Terracotta Hadra hydria (water jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

inscribed on obverse "By Sarapion; year 20; Hegesias son of Aglophanes" inscribed on reverse "[Hegesias son of ] Aglophanes of Keos; year 20; Apellaios" The date of this hydria is provided by two inscriptions. The name Sarapion, an official in the court of Ptolemy III (ruled 246-221 B.C.), who supervised the funerals of those who died while on state visits to Alexandria, and the Greek letter "Kappa," which stands for the number 20 and indicates the specific year of Ptolemy's reign, 227/6 B.C.

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