Gold phiale (libation bowl)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inscribed on the base sketchily in Greek, "Pausi[ ]," and more deeply engraved in Punic (Carthaginian) characters, an indication of weight This libation bowl, decorated with bees, acorns, and beechnuts, is worked in repoussé. Phialai decorated with acorns were being made by the late sixth century B.C. and must have been traditional. Acorns could also be seen on the phialai held by the caryatids of the Erechtheum on the Akropolis in Athens, as we learn from Roman copies found in Hadrian's villa at Tivoli.

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