PERSONIFICATION, CONVENTION, AND SYMBOLISM In the Hellenistic age we find the Greek types of the gods adapting themselves to new conditions and new meanings.

With the conquests of Alexander, Greek language and civilisation spread over the Eastern world; and with them went the artistic forms of the Greek pantheon, though often to be modified by local beliefs or influences.

Similarly, when at a later time the Roman conquest of Greece spread Hellenic influence to the West, there also the types of the Greek deities came to be adopted or adapted to new mythological meanings.

Greek art practically became cosmopolitan; its influence was broadened; but at the same time its essential nature, in its harmony with the imagination of the Hellenic race, was lost or obscured.

It becomes more intelligible to us for this very reason, but at the same time less instructive in its relation to religious conceptions.
In the art of the Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman age we find two main tendencies, the one towards academic generalisation, and the other towards excessive realism, often coupled with a theatrical or sensational treatment.