Monsters, Demons, and Winged-Beasts: Composite Creatures in the Ancient World at The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory

February 5 - June 19

The abundant imagination of the ancient world gave birth to a vast array of monsters that inhabited a rich world of myth, legend and high adventure. This exhibition, drawn from the permanent collections of the Carlos Museum and loans from private collections, explores the menagerie from the Greek perspective, focusing on the ways in which the Greeks borrowed imagery from Egypt and the ancient Near East, and developed a vast repertoire of richly-imagined creatures that proliferated the Greco-Roman world.

From the siren, the human-headed bird whose call is fatal, to the cannibal cyclops Polyphemus, to the winged horse Pegasus and the Chimera, the fire-snorting lion with a serpent’s tail, this exhibition traces the development and dissemination of “monstrous” imagery through works in gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stone, terracotta, papyrus, and more.

Michael C. Carlos Museum is located at 571 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322

Michael C. Carlos Museum Spring 2011 Exhibition Explores Monsters, Demons And Winged Beasts

Michael C. Carlos Museum presents “Monsters, Demons, and Winged-Beasts: Composite Creatures of the Ancient World” on view from February 5 to June 19, 2011.

The ancient world gave birth to a vast array of monsters that inhabited a rich world of myth, legend, and high adventure. This exhibition, with over 150 objects that explore an array of fascinating and mysterious creatures from the Greek perspective, focuses on the ways in which the Greeks borrowed imagery from ancient Egypt and the Near East and developed a vast repertoire of richly imagined creatures that proliferated throughout the Greco-Roman world. Profoundly inspiring Greece in their artistic production, these images were quickly assimilated and became purely Hellenic.

“Monsters, Demons, and Winged-Beasts” illustrates the ways in which these creatures have appeared through millennia, and how their significance changed over time. From the siren--the human-headed bird whose call is fatal--to the cannibal Cyclops Polyphemus, to the winged horse Pegasus and the Chimera--the fire-snorting lion with a serpent’s tail--this exhibition traces the development and dissemination of “monstrous” imagery through works in gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stone, terracotta, and papyrus. The objects include cylinder seals, Greek vases, decorated armor, and more.

Location: 571 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, Georgia 30322. For more information, visit Michael C Carlos Museum of Emory.