a woman on the right. There’s another woman kneeling in the middle. She’s a servant, washing the older man’s feet. This was a custom in ancient Greek homes. When guests arrived after a journey, washing their feet was a ceremony of welcome. To us, this scene may look calm and serene. But Greeks around 450 BC would have recognized this as a dramatic moment from one of the world’s most famous stories, called The Odyssey.