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 facade 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. Artistic depictions such as this are interesting not only for the illustrative detail that they provide but also for the subjects chosen.
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Title:Terracotta plaque
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 450 BCE
Culture:Greek, Melian
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:Overall: 7 3/4 x 7 5/16 in. (19.7 x 18.6 cm)
Classification:Terracottas
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1925
Accession Number:25.78.26
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. "New Accessions in the Classical Department." Bulletin of the Metropolian Museum of Art, 21(3), part 1: pp. 80–81, fig. 1.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 109–10, fig. 72, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 109–10, fig. 72, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 80, 222, pl. 62d, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Touchefeu-Meynier, Odette. 1968. Thèmes Odysséens dans l'Art Antique. nos. 430, 457, pp. 221, 235, 239, 249, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1979. Greek Art of the Aegean Islands. no. 182, p. 226, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Eurykleia," pp. 101–2, no. 8, pl. 52, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Buitron-Oliver, Diana. 1992. The Odyssey and Ancient Art: An Epic in Word and Image. p. 156, fig. 37, Annandale-on-Hudson: Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7: Oidipous-Theseus. "Penelope," p. 293, no. 20, pl. 228; "Telemachos," p. 855, no. 8, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 113, pp. 105, 428, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karoglou, Kyriaki. 2016. "The Collection of Greek Terracotta Figurines at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Les Carnets de l’ACoSt, 14: p. 3, n. 20 [p. 8], fig. 6.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
