Limestone votive relief

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Above is a figure, identified as Apollo, seated before an altar or baetyl (sacred stone), and below is a scene interpreted as showing workers in a mine or quarry. The inscription, in Cyprio-syllabic script, reads, "Diaithemis dedicated [this] to the god Apollo in good fortune." Such inscriptions show that in the Hellenistic period, while Greek became the dominant language used in Cyprus, the local script continued to play a part, especially in religious rites and for dedications to the gods.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art