Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

Obverse, Poseidon fighting giant

Reverse, Judgement of Paris

The gods of Mount Olympos had to overcome several threats before their primacy was established. One was a great conflict with the giants. Here Poseidon, the god of the sea, overcomes Polybotes with a boulder that is, in fact, a piece of the island of Kos that he has broken off. The Judgement of Paris involved a potential threat as well, because it began a chain of events that led to the Trojan War. The sea nymph Thetis was fated to bear a son who would be greater than his father; she was therefore married to the mortal Peleus to whom she bore Achilles.

Credit: Gift of F. W. Rhinelander, 1898