© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Medea demonstrates her alleged ability to reverse aging by producing a young ram from the pot in which she boiled butchered pieces of an old ram in a magic potion. Black-figure neck amphora, British Museum 1837, 0609.62. Image via the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Zeus, Herakles, and Athena fight the giants. Detail of a black-figure amphora in the style of the Lysippides Painter, British Museum 1839,1109.3. Image via the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Orestes seeks sanctuary beside the omphalos and tripod at Delphi, while Athena and Apollo intervene on his behalf. Paestan Red-Figure Bell Krater attributed to Python, British Museum 1917, 1210.1. Image via The British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Body sherd of Attic black-figured pottery band-cup; interior glazed black; exterior, in reserved handle zone, Triton (unclothed; red hair and beard) to right, holding fish in left hand; reserved band on lower wall.

Romano-British iron shackle, (c. 1st-2nd century AD), The British Museum 1934,1210.88. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission. 

Ivory comb of Modestina, Roman, probably 3rd-4th century AD. British Museum 1904,0204.1168. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission. 

Styluses and other writing materials from Roman Britain (1st–2nd century AD). British Museum 1953,1002.1. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission. 

Woman reading a double writing-tablet or tabellae (ca. 300 BC). Terra cotta figurine found in Benghazi, Libya (ancient Cyrenaica). British Museum 1856,1001.36. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission. 

Odysseus and Alcinous in the gardens of Alcinous. Drawing by Giovanni Battista Castello (1524-1567). British Museum 1946,0713.102. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission. 

Tarpeia on a silver coin of Augustus' moneyer P. Petronius Turpilianus (active 19 BC–4 BC). Denarius showing (obverse) Head of Augustus, bare; (reverse) Tarpeia, long-haired, facing, half-buried by shields, hands raised. British Museum 2002,0102.4945. © Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.