On October 17, 2015, about 30 students from Stockton studying Greek and Roman art, history, culture, and languages journeyed to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a focus on their Cypriot collection. With monetary assistance from the Dean and Zoe Pappas Fund for Greek Art and Architecture, students, faculty, and members from the community spent the day amongst great pieces of Greco-Roman art and immersed themselves in the lives of the ancients. We traveled from the Cypriot Bronze Age, to Pre-Classical Greece, to High Classical Rome observing the artistic innovations of awe-inspiring times.

In the Cypriot art, we could see the Eastern influences of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and later the Turks. We stopped and admired the great stone sarcophagi and the ornate scenes depicted along the sides. The Greek influence appeared in the mythological scenes on the sarcophagi and the statues of Herakles and Geryon, along with the “archaic Greek smile” that adorned the statues of unknown men. Most of the statues even still retained a few specks of their original paint, giving us an insight into how the statues may have originally appeared. Wandering afterwards from room to room, age to age, we circled funerary monuments made to celebrate the deaths of those who led the most lavish of lifestyles. Along the way we stumbled upon the smallest trinkets of everyday civilians sharing space with the armor of battle-worn soldiers. We stood alongside the likenesses of emperors, heroes, and gods, such as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Augustus, Alexander, Homer, Socrates, Hercules, Fortuna, Apollo, and the Graces. The Museum impressively uses its layout to intersperse many aspects of life to show the diversity of ancient culture. As students of Greco-Roman languages, we were particularly drawn to the various inscriptions in the galleries to test our mettle through translating these ancient texts.

After our visit to the ancient past, we ventured deeper into New York City to Ithaka Restaurant to experience an authentic Greek dinner. Over the expanse of three hours we enjoyed five courses of exquisite Greek cuisine, including stuffed grape leaves, tzatziki, taramosalata (Greek caviar), loukaniko (Greek sausage), pastitsio, and loukoumades (Greek donuts). Just as our cups and plates were never empty, so too did our eclectic conversations never cease. Sitting in such a festive and genuine atmosphere gave us a look into the modern lifestyle of the descendants of the people we came to know at the museum.

Ultimately, our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened our eyes to the art and splendor of the past and our hearts to the culture and people of the present. We spent the day learning, teaching, and reveling in the glory of a past that will continue to inspire us and others for years to come.