Faience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabet

Faience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A number of polyhedra made in various materials are known from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. They may have been used in conjunction with an oracle inscribed on a pillar set up in a public place. The polyhedron was thrown in order to choose a letter at random. One consulted the inscription to find the matching letter and read the oracle's response. There would be twenty oracular messages, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet that corresponded to one side of the dice.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Faience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabetFaience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabetFaience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabetFaience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabetFaience polyhedron inscribed with letters of the Greek alphabet

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.