Limestone statue of Herakles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the late sixth century B.C. a local Cypriot god was assimilated with the powerful animal-slaying Greek hero, Herakles. On Cyprus he is shown bearded or beardless, wearing a lion's skin and a short tunic and holding a miniature lion in his hand. Herakles was the male divinity most often represented in Cypriot sanctuaries. In the Classical period, King Evagoras of Salamis placed images of Herakles as a Panhellenic hero on his coinage. At the same time the Phoenician kings at Kition identified him with the Phoenician god, Melqart, who was worshiped at Kition.

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