Sicily: Culture and Conquest at the British Museum

Sicily: Culture and Conquest

British Museum, London 

April 21 – Aug 14, 2016 

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The island of Sicily is the subject of a fascinating exhibition currently at the British Museum, Sicily: Culture and Conquest. Like Sicily itself, the exhibit dazzles the imagination. And like this ancient land, there is much about the exhibit that does not "meet the eye." 

Strategically set in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is a land of opposites. Bursting with fertility and abundance, the island is haunted by violence and death. It is the birthplace of some of the most creative masters of European culture: Archimedes of Syracuse (d.212 BC), Antonello da Messina (1430-1479) and Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936). It is also the homeland of the Cosa Nostra. 

In antiquity, Sicily was the setting for one of the most significant Greco-Roman myths, the story of Demeter and Persephone. When her daughter, Persephone, is abducted by Hades,  god of the underworld, Demeter wins her release for part of the year. In spring and summer, Persephone is free. Nature blooms, crops ripen - and then comes winter. This, to the ancient Greeks, explained the regenerative cycle of nature. 

But how evocative is the myth of Demeter and Persephone of the fate of Sicily! Joy mixed with an equal portion of sorrow, salvation and damnation forever linked. 

There are two hundred works of art in the British Museum exhibition, covering Sicily's history from antiquity to the Renaissance. Two periods, the rise of the Ancient Greek city-states and the Norman French rule during the Middle Ages, are extensively covered. Other eras, notably the long period of Roman rule, are illustrated with only few works of art. Given the thousands of years covered by the exhibit, this imbalance was perhaps necessary. But it does have some unfortunate consequences.

An excellent place to start grappling with Sicily: Culture and Conquest is the Terracotta Altar with Three Women. 

The altar comes from the Greek colony of Gela on the south coast of Sicily. It dates from around 500 BC, well after the first Greeks beached their galleys on the coast at Naxos in 735 BC.  In terms of style, this terracotta statue is early in the Greek artistic tradition and it represents religious and social themes even earlier - much earlier.

Terracotta Altar with Three Woman and a Lioness Mauling a Bull, 500 BC

Here we see Demeter and Persephone, along with another goddess, Hecate, who cared for Persephone in Hades during her months of wintry exile. Hecate was a goddess of very ancient origin. The three goddesses represent the Mother Goddess cult which preceded Zeus and the Olympian gods. 

Above the three goddesses on the Gela altarpiece is a depiction of a female lion or panther savagely killing a bull. Is this violent scene a reference to the female-male conflict implicit in Persephone's abduction by Hades? Does this  bloody encounter recall a myth from the pre-Greek people of Sicily, the Sicels? We are unlikely to know with certainty.

Gela was a major site of terracotta production in ancient times.The British Museum exhibit also displays a  terracotta roof ornament with head of a gorgon from a temple in Gela. Gorgons were fearsome female deities in Greek myth whose very look could turn a person to stone. This one was likely placed to protect the Gela temple in time of war. 

Antefix in the form of a Gorgoneion, c. 500 BC

Sadly, Sicily was to figure as a battleground from antiquity to the 1943 invasion by Allied forces in World War II. The principal combat in ancient times was between the Greeks in Sicily against the Phoenician maritime power, Carthage. 

The Phoenicians, originally from Lebanon, had established the major city-state of Carthage in North Africa and settlements in Sicily during the 9th century BC. These Semitic peoples were intrepid seaman, creators of the alphabet we still use and tough fighters. But they were merchants first of all. The Phoenicians preferred the art of the deal to the art of war.

There is but one work of Phoenician art in Sicily: Culture and Conquest, a mask designed to protect graves at Carthage from evil spirits. This does a disservice to Phoenician culture. Compared with the Greek art on view, it is easy to look at this grimacing image and conceive of the Phoenicians as an alien civilization.

Grave Mask from Carthage, 5th Century BC

The Greeks had early developed a jealous dislike of the Phoenicians. Sicily represented  the promised land to the Greeks and they were not prepared to share it with Carthage. Syracuse, with one of the most superb harbors in the Mediterranean, became the superpower among the Greek city-states on the island. The rulers or tyrannoi of Syracuse were determined to expand their territorial holdings over Sicily.

The British Museum exhibit displays several outstanding works of "the art of war" recalling ancient bloodshed in Sicily.  A marble statue of a warrior from the city-state of Akragas (modern-day Agrigento) was created around 470 BC. It was certainly part of a monument celebrating the resounding victory over Carthage ten years before by the Greek forces commanded by Gelon of Syracuse and Theron, the ruler of Akragas. 

Statue of a Warrior, c. 480 BC

This great battle in 480 BC, Himera, was won at the same time as the victories of Athens and Sparta against the Persian invaders, 480-479 BC. The Akragas war monument was clearly intended by the Greeks of Sicily to remind their boastful cousins in the ancestral homeland that they had triumphed over the "Barbarians" as well.

After the battle of Himera, the Greeks in Sicily followed the example of Athens, Sparta and Corinth by fighting endlessly among themselves. Carthage regained much of its strength and began to reassert its power in Sicily. After a deadly chess match lasting over two centuries both the Greeks and Carthaginians were checkmated by a new player, the Romans.

Amazingly, Carthage had been an early trade partner and ally of the fledgling Roman Republic, founded in 509 BC. It took many years for the Romans to bring the Italian peninula under their rule. All the while, they watched Carthage and the Greeks wage costly wars without either side gaining hegemony  over Sicily.

In 264 BC, the Romans made their move, clashing with Carthage in the first of the three Punic Wars. The British Museum exhibit displays a truly remarkable piece documenting the "art of war"  during those terrible conflicts. 

Bronze Rostrum or Roman naval ram, 243-241 BC

Normally,  I would hardly consider the rostrum or battering ram mounted on the prow of Roman warship as a work of art. But this menacing weapon illustrates perfectly the relentless warfare that turned Sicily into the gate of Hades for thousands and thousands of war victims, not merely for Persephone in the myth. 

The rostrum was excavated from the seabed in 2008 near Levanzo, on the western tip of Sicily. Here on March 10, 241 BC, the Roman fleet smashed the naval squadrons of Carthage in the climatic battle of the war. The rostrum came from one of the 30 Roman ships lost in the battle. 

Detail of Bronze Rostrum, showing figure of Victory, 243-241 BC

It is a measure of Roman determination and confidence that the bronze ram had been cast with a winged-figure of Victory. 

Rome was to sustain further losses in the Second Punic War, when Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BC. But Rome won in the end, destroying Carthage in 146 BC. Sicily was reduced to vassal status. Its rich lands were turned into vast, grain-producing estates called latifundia. 

Apart from this bronze naval ram, Sicily: Culture and Conquest presents few works of art or artifacts from the Roman era. Since this period lasted for an entire millennium, up to the brief Arab conquest in 965 AD, this is a debatable curatorial decision. Indeed, it may well be a serious omission preventing a proper understanding of Sicily's history.

Sicily is the site of the greatest surviving mosaic installation of the Roman era in Europe. This is the great series of mosaic pavements at the Villa del Casale near Piazza Armerina in central Sicily. Created early in the  fourth century AD, it shows wild animal hunts and bikini-clad (or at least the Roman equivalent) female athletes. 

What the mosaics of Villa del Casale really depict is the staggering difference between the privileged lifestyle of the elite of Roman society, the honestiores, and those who served them. The grinding existence of the humiliores is notably absent from these mosaics.

It is missing too from Sicily: Culture and Conquest.                                                                                                                                                                                              . Yet, without some acknowledgement of this centuries-long impoverishment, the rise of the Cosa Nostra cannot be understood. Indeed ,the first Mafia were the Gabellotti. These were the managers whom absentee landlords during the 1800's - descendants of the honestiores - relied upon to run their estates.  The Gabellotti, with no Roman legions to fear, seized power themselves. Sicily and much of the Western world, is still dealing  with the deadly legacy of the Gabellotti.

If the British Museum exhibits skims lightly over the Roman domination of Sicily, compensation is abundantly made in the galleries devoted to the Norman Kingdom and the the reign of Frederick II. These incredible episodes from the Middle Ages are brilliantly explored, presenting art and literary treasures of a unique realm, tolerant, multilingual and open to new ideas. 

Bronze Falcon from Norman-era Sicily or Southern Italy, c. 1200-1220

The Normans arrived in Italy as mercenary knights in 1016 AD, fighting for and against just about everybody including the Pope. The Normans, descendants of the Norsemen who had raided the north of France, were mighty warriors. Christian baptism had changed them barely at all. They were Vikings on horseback. 

In  1061, the Normans launched a thirty-year campaign to "liberate" Sicily from the Arabs. The details of their campaigns and their later rule has been memorably chronicled by the great historian, John Julius Norwich in his books, The Normans in the South 1016-1130, and The Kingdom in the Sun, 1130-1194. We will concentrate on the amazing  - and unexpected - flourishing of culture under the Normans.

Like the Carthaginians, the Normans in Sicily had limited manpower. Instead of hiring mercenaries to wage war, they used others, Greeks and Arabs, to build churches, create works of art and manage the economy. 

The Virgin as Advocate for the Human Race, c. 1130 AD

The exquisite mosaic, the Virgin as Advocate for the Human Race, was made by Byzantine Greeks around 1130 AD. This was the era of King Roger II, the greatest Norman ruler. Originally from the Cathedral in Palermo, the Virgin as Advocate for the Human Race beautifully evokes the toleration that was the foundation of Roger's tremendous achievements.

The compassion and empathy in the Virgin as Advocate is reinforced by a work which symbolizes the spirit of "coexistence"  that marked the era of Roger II. It is easy to miss this funerary piece, insignificant in size, but it is key to the medieval galleries of the exhibit.

Tombstone with Eulogy to Anna, Written in Four Languages, 1149 AD

In 1149 AD, a clergyman named  Grisandus set-up this memorial plaque for his mother Anna. The eulogy was  written in the four languages used in Norman Sicily: Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew script) on top, Latin on the left, Greek on the right, and Arabic below.

If only this touching, multi-language work of art could have characterized the whole course of Sicily's development from the Norman era to ours!

Unhappily, this is an "exceptional" work of art because it is an exception. Sicily's golden age came to an end when Frederick II died in 1250. The "wonder of the world" to some, Antichrist to others, Frederick was a rare example of a brilliant, tolerant and effective ruler during the Middle Ages - and today. 

Sicily: Culture and Conquest concludes with a painting believed to be a work by Antonello da Messina. One of the earliest Renaissance artists in Italy to use oil paint, Antonello was a master of psychological depth as well. His Madonna, from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in London, is vastly different from the Virgin as Advocate for the Human Race.

Antonello da Messina, Virgin and Child, c. 1460-9

The eyes of Antonello's Madonna are firmly closed. She does not look at Jesus, who is not a child but rather a weird, doll-like man. As the angels lower a glittering crown on the Madonna's head, we become aware of the dread anticipation she feels. The pain on her face reminds us of Antonello's depictions of Christ being crowned by thorns before his crucifixion. 

This jewel-covered crown may not have skin-piercing thorns. But Mary's sorrowing countenance conveys the pain it will bring. This disturbing work is entitled  - most inaccurately - The Virgin and Child. 

A much more appropriate name for this strange, haunted painting springs readily to mind:    

The Madonna of Sicily's History.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved. 
Images Courtesy of the British Museum, London, UK

Introductory Image:  
Fragment of a Metope from Temple C, Sicilian Greek, Limestone, c. 540 – 500 BC, H: 460 mm, W: 470 mm Lent by: Palermo Museo Archeologico Regionale, Antonio Salinas, Via Bara All'Olivella, 24, 90133 Palermo, Italy, museum # NI 3899                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Terracotta Altar with Three Woman and a Lioness Mauling a Bull, Sicilian Greek, 500 BC, Terracotta H: 1140 mm, L: 750 mm, D: 350 mm Lent by: Museo Archeologico Regionale Di Gela, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 1, 93012 Gela 

Antefix in the form of a Gorgoneion, Sicilian Greek, about 500 BC, Terracotta, H: 385 mm, L: 380 mm, D: 880 mm Lent by: Museo Archeologico Regionale Di Gela, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 1, 93012 Gela

Grave Mask, Carthage, North Africa, 5th Century BC, Baked Clay, H: 17.7 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, British Museum # 133128

Statue of a Warrior, Sicilian Greek, c. 480 BC, Marble, H: 861 mm Lent by: Lent by: Museo Archeologico Regionale di Agrigento, Contrada San Nicola, 12, Agrigento, 92100, Italy, Ag 217

Bronze Rostra from Levanzo, Roman-era Italy, 243-241 BC, Bronze, H: 700 mm, W: 500 mm Lent by: Soprintendenza per i Beni culturali e ambientali del Mare Palazzetto Mirto - Via Lungarini, 9, Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo, 4521 (Istituto Roosevelt) Palermo 90100, Italy  # Egadi 4

Bronze Falcon, Norman-era Sicily / Southern Italy, 1200-1220, Gilded Bronze, H: 279 mm, W: 165 mm, L: 79 mm Lent by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York  Metropolitan Museum # 47.101                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Mosaic of the Virgin Haghiosoritissa, Norman-era Sicily,  12th Century, H: 750mm, W: 620mm Lent by: Museo Diocesano di Palermo, Via M. Bonello, 2, 90133 Palermo, Italy, museum # 6

Tombstone with Eulogy to Anna, Mother of Grisandus, Written in Four Languages, Church of  St. Michael the Archangel, Palermo, Sicily, 1149, Inlaid Marble, W:  410 mm, L: 320 mm, D: 45 mm max Lent by: SoprIntendeza di Palermo, Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. Via Calvi, 13, 90139 – Palermo, museum # 19304

Antonello da Messina (Sicilian, 1456-1479) Virgin and Child, c. 1460-9, Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3 cm National Gallery, London, UK, Salting Bequest, 1910, NG2618

Gods and Mortals at Olympus at the Onassis Cultural Center NY

Gods and Mortals at Olympus

Ancient Dion, City of Zeus

  Onassis Cultural Center NY

March 24 - June 18, 2016

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The greatest Greek poet of the twentieth century, C.P. Cavafy, wrote poems about gods and men, ancient and modern. Cavafy was a master of insight into the human soul. With a stiletto thrust of irony, Cavafy could skewer the proud and the powerful while investing some long-dead youth from the Hellenistic past with a touch of immortality.

A brilliant exhibition of Greek art, Gods and Mortals at Olympus at the Onassis Cultural Center NY in midtown Manhattan, evokes Cavafy's verse. Here among shattered, headless statutes and chipped memorials to forgotten sages, we see  gods brought down to earth and the human spirit set free. 

The beautifully-renovated museum space of the Onassis Cultural Center - located appropriately enough in the Olympic Tower, 5th Ave. and 52nd St. -  is the site of superb exhibits dealing with all aspects and all eras of Greek art. Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus is but the latest display of treasures from Greek museums on view in this New York City art venue.

Joseph Coscia, Jr, Gallery view of Gods and Mortals at Olympus, Onassis Cultural Center

At the heart of Gods and Mortals at Olympus is a magnificent mosaic, the Epiphany of Dionysus. One can almost feel Cavafy's spirit lingering before this sensational work of art:

... Behold the god in front,

in celestial glory, with steady stride,                                                                  

 Behind him is Licence, at whose side                                                                                 Intoxication stands, pouring wine for satyrs                                                                       from an amphora twined with ivy...

The Mosaic of the Epiphany of Dionysus shows the Greek god of wine and revelry riding in a chariot pulled by panthers. It is an extraordinary work. Mythology is summoned to life with absolute technical mastery in the placement of the thousands of stone tessarae composing this scene. This exactitude imparts a sense of vitality to this work of art, making the fantastical seem alive and believable. 

This astonishing mosaic, dating to the late 2nd–early 3rd century AD, was excavated in the city of Dion in northern Greece. But give this magnificent work its due and for a few moments, there is indeed an "epiphany" of Dionysus right before you in New York City.

Mosaic of the Epiphany of Dionysus, Late 2nd–early 3rd century AD 

Dion, located near the base of Mount Olympus, was one of the principal centers of the religious cult of Greece in ancient times. Here Zeus reigned over the brood of jealous gods and goddesses whose vainglorious deeds reflected the lives of the Greeks in the valley below and throughout the Hellenic world.

Archaeologists believe that there was an altar created near the summit of Mount Olympus at a very early date, perhaps the tenth century BC. This was the period after the fall of the Mycenaean palace states, long considered the Greek Dark Age. This era was the time when the Iliad and the Odyssey were being refined in the oral tradition by bards and poets, later to be written down around 750 BC. 

 Spectacle-Shaped Brooch, 1000–700 BC 

The altar to Zeus, if it existed, is lost to history. A small, spectacle-shaped brooch dating to sometime between 1000-700 BC was discovered in Dion. Created from copper alloy wire with iron fittings, this remarkable piece actually has some strands of fabric still attached. It hardly seems creditable that this brooch, with its striking sinuous design, could have been created during a "Dark Age."

Perhaps the real point of contention is whether there was a Greek Dark Age at all. Also discovered in Dion, a gold bracelet decorated with lion heads looks like it was unearthed from a tomb of a noble from this distant Homeric era. Yet it dates from five hundred or more years later, from the the third century BC. 

Bracelet with Lion’s Head Finials, Late 3rd century BC 

Greek history is full of such surprises.

To a remarkable degree, Gods and Mortals at Olympus surveys the entire history of ancient Greek art. It is true that Dion, located near the border of Thessaly and Macedonia, was a long way from Athens, Corinth and other dynamic centers of Greek culture. Yet, the exhaustive forty-year "dig" at Dion, led by the great scholar Dimitrios Pandermalis, has produced a rich archaeological record of the rise, fall and revival of Hellenic civilization.

Head from a Statue of Demeter, 325–300 BC

In terms of renewal, there is no more meaningful symbol than that of the goddess Demeter. During the excavations at Dion, a battered head of this goddess of the harvest was uncovered. It was originally part of statue dating to the late fourth century BC. This was the era of Alexander the Great who lavished funds on temple building at Dion, which had become the principal religious center of Macedon.

Demeter's head, however, testifies to violence, as much as to piety. It was discovered at a level marked by destruction and debris. 

After Alexander's early death in 323 BC, his empire imploded and a recurrent round of civil wars undermined the strength of the Greek world. In 219 BC, troops from the Aetolian League, fighting against Macedon, sacked and burned Dion. This decapitated head of Demeter is likely a survivor from this grim period of Greek history.

Demeter, the nurturing goddess of agriculture and fertility, appears in another guise among the treasures on view at the Onassis Center. The ancient Greeks ventured to Egypt as merchants and mercenary soldiers centuries before Alexander reached there in 332 BC. They quickly saw parallels between Demeter and the the Egyptian goddess, Isis.

Demeter was the distraught mother of the abducted Persephone, while Isis was the grieving sister/wife of the murdered Osiris. Each goddess challenged the power of death on behalf of their loved one. To the peoples of Greece and Egypt, the seasonal release of Persephone from Hades and the reviving of the body of Osiris came to symbolize the return of spring and the promise of eternal life for the soul. From these similarities emerged one of earliest "global" religious cults of ancient times.

"Demeter is Isis," Herodotus declared in Book II of The Histories, written during the fifth century BC.

At Dion, excavators found a marble bas relief, dating to a century after Alexander, 
depicting Isis as Demeter. 

Relief Stele Depicting Isis as Demeter, Second half of 3rd–early 2nd century BC 

This is a fascinating piece showing the two-way current of exchange between Greece and Egypt. It was not a case of a conquered or a co-opted divinity being taken back to Greece. There was a sanctuary built to Isis in Dion, not far from the sanctuary to Demeter. Given the fact that these sanctuaries co-existed in Dion, the bas relief reveals an open-minded religious plurality that enabled people to draw inspiration from many sources. 

What was true for Demeter and Isis eventually influenced how mighty Zeus was envisioned as well. Zeus on his mountain-top throne was originally worshiped  as father of the Greek gods.  Greek culture went global under Alexander and  religious worship followed suit. Alexander, following his mystical experience at the oasis shrine of Siwa, equated Zeus directly with Amun-Ra, the patron god of the Egyptian city of Thebes whom the warlike pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty had promoted to lordship over the Egyptian pantheon.  

After Alexander, Zeus no longer was identified exclusively with Mount Olympus. Rather, he was restyled as Zeus Hypsistos - the Highest - whose domain extended everywhere. Naturally, the folks back at Dion were unwilling to lose their connection with the father of the gods. An imposing statue of Zeus Hypsistos was unearthed during the excavations at Dion, minus its head.

 Cult Statue of Zeus Hypsistos, 2nd century AD 

This statue of Zeus Hypsistos dates from the second century AD. Greece had been "liberated" by  the Romans back in 146 BC. The Greek city-states had lost every shred of power, except for some very local autonomy. They lost vast amounts of their greatest art treasures to Roman greed, as well. In 148 BC, the Roman commander, Quintus Caecilius Metellus, made off with a number of Dion's most honored sculptures, created by the fabled Lysippus.  

Nobody has ever loved and looted Greece like the Romans. Yet, to their credit, the Romans eventually accorded Greece a "favored province" status. Many of the objects on view in Gods and Mortals at Olympus date to the more benevolent era of Roman rule, the second and third centuries AD. These includes the headless Zeus Hypsistos and a statue of an eagle from the sanctuary of Zeus at Dion. 

Statue of an Eagle, 2nd century AD

The eagle was the sacred bird of Zeus, but this marble raptor displays a distinctly Roman ardor. This proud, powerful bird shares a kinship with the gilded eagles on the standards of the Roman legions who had carried away Dion's treasures in a less happy age.

Dion prospered under Rome by virtue of a past which could not be looted. During the heyday of the Pax Romana, the ruling class of Rome was drawn to Greece to enjoy Hellenic culture and myth which we, even now so many centuries later, still appreciate. 

 Oil Lamp Decorated with a Panther Protome, 1st–2nd century AD 

Talismans of the fabled past were everywhere at Dion. Metallic lamps graced with the heads of Dionysus' panthers and mosaic depictions of theatrical masks appeared at every turn.

The mosaic mask of Silenus, companion of Dionysus, bears witness to why this mythic past could not endure for long. This melancholy, wistful face serves as the introductory image of this review. Silenus, in this mosaic, looks like Zeus in retirement. His face bears the knowing countenance of an individual - or of a society - growing old gracefully, relentlessly.

As Rome declined, Dion's Indian Summer faded. Dion's harbor filled-up with silt. Earthquakes toppled its temples and Christianity undermined belief in Zeus and Demeter.

Nothing lasts forever. Yet, Gods and Mortals at Olympus at the Onassis Center testifies to the undying human quest for transcendence. Such is the spirit which builds temples and resurrects  their ruins. Sometimes this is done by the sweat and toil of archaeologists, sometimes with immortal verse such as C.P. Cavafy's poem, "Ionic".

Although we've broken their statues,                                                                                    

although we've driven them from their temples,                                                             

the gods have not perished from this, not at all.                                                                       

Land of Ionia, it is you they love still,                                                                            

it is you their souls remember.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Images Courtesy of the Onassis Cultural Center NY

Excerpts from the poems by C.P. Cavafy, "The Procession of Dionysus" and "Ionic", are quoted from C.P. Cavafy: Selected Poems, translated by Avi Sharon, Penguin Classics, 2008.

Introductory Image: 
Mosaic Panel with Theatrical Mask of Silenus, Late 2nd–early 3rd century AD, Stone tesserae. H. 28.7 in; W. 28.7 in (H. 73 cm; W. 73 cm) From Dion. Villa of Dionysus, Symposium Hall Archaeological Museum of Dion, Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY. 

Installation view of Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus, on view at the Onassis Cultural Center NY; photograph by Joseph Coscia, Jr.

Mosaic of the Epiphany of Dionysus, Late 2nd–early 3rd century AD, Stone tesserae,

H. 59 in; W. 86.6 in (H. 150 cm; W. 220 cm) From Dion. Villa of Dionysus, Symposium Hall

Archaeological Museum of Dion, Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Spectacle-Shaped Brooch with Fabric Remains, Early Iron Age (1000–700 BC), Copper alloy, iron, and textile. L. 5.9 in; Diam. coils 2.4 in, 2.6 in (L. 15 cm; Diam. coils 6 cm, 6.5 cm)

From Olympus. Tumulus cemetery of Mesonisi, Tumulus 2, grave D. Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 8905 Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY

Bracelet with Lion’s Head Finials, Late 3rd century BC, Gold. Circum. 5.5 in; Diam. 2 in (Circum. 14 cm; Diam. 5 cm) Karitsa. Macedonian Tomb IV, Cist grave ΙΙ. Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 2036 Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Head from a Statue of Demeter. 325–300 BC, Marble. H. 9.4 in; D. 7.5 in (H. 24 cm; D. 19 cm) From Dion. Sanctuary of Demeter, South Hellenistic Temple Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 200. Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Relief Stele Depicting Isis as Demeter with Dedicatory Inscription. Second half of 3rd–early 2nd century BC, Marble. H. 12.2 in; W. 13.4 in; D. 3.1 in (H. 31 cm; W. 34 cm; D. 8 cm) From Dion. Sanctuary of Isis, Courtyard of the temple of Isis Lochia. Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 410. Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Cult Statue of Zeus Hypsistos. 2nd century AD, Marble. H. 33.7 in; W. 18.1 in; D. 25 in (H. 85.5 cm; W. 46 cm; D. 63.5 cm)From Dion. Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos, Cella Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 7815.Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Statue of an Eagle. 2nd century AD, Marble, H. 25 in; W. 13.6 in; D. 5.9 in (H. 63.5 cm; W. 34.5 cm; D. 15 cm) From Dion. Sanctuary of Zeus Hypsistos, Cella Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 7816 Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY

Oil Lamp Decorated with a Panther Protome. 1st–2nd century AD, Copper alloy.

H. 14.6 in; W.Copper alloy. H. 14.6 in; W. 13 in; D. 13 in (H. 37 cm; W. 33 cm; D. 33 cm)

From Dion. Water organ sector. Archaeological Museum of Dion, ΜΔ 8908. Photo © Archaeological Excavations at Dion, Greece. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.