Pictures of Ancient Art at the British Museum

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

Now housed in the British Museum, the Corbridge Lanx was found, in 1735, in Corbridge, Northumberland, UK, near Hadrian's Wall at the Tyne River. The subject of the decorative platter made of solid silver is debated, but the consensus is that it includes depictions of Apollo, Artemis, and Athena. Other female figures may be Apollo and Artemis' mother, Leto, and Ortygia, who is sometimes named a sister of Leto and became an island. Some say Artemis was born on Ortygia; others, Delos, with Apollo.

Scholars think the platter was made in the 4th century. It may celebrate a visit paid by the Roman emperor Julian to Delos, but in "The Corbridge Lanx and the Emperor Julian," Oliver Nicholson argues that Julian's itinerary did not include such an imperial visit. Nicholson says with or without Julian visiting, Delos remained important commercially and poets continued to honor Delos even into the Christianization of the Roman Empire.

• "The Corbridge Lanx and the Emperor Julian," by Oliver Nicholson; Britannia Vol. 26, (1995), pp. 312-315