Images

Bull horns were a common religious symbol in the Cretan Minoan culture (2000 BCE - 1450 BCE), represented in fresco, on pottery and as here from the palace of Knossos, in architectural stone decoration.

Vulcan. Marble, reception piece for the French Royal Academy, 1742. Guillaume II Coustou (1716-1777). Louvre Museum, Department of Sculptures, Richelieu, ground floor, room 25.

The ancient Greek double aulos (diaulos) consisted of two pipes (auloi) attached at the mouthpiece and sometimes held in place with a leather strap (forveia) to the player's face. The pipes could be of equal length or unequal, the latter...

The Citadel of Aleppo (Arabic: قلعة حلب‎) is a large medieval fortified palace in the centre of the old city of Aleppo, northern Syria. It is considered to be one of the oldest and largest castles in the world. Usage of the Citadel hill dates...

Statue of Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Roman), known as Diane de Versailles, France. Roman copy, 1st or 2nd century CE, of lost Greek bronze attributed to Leochares, c. 325 BCE. Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Kore from the Athenian Acropolis, late 6th century BCE. (National Museum, Athens)

An ivory figurine representating a bull-leaper from a three dimensional composition (with two other figures and a bull) depicting this Minoan sporting or religious activity. Hair would have been added using bronze wire and clothes in gold...

Late Minoan polychrome vase, mid-15th century BCE, from Isopata. (Archaeological Museum, Heraklion)

A fresco detail from a banquet scene (known as 'La Parisienne') from Knossos, 1400-1350 BCE. The figure, in a robe and with a sacral knot at her neck, is perhaps a priestess. (Archaeological Museum, Heraklion)

Also known as the Theseum because of its decorative sculpture depicting the feats of Theseus, the Doric temple, built in 449 BCE, is situated in the agora of Athens. Hephaistos and Athena, as gods of crafts were worshipped here and within...