Glass beaker with cut inscription

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale yellow green. Uneven knocked-off rim with slight bulge below; ovoid body with convex side and round bottom. On body, three registers of decoration: at top, a band comprising two thick horizontal wheel-abraded lines between which is a zigzag pattern with twenty-one upward triangles; around middle, a wheel-abraded inscription reading ΠΙΕ ΖΗCΗC; below, a narrower band comprising two thick horizontal wheel-abraded lines between which is a pattern of close-set diagonal lines. Intact; pinprick bubbles; heavy pitting and brilliant iridescent weathering on exterior. Around the cup is engraved a Greek inscription that reads: Drink so that you might live.

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