Bronze thymiaterion (incense burner) with Marsyas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This magnificent incense burner is embellished with a figure of Marsyas, the ill-fated satyr who was punished for his hubris by Apollo. We see him bound to the shaft of the incense burner where he will be flayed alive. His leg is inscribed with the Etruscan word SUTHINA, a funerary custom indicating that this object was dedicated as a tomb offering.

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