Adonis, who sprang from a myrth tree - I
Just like most of the two-dozen or so surviving Adonis sarcophagi, the sarcophagus relief contains three scenes showing Adonis’ farewell to Aphrodite, the boar injuring him, and Aphrodite tending the dying Adonis. However, the episodes are not illustrated in the order they have in the myth, because the ‘tending’ scene has been placed in the center of the frieze. It is only in this scene that Aphrodite and Adonis have been given portrait features; in the other scenes they have ‘ideal’ faces.
The upper frieze depicting the Oedipus’ myth is not pertinent to the Adonis’ sarcophagus.
Adonis’ Myth:
Adonis’ birth is the result of a terrible incest: Myrrha falls in love with her own father and is made pregnant by him. She is forced to flee and wanders despairing through the world until a god hears her entreaties and turns Myrrha into the tree that takes her name.
According to the myth, the name Adonis means “who sprang from a myrrh tree”. He was so handsome that he conquered even the goddess of love herself. In vain she warned her beloved, a passionate hunter, to take care: during a hunt Adonis was wounded by a boar and died (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.301—559, 707—39).
Vatican Adonis’ Sarcophagus:
The central wound-tending scene has been drastically recast as a representative, almost ceremonial image: an enthroned Aphrodite and her mortal lover sit next to each other like a pair of statues, in a curtained-off inner room. Adonis sits there rigid and his posture makes the disaster appear rather minor. A cupid kneeling at the feet of the hero is washing his bloodied leg over a basin, while,. In addition, an old man with a beard is pressing a sponge onto the thigh-wound in a somewhat formal and uninvolved manner. The reason for this change to the wound-tending scene is plain: the heads of Adonis and his beloved have been given the portrait features of a Roman couple, who wanted to make clear their virtues and their deep bond. The youthful features of this ‘Adonis’ could suggest that—as in the myth—he died before his wife, from an accident or illness, and that she may well still have been alive when the sarcophagus was made.
The left third of the frieze shows Adonis bidding farewell to Aphrodite as he departs for the hunt, which we have seen before. Aphrodite holds out her right arm as if she is speaking, and at the same time touches the breast of her beloved; Adonis has his right hand, holding an ear of corn, resting on her knee. A servant leading the horse is already beginning to move off and has turned to look back at the couple; the head of another servant is visible in the background.
The tragic hunting accident is illustrated in the right-hand third of the frieze. Adonis, his left arm raised in defense and carrying his spear in his right hand, has collapsed wounded. Two hunting companions are trying in vain to fight off the boar with stones and spears. A cupid is beckoning to Aphrodite, who is rushing out of the gates of her palace, gesturing in horror as she realizes what has happened. She appears just in time to witness the disaster, but too late to prevent it. Even the mountain god sitting in the upper corner of the image has lifted his right arm in horror.
The portraits of the couple in the central scene belong to the middle-to-late Severan period, and date the sarcophagus to around the year 220; the portrait of the ‘Aphrodite’ is very comparable to the likeness of Iulia Maesa (sister-in-law of the emperor Septimus Severus).
The sarcophagus was found along with a Hippolytus sarcophagus made in the same Roman workshop, in the so-called Tomb of the Pancratii on the Via Latina in Rome. The sarcophagi were probably originally used for members of the same family.
Source: Zanker P. & Ewald BC., Living the Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi
Marble sarcophagus
Ca. 220 AD
Vatican City State, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Profano
Adonis, who sprang from a myrth tree - I
Just like most of the two-dozen or so surviving Adonis sarcophagi, the sarcophagus relief contains three scenes showing Adonis’ farewell to Aphrodite, the boar injuring him, and Aphrodite tending the dying Adonis. However, the episodes are not illustrated in the order they have in the myth, because the ‘tending’ scene has been placed in the center of the frieze. It is only in this scene that Aphrodite and Adonis have been given portrait features; in the other scenes they have ‘ideal’ faces.
The upper frieze depicting the Oedipus’ myth is not pertinent to the Adonis’ sarcophagus.
Adonis’ Myth:
Adonis’ birth is the result of a terrible incest: Myrrha falls in love with her own father and is made pregnant by him. She is forced to flee and wanders despairing through the world until a god hears her entreaties and turns Myrrha into the tree that takes her name.
According to the myth, the name Adonis means “who sprang from a myrrh tree”. He was so handsome that he conquered even the goddess of love herself. In vain she warned her beloved, a passionate hunter, to take care: during a hunt Adonis was wounded by a boar and died (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.301—559, 707—39).
Vatican Adonis’ Sarcophagus:
The central wound-tending scene has been drastically recast as a representative, almost ceremonial image: an enthroned Aphrodite and her mortal lover sit next to each other like a pair of statues, in a curtained-off inner room. Adonis sits there rigid and his posture makes the disaster appear rather minor. A cupid kneeling at the feet of the hero is washing his bloodied leg over a basin, while,. In addition, an old man with a beard is pressing a sponge onto the thigh-wound in a somewhat formal and uninvolved manner. The reason for this change to the wound-tending scene is plain: the heads of Adonis and his beloved have been given the portrait features of a Roman couple, who wanted to make clear their virtues and their deep bond. The youthful features of this ‘Adonis’ could suggest that—as in the myth—he died before his wife, from an accident or illness, and that she may well still have been alive when the sarcophagus was made.
The left third of the frieze shows Adonis bidding farewell to Aphrodite as he departs for the hunt, which we have seen before. Aphrodite holds out her right arm as if she is speaking, and at the same time touches the breast of her beloved; Adonis has his right hand, holding an ear of corn, resting on her knee. A servant leading the horse is already beginning to move off and has turned to look back at the couple; the head of another servant is visible in the background.
The tragic hunting accident is illustrated in the right-hand third of the frieze. Adonis, his left arm raised in defense and carrying his spear in his right hand, has collapsed wounded. Two hunting companions are trying in vain to fight off the boar with stones and spears. A cupid is beckoning to Aphrodite, who is rushing out of the gates of her palace, gesturing in horror as she realizes what has happened. She appears just in time to witness the disaster, but too late to prevent it. Even the mountain god sitting in the upper corner of the image has lifted his right arm in horror.
The portraits of the couple in the central scene belong to the middle-to-late Severan period, and date the sarcophagus to around the year 220; the portrait of the ‘Aphrodite’ is very comparable to the likeness of Iulia Maesa (sister-in-law of the emperor Septimus Severus).
The sarcophagus was found along with a Hippolytus sarcophagus made in the same Roman workshop, in the so-called Tomb of the Pancratii on the Via Latina in Rome. The sarcophagi were probably originally used for members of the same family.
Source: Zanker P. & Ewald BC., Living the Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi
Marble sarcophagus
Ca. 220 AD
Vatican City State, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Profano