On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Tower of the Winds, Athens
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey French
Not on view
The octagonal Tower of the Winds, the only surviving example of a clock tower from the period around the first century B.C., is considered the world’s first weather station. Sundials were originally attached below the frieze, which is decorated with personifications of the winds. Girault’s detail shows the east wind, Apeliotes (at left), with a harvest of fruit, grain, and honey, and the southeast wind, Euros, enfolded in cloud-like garments.