Rome's Stone Consolations:

Reading Mythological Iconography on Sarcophagi as Aids to Mourning

By Bridget Bagileo

Romans in the second century A.D. commissioned sarcophagi with relief decoration that had two purposes: to hold the body of the deceased and to offer a form of relief to the deceased’s remaining loved ones. These funerary messages made use of mythological representations for very specific purposes. Because ancients were so familiar with mythological stories, they were easily recognized and interpreted when viewed. Although many of the same characters and stories are repeatedly used in ancient art, their functions varied depending on time, context, and geographic location. Therefore, these stories took on a new meaning when commissioned by Roman aristocratic families in the second century in Italy; this funerary iconography was intended to be read as a text without words. In this paper, the mythological narratives found on sarcophagi are read to demonstrate how specifc visual details of myths were intended to be interpreted as consolatory. Parallels are made to Roman consolatory texts regarding their function and how they offered comfort to those who had experienced tragedy.

INTRODUCTION

When featured in a funerary context, mythological iconography is used to deliver a specific message either about the deceased for whom the monument is commissioned or to the visitors of the monument. While a monument’s general function was to house the remains of the deceased, it often acted as a means of conveying a final message from or about the deceased to his society; the loved ones of the deceased would have seen and interacted with the monument, perhaps on a regular basis.1 The relatives of the deceased who had commissioned these sarcophagi were members of the aristocracy, as they were the only citizens able to afford them.2 This amount of wealth indicates that the viewers of the sarcophagi had the luxury of free time and would have been able to frequently visit the burial places of their loved ones.

It is important to consider that funerary iconography, seen in relief sculpture from second-century sarcophagi, had differing functions based on who commissioned the work. For example, if the relief was commissioned by the deceased before he had passed, it may have been intended to serve as his final testament about himself to society. This form of self-commemoration in a funerary context was common. Freedman reliefs are a prime example, such as the Iunctio Dextrarum relief found in Rome’s Palazzo Massimo. This relief depicts two married freed people in the gesture of joined right hands (iunctio dextrarum), which signified matrimony between Roman citizens.3 This relief is an example of freedmen asserting to their society that they had gained their independence and created honorable livelihoods and individual wealth for themselves. If commissioned by the family of the deceased, however, the monument may have been intended to praise the virtuous qualities of the dead or may have been used by the living as a means to console themselves.4 In these instances, “The focus is not so much on the deceased as on the bereaved. Their grief is compared to a range of mythological mourners.”5 The mythological iconography of sarcophagi was often used as a means to deliver a particular message to the loved ones of the deceased about facing grief and continuing life.

In order to succeed in using sarcophagus iconography in this manner, a relief sculptor had to be intentional both in which details he chose to emphasize, as well as in which myths to feature. It was necessary not only that there be general familiarity with any mythological choice, but also that the narrative could be manipulated in such a way as to emphasize the desired elements so that a specific message may be communicated to the viewer. The iconography did not display a new story, but rather depicted particular points or characters that were suited to their funerary context. Towards this end, sculptors focused on iconography that depicted either cruelty and suffering or demonstrations of happiness.

The following discussion analyzes a selection of mythological iconography on Roman stone sarcophagi from the second century A.D. in Italy. The specific sarcophagi discussed in this paper all share a date, a general provenance (Italy), and a medium, and feature a selection of specific mythological iconography. The two particular mythological narratives that are explored are the boar hunt of Adonis and the slaying of Niobe’s children. These two narratives are discussed here because they directly involve death, and they exemplify the ability of funerary iconography to mitigate the sorrows of the viewer and provide encouragement to continue on in the face of tragedy. This paper offers one main example of each narrative to exemplify iconographic choices made in their construction. The specific interpretation of sarcophagi relief being understood as mourning aids to the viewer is presented as consolation, a unique art form, and demonstrates that these monuments are intended to be read as such.7

The best way to understand that sarcophagi reliefs acted as an aid to mourning is through the context of consolation. This art form, most commonly known as a literary genre, creates a message that comforts its audience in times of loss or hardship. Just as one reads a consolatory text and receives a sense of comfort, catharsis, or comradery, the viewer of a sarcophagus reads the visual text of the relief. The deliberately selected narrative moments shown in these reliefs act in the same way as the carefully selected words in an author’s eulogy or sympathy letter; they acknowledge the loss of the deceased and encourage the viewer to mourn and move forward with life. Mythological reliefs found on Roman sarcophagi were intended to be read specifically as texts without words, which acted as aids to mourning for the loved ones of the deceased.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MYTH

Mythological narratives fulfilled many roles in the lives of ancient people. They provided origin stories, offered explanations for the human condition, and legitimized religious rituals.8 Due to the significance of myth in antiquity they were widely explored across various art forms, including literature, drama, and sculpture. Their importance is especially evident through the decoration of funerary monuments and memorials, where depictions of these narratives left a personal and permanent message. Classical mythology has been used for the decoration of funerary art in ancient Greece since the ninth century B.C. and was used in Rome during the time of the Roman Empire. Due to their cultural significance, contemporary audiences would have been extremely familiar with the details of these mythological stories and would have easily recognized and interpreted them when viewed. The same characters and stories were repeatedly used in a funerary context, although their functions varied depending on time and geographic location. The iconography of Roman sarcophagi was no exception. After a cultural shift at the beginning of the second century A.D., in which Roman funerary custom changed and the preferred form of burial shifted from cremation to inhumation, the majority of sarcophagi commissioned for the next century-and-a-half displayed reliefs that depicted either individual characters or full scenes from common myths.9

There are several characteristics shared between the mythological narratives discussed in detail below. The stories of Adonis and Niobe deal with the death of a youthful character or characters who are all innocent, greatly favored by a deity, and undergo a tragic end that seems to end their lives prematurely. Any of these aspects can be read as tools to help the viewer of a sarcophagus mourn. For example, the emphasis placed on divine favor shown to the protagonist may be interpreted as a statement about the deceased’s personal favor from the same deity. The emphasis on youth and innocence in the mythological narrative communicates to the viewer that many people experience premature loss, and that few are ready for this particular tragedy when it arrives. It also allows the viewer to compare their loved ones to innocent mythological characters, which would have encouraged him to remember the deceased in the same way, as pure and beloved. Each of these aspects succeeds in creating an iconographic relief that acts as a consolation to be read by its viewer.

PRIOR RESEARCH

The idea of interpreting the reliefs on sarcophagi as being used by the living as mourning aids, understood here as a tool intended to help the living come to terms with their grief and move forward with their lives, is treated by art historians Paul Zanker and Björn C. Ewald in their work Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi. These authors explain that the sculptor of the sarcophagus placed specific emphases on mythological characters or scenes in order to make clearly conveyable statements concerning death or grief.10 The classicist and ancient historian Zahra Newby also makes a similar claim and asserts that “all Roman funerary monuments sought to speak out to their viewers, presenting a message about those buried within or some consolation to those left behind.”11 Funerary art was as much a means to make a specific statement to society as it was to decorate a place of burial.

Specific myths sculpted on sarcophagi from the second century A.D. and their deliberately altered details indicate that these stories were often used to offer consolation to the loved ones of the deceased and to urge them forward in their lives. The discussion within this paper primarily uses Zanker and Ewald’s publication as a basis for discussion and interpretation of mythological iconographic narratives on Roman sarcophagi. This paper parallels the authors’ interpretational approach of reading the deliberate narrative moments selected from familiar mythological iconography on sarcophagi, and furthers their argument for how these visual messages were made to function as aids to mourning. Zanker elaborates this point with his discussion of sarcophagus decoration as literary and notes that “the numerous mythological reliefs are to be understood as a type of funerary poetry in pictures.”12 The images found on sarcophagi reliefs were created as a new form of text, and the mythological narratives that they displayed were read by the viewer. In the same way that consolatory texts such as eulogies, panegyrics, or personal letters are written to provide comfort to their audience, mythological iconography on sarcophagi relief was meant to console its audience as well. Other authors offer important frameworks for approaching this medium and its iconographic message. For example, art historian Genevieve Gessert provides an artistic approach to how the depictions of myths are interpreted as consolations to the viewer. This interpretation adds to the scholarship regarding mythological narratives functioning as aids to mourning in antiquity. Her work is especially beneficial because she relates relief sculpture to literature, specifically consolatory texts.13 Gessert explains that her manner “of visual analysis and new theories of funerary iconography...transcends the sarcophagi themselves, looking not only to other visual media, but also to related literary genres such as eulogy, tragedy, and letters of consolation.”

CONSOLATION AS AN ART FORM

Consolation, the comfort or solace one receives after suffering some form of loss or disappointment, is best understood as a unique and distinct art form. The idea of “consolation” as its own artistic form is most commonly seen in literature, where it exists as its own genre: “As a genre, the consolation is described as ‘writings of a philosophic bent, whose authors either try to dissuade individuals from grieving in the face of misfortune, or proffer general counsel on overcoming adversity.’”15 This method of interpreting art as consolation, or as an aid to mourning, can be applied to virtually any form of art. The interpretation applies to the decoration of sarcophagi directly in two ways: first, sarcophagi are funerary monuments, created for moments of great sorrow and transition, so it makes sense that their viewers would need to be consoled—they are art pieces that never function separately from tragedy and death; second, since sarcophagi present all their statements visually, the viewer was intended to read the decoration of sarcophagi as though it were itself rhetorical and literary. The common messages about death and consolation found in literary texts were transcribed to sarcophagi. Now these messages could be read without words, from the stone, as “the range of attitudes towards death found in these [consolatory] texts... are likely to be expressed among the diverse imagery on Roman sarcophagi.”16 Just as the numerous literary texts about death in the ancient world had many purposes, mythological relief on sarcophagi could have been interpreted as intending a number of things.

The idea of written consolations extends to the “texts” of sarcophagi. The way in which a reader would analyze a consolatory text is applicable to the way in which the viewer of a sarcophagus “reads” the mythological iconography of the monument’s relief. Just as texts are deliberate and intended to be purposeful and understood in specific ways, so are these reliefs; they are also, however, open to interpretation because no one reads a text or relief in exactly the same way. The consolation art form extends past being merely a literary genre and is correctly applied to visual art pieces as well.17 Relief sculptors used mythological narratives to provide viewers of sarcophagi with a specific reading of the stories they had been familiar with their whole lives, while allowing them to also interpret them in a personal way. These images provide consolation, but the exact way in which this consolation is interpreted and understood by the viewer varies based on how he individually interprets the choice of myth and emphasizes details of the relief. The interpretation of mythological iconography found in sculpted relief on Roman sarcophagi extends the literary genre of consolation beyond texts and demonstrates its use on a purely visual art form.

MYTHOLOGICAL NARRATIVES

The mythological characters and narratives that decorated Roman sarcophagi did not originate in Rome and varied greatly. The two myths of Adonis and Niobe are both Greek in origin and were later adapted and adopted into the Roman tradition. While each of the myths existed in several forms and were retold by various authors, they were made famous by the Latin poet Ovid in his work the Metamorphoses.18

When mythological narratives were used artistically, they were considered paradigms by the artist.19 Mythological stories typically followed a standard pattern or model—reflected in their iconography—which made it possible for the audience to easily recognize the story told. This means that the sculptor of a sarcophagus already had a partially predetermined image in mind when selecting mythological narratives for his relief work. Conventional iconography used in relief sculpture narratives would be modified, or new emphases would be added, because “the traditional stories we call myths used to be manipulated and adapted from the very beginning, always in relation to the special interest of an individual or group.”20 This practice made it so that the story was still discernible to the viewer, but in a unique and exciting way.

When interpreting mythological iconography, one must consider that myths “were constantly in flux ever since they were first created, with parts of them dismissed or ignored, altered, or added to make them ft the occasion and the message they were meant to illustrate or support.”21 As a result, if a relief sculptor wanted to communicate a certain message within an already-established mythological narrative, he had to be deliberate in his choice concerning the characters or scenes he would emphasize or alter; this is because he was “dealing with an intentional manipulation of the myths and their iconographies in order to make them ft the messages that the sarcophagi’s patron now wanted to convey.”22 This manner of artistic depiction presupposed a familiarity with the conventional narrative by the viewers of the sarcophagus. The sculptor was making the assumption that his audience would be able to recognize the differences or special emphases he had chosen to make within the scene.23 Additionally, the artist assumed that his audience would make inferences about these changes.24 The artwork spoke for itself, as Zanker notes, because “the image carries the message, and it must be comprehensible in and of itself.”25 The sculptor’s goal was to implement changes or insert details that would be immediately obvious to the relief’s viewer, forcing them to interpret them in a new and particular way.

Given that the sculptor had particular expectations about his clients and viewers, it was most likely only the aristocracy who would have been able to perceive these changes in the artwork, as they were the only members of the community with the time and education to properly view and evaluate the relief work of the sarcophagus and compare the depicted myth to other artistic examples of it. This, however, was not of great consequence, because even if the average Roman was unable to detect specific, nuanced changes, he would have at least recognized the narrative and been able to deduce some related meaning. Although commissioners and sculptors had an intended meaning or message in mind when choosing their iconographic mythological modifications, there was always room for personal interpretation of the relief. Because mythological narratives were seen in so many contexts in antiquity, and “Romans grew up steeped in mythological stories,” the viewer of these stories would have been able to read them in a personal or unique way.26

SARCOPHAGI ICONOGRAPHY READ AS AIDS TO MOURNING

The commissioning of Roman sarcophagi gained popularity in the second century A.D., when Roman society began the widespread practice of inhumation as the preferred means of treating the dead. The reason for this change in social practice is unclear and still debated by scholars.27 The construction of marble sarcophagi required both immense skill to craft and decorate and a great amount of manual labor, as the production of a single sarcophagus could take four sculptors up to a year to complete. While all of these funerary art pieces were expensive, their exact cost rose based on the amount of detail and the quality of both its marble and its relief decoration. The commissioning of these sarcophagi was an important process, because Romans viewed them as “a monument filled with meaning, not just a container for a corpse.”28 The commissioning itself was important, but the design of the reliefs was even more so because sarcophagi “present their message by visual means alone.”29These sarcophagi were typically purchased by a person of close relation to the deceased, who then selected a particular motif for the monument’s iconography.30 After the burial, Roman sarcophagi, although always outside of the city, could be found in various locations, from “open-air monuments and mausoleums, to catacomb hypogea, wall niches, and arcosolia,” and occasionally buried in the ground.31 Although sarcophagi could have been found in any of these places, it was common that they were situated in a location in which their decoration could be seen.

Sarcophagi reliefs that functioned as mourning aids to the viewer can be divided into two groups. The frst includes iconography directly related to death or dying.32 Scenes of this type often focused on a particular state of mind of a character or characters in a myth, allowing for the audience to associate themselves with the character’s role in their narrative. This association enabled a direct connection to be made visually between the gods and heroes found in myths and the deceased family member or friend. This strategy would have delivered specific messages to the sarcophagi’s audience. For the last two decades, scholars have discussed the decoration of sarcophagi as “visual rhetoric,” comparing it to “speeches delivered at funerals,” explaining that “while these orations praised and lamented the deceased in words, the mythological images did the same in visual form.”33 The frst of these messages would have been about the deceased himself. The viewer was intended to attribute the qualities of the mythological characters to the deceased. As Gessart notes, these depictions made it possible for “particular virtues of the deceased to be portrayed,” in particular those qualities “especially prized by the patrons” who were commissioning the sarcophagus.34 This would have implied that whoever was buried was heroic, virtuous, innocent, beloved, etc.

The second of these messages would have been related to the family or those closely associated with the deceased. Family members, upon seeing their relative depicted as and emulating the qualities of a mythological character, would have also understood these qualities as being connected to themselves because of their close relationship to the deceased. As Newby writes, “funerary monuments, many of which were commissioned by a bereaved relative and often celebrate both deceased and commissioner,” are understood as “presenting a message about the surviving spouse, child or parent no less than the dead relative.”35 If the viewers related themselves to the heroic or virtuous aspects of a mythological character, they would have been reminded and encouraged to continue to live well and not to remain overwhelmed by grief.36

Additionally, depictions of death scenes from myth reminded viewers that dying is an inevitable part of life. These images were successful in acting as aids to mourning as “the consolation consists in the insight that death simply is the fate of mortal men; that even the greatest and the heroes of old could not escape it; and that others have suffered more terrible losses than the present bereaved.”37 This reminder helped give the loved ones of the deceased perspective in the face of their sad reality and would have moved them toward acceptance and a desire to move forward. Depending on the viewer’s personal beliefs, perhaps he was consoled by the idea of seeing the deceased again in the afterlife or that he was in some supernatural way still present.

Mythological scenes that depicted a character dying or in death were also used to remind the audience that there are worse fates the deceased could have suffered; their deaths could have been comparable to the horrific demise of a mythological character. Mythological images involving death and dying are typically gruesome and devastating; vivid examples include Adonis being gored by a wild boar or the young children of Niobe being slaughtered. In seeing a scene of this nature depicted on sarcophagi, the viewer would have been comforted that the death of his loved one was not this catastrophic, at the very least.38 Vivid and gruesome iconography made a clear statement that while the personal tragedy experienced by the viewer was difficult, it paled in comparison to the horrors that were retold in the myths.

The second group of sarcophagi reliefs that are interpreted as consolatory includes scenes that either demonstrate or allude to the joys of life.39 An example of this second group is found in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, which has a sarcophagus depicting the god Dionysus with Ariadne, the princess he had just rescued. This scene is generally interpreted as the moment before she was woken from her unconscious state to meet and marry the god. The Romans saw this as a metaphor for the transition between life and death.40 The meaning of this message would have provided comfort to the viewers of the relief because they would have imagined their loved one as transitioning to a different state after death, where he would hopefully exist peacefully. The mythological moment is also hopeful; though Ariadne was abandoned, she is no longer alone and now has deities favoring her. This would have left the viewers with a positive and hopeful outlook, both for themselves moving forward and for the deceased existing in a possible afterlife. This clear message reminded the loved ones of the deceased—not only that he had enjoyed his life on earth, but also that they still had joys to return to, despite their recent loss.

Fig. 1. Marble Sarcophagus titled as “Sarcophagus with Dionysus and Ariadne.” Roman [c 190-200 AD]. From Walters Art Museum Online Catalog. https://art.thewalters.org/ detail/23618/sarcophagus-with-dionysus-and-ariadne/.

MYTH OF ADONIS

One of the mythological narratives that was frequently depicted on Roman sarcophagi is the tale of Adonis. This myth is understood to be oriental in origin, later absorbed into the ancient Greek mythological canon, and finally adapted by the Romans.42 A common Roman rendition of the myth of Adonis was written by the epic poet, Ovid, in his work the Metamorphoses.43

The tale of Adonis begins with the incestuous union of Myrrha and King Cinyras.44 Myrrha was overcome with passion for her father and deceived him into sleeping with her. When he realized he had been tricked, King Cinyras drove Myrrha from the palace. Filled with shame, the girl then begged the gods to take her life. Her wish was fulfilled; Myrrha, transformed into a tree, then gave birth to Adonis, the result of this union. Adonis grew up favored by the gods. Venus, one of the deities that had an affinity for Adonis, warned him about the dangers of hunting. The young boy, however, was intrigued by the boar hunt and proceeded with the activity despite warnings from the goddess. In the most commonly recounted version of the myth, Adonis was killed by a wild boar.45 He died in the arms of the goddess and was then transformed into a flower.46

The scenes of Adonis being attacked and killed by a wild boar and his death in the arms of Venus are the ones typically depicted on sarcophagi from this mythological narrative in the second century A.D. This first example of this scene can be seen in Mantua, at the Ducal Palace, which houses the front panel of the Sarcophagus with a Myth of Aphrodite and Adonis. In this relief scene, the character of Adonis appears to be falling back, apparently having been gored. He is surrounded by a number of companions on all sides. Vegetation frames the scene, making it clear these events are taking place in the woods. The boar appears immediately in front of Adonis, to the right, which makes it clear the attack is taking place or just ending. Other animals typically found in the hunt, such as dogs used for hunting, are present around the feet of the boar. The other main character of the scene, Venus, seems to be making a fustered entrance from the left side of the relief. As described by Koortbojian, she has “seemingly inherited the position, the pose, and the gestures of one of the hunters.”47 The viewer can imagine her raised arm as “poised to hurl his weapon,” a gesture believed by scholars to be “a sign of her horror and an expression of her grief.”48

The scene of Adonis’s violent death falls into the first category of mourning aids, which directly relates to the death of the character. In seeing the gruesome death of Adonis, the viewers of the sarcophagi would have been able to contextualize the death of their own loved one. The deceased would be paralleled with Adonis, an excited and athletic youth undergoing a dangerous and ritualistic activity. The viewer would have associated attributes of the deceased with those of Adonis: youthful, brave, and adventure-seeking. This would have allowed the loved ones visiting the burial space to remember the character of the deceased, providing comfort as they mourned his death.

The commissioner of a sarcophagus decorated with the relief of Adonis either attacked or dying chose this specific moment for its narrative impact. The scene is displayed very similarly to how it is read in myth, but the artist deliberately chose to emphasize these gruesome details of the story because their direct relation to death would have had a cathartic effect on the viewer, who would immediately feel connected to the tragedy of the narrative. This direct confrontation with the tragedy of the situation was then followed by context and consolation. Just as one is forced to face the reality of loss during funerary rituals or when listening to a eulogy, the viewer must accept the occurrence of death. The message here, written in sculptural relief, does not leave the audience with its grief but rather acknowledges the life of the deceased and encourages the viewers to move forward. The specific moment of narrative used here ought to be read in the same manner in which one would read a consolatory text—as a means to face grief and begin healing.

The second moment in the narrative, Adonis meeting death in the arms of the goddess, corresponds with the second category regarding mourning, which reminds the viewer of the joys of life. An example of this can be seen on the Adonis and Aphrodite sarcophagus at the Casino Rospigliosi in Rome. The goddess and her beloved youth are shown to the far left of the register on the same scale, with the deity resting her hand on Adonis’ chest as he comes to the end of his life.49 Following the violent attack by the boar, Adonis’ final rest in the arms of the goddess was peaceful. He is held in his last moments by the goddess that favored and cared for him in his real mother’s absence.50 The viewer of this scene would have imagined his loved one in the place of Adonis, comforted in death (regardless of its cause), and going on to rest peacefully with the knowledge that he was loved and would be remembered. The viewer also would have been consoled by the realization that death is inescapable for all. The message communicated here is that “even a beautiful, brave hero like Adonis, loved by the goddess of love herself, had to die.”51 This would remind the viewer of the sarcophagus that while death may be sad, and possibly tragic or premature, it is a natural and inevitable aspect of life; this would have consoled the viewer and propelled him forward in his own life.

MYTH OF NIOBE

The tale of Niobe is a tragic story, the outcome of which is the result of her arrogance before the gods.52 Niobe was the wife of Amphion, who was said to be of an important lineage, and together they had a great kingdom and several children.53 In Ovid’s account of her story, Niobe is advised to worship the goddess Latona and praise her two children, Apollo and Diana. Niobe, however, refuses this advice and mocks the people who choose to follow it. She even goes so far as to express the idea that the people should worship her, in place of Latona. Niobe’s obvious arrogance and dismissal of Latona enrages the goddess, and she sends her children, Apollo and Diana, to seek revenge against Niobe. All of Niobe’s children are slain inside the palace of their parents, and all the others who were present are turned into stone. The myth ends with Niobe existing, even as stone, in constant misery over the loss of her children.

When this mythological narrative was used on sarcophagi relief, the iconographic emphasis was sometimes—though infrequently—placed on the grief of Niobe.54 Niobe is always seen in a state of overwhelming emotion over the loss of her children, but the depiction of the death of the Niobids is what the viewer focuses on more closely. This focus provided the audience with a visual example of overwhelming grief. Upon seeing Niobe’s sorrow, the viewer could feel more capable in confronting his own loss. Not only would the viewer realize that the fate of his loved one could have been much worse, but also that his own fate could have been much worse. For example, he, as a survivor, could have lost several loved ones at once, as Niobe did in the myth, instead of just one. Whatever tragedy took the life of the deceased and whatever sorrow remained in this life for the viewer of the sarcophagus, it surely paled in comparison to the tragedy experienced by Niobe over the gruesome end of all her children. It was much more common, however, for the iconography used in reliefs to place visual emphasis on the horrendous killing of Niobe’s children.55 The depiction of the slaughter of Niobe’s children is an example of the first category of reliefs intended to act as aids to mourning: those that directly portray death or dying. This can be seen on the Fragmentary sarcophagus front and lid depicting the Slaughter of the Niobids from the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Although only the front of the sarcophagus lid and a frontal portion of its chest survive, the mythological scene is still easily discernible. The full scene, which shows the moment of slaughter of Niobe’s children by Apollo and Diana, is distributed between the reliefs of both the lid and the chest. On the lid of the sarcophagus, Apollo and Diana flank the left and right sides respectively and are shown aiming at the characters below them. In the center of the lid, the king of the gods, Zeus, is shown. To the left of Zeus is the goddess Athena, depicted with Apollo and Diana (pictured again) as children. Between Apollo and Diana, the other figures accompany Zeus as representations of the Olympian gods. The ends of the relief are flanked by figurines of male heads, which have open mouths, wide eyes, and curly hair. They also have wings in their hair on the crowns of their heads. Some art historians interpret these figures as personifications of the winds; however, their exact meaning is not clear.56

The chest of the sarcophagus shows the dying children of Niobe looking upward at the gods who are bringing about their terrible fate. Older figures in this scene appear to support the bodies of the children. Amphion, the father of Niobe’s children, is shown as one of these older characters to the left of the relief. He appears kneeling on the ground, gently holding the chest of a fallen girl. Although the right side of the relief is lost, scholars believe that Niobe herself would have been depicted, also holding one of her children.57

Fig. 2. Marble sarcophagus titled “Fragmentary sarcophagus front and lid depicting The Slaughter of the Niobids.” Roman [c.end of the 2nd century AD]. From RISD Museum Online Catalog. https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/fragmentary-sarcophagus-front-and-lid-depicting-slaughter-niobids-21076

The emphasis on the actual death taking place in the narrative may be read in a number of different ways. First, and most obviously, these scenes would have served as laments for the dead. Upon seeing the murder of Niobe’s children, the viewer’s initial reaction would have been to remember the deceased’s last moments and to experience grief over his death. Because the relief portrays death as something occurring in the present, the viewer would have also felt this immediacy, as though he was lamenting something that had just happened; grief would have been felt by the sarcophagus’s visitor.

Second, the iconographic portrayal of dying or death would have been interpreted as a commentary on the mental state of characters within the scene.59 When the viewer saw Niobe’s dead children and recalled that their deaths were no fault of their own, he would have reflected upon the innocence of the children and the shock regarding their death. This iconographic choice was a way to understand and come to terms with the passing of the deceased. While the family member’s death may have been shocking or difficult to understand, the viewer would have been consoled by the notion that all deaths—even those recounted in myths—are inevitable and beyond mortal control. It also would have been comforting for the visitor to compare the deceased to the children of Niobe. The deceased was not taken from this life through any fault of his own, but because some outside force took him. This fate was inevitable.

Third, the depiction of the dying or death of Niobe’s children would have highlighted the horrendous end to the myth and would have acted as a reminder to the viewer that, more often than not, one’s fate could be worse. No matter the tragedy that befell the visitor’s loved one, it was most likely not nearly as tragic as the murder of several innocent children at the hands of the gods for the sins of their mother. As a result, the individual visiting the sarcophagus would have been able to rationalize the events of their loved one’s death and compare the fate of their loved one to the mythological characters, realizing that their fate could have been worse; in this way, this iconography may function as a way to take steps towards resolving the viewer’s own grief.

Regardless of which of the three interpretations the viewer applied to the immediate scene of the Niobids’ death, it was read as a consolation. In each of the above instances the sarcophagi reliefs urged the viewer to contemplate some aspect of the deceased or the present situation and reflect upon it. This forced acknowledgment of tragedy and the acceptance that followed gave some context and relief to the viewer. As he read the visual text sculpted in relief, he was encouraged to grieve and continue forward.

CONCLUSION

Funerary practice is often for the consolation of those the deceased has left behind rather than for the deceased themselves. Surviving family and friends needed a means of expressing their grief and coming to terms with loss. The satirist Lucian draws attention to the common practice of mourning by mocking the loved ones of the deceased for their expressions of grief, which the dead were not there to experience or appreciate.60 For example, after detailing the excessive way mourners tear their clothes, scratch their cheeks, and wail, Lucian mocks the loved one that delivers the eulogy, saying “he does all this melodramatic ranting,” but not on account of the deceased or even himself.61 In fact, “it is on account of the others present that he talks this nonsense, when he does not know what has happened to his son nor where he has gone.” 62 With this idea in mind, it becomes easy to interpret sarcophagi reliefs as not only artistic objects, but also as functional; they are aids to mourning. The relief decoration would have been what the viewer of the monument most focused on and contemplated at the burial site, so it makes sense that this decoration would be intended to provide consolation to the viewer and help him move on, as this was what he most needed during the tragic experience of losing a loved one.

Upon seeing a tragic or gruesome death scene, the grieving viewer would experience a sense of community as he realized that everyone experiences loss; alternately, he would experience a sense of comfort as the tragedy experienced by his loved one was not so grave as that depicted in relief before him. Both of these experiences would have allowed for feelings of grief, but would have also served as an encouragement for the viewer to move forward and continue on with life. Interpreting the sarcophagi reliefs in this way, they parallel the art form of consolation which presents a message of comfort for those suffering loss or hardship. The specifically chosen mythological narratives depicted in these reliefs provided consolation to the loved ones of the deceased and aided them in continuing on in the present life.

Report abuse