Musei Capitolini: The Rape of Persephone I
The sarcophagus
On the left side, Demeter is searching for her daughter abducted by Hades. She is standing on a chariot drawn by snakes, her right hand holds a torch, the left a scepter; her loose hair are a sign of mourning.
The second scene shows the main characters: Hades and Persephone. The god of the Underworld, holding his scepter, suddenly appears to Persephone while she is gathering flowers with other goddesses. The two female figures on the sides of Hades are Aphrodite and Artemis. While the latter grabs her bow, the goddess of love, characterized by a diadem on her hair, raises her right hand to encourage Persephone.
The central scene of the abduction occupies two thirds of the whole surface. While in the previous scene the face of Persephone is rendered by using idealized traits, in this scene she is portrayed with well-characterized physiognomic features. Here the goddess has the features of the dead woman, therefore, the owner of the sarcophagus becomes the bride of Hades. Her position carved exactly in the center of the sarcophagus confirms this hypothesis. Differently to other sarcophagi describing this myth, there is no trace of the violent abduction of the goddess. Persephone, embraced by Hades, is standing as a charioteer on his chariot: she runs to meet her fate, holding with her hand the mantle swollen by the wind. The two figures of Athena and Hermes, the latter located in front of the horses, belong to the traditional iconography of the myth. On the contrary, two new characters are introduced on the far right side. They are Heracles, portrayed with mantle and club, and Nike who is running towards the chariot of Hades. Near the legs of Heracles there is Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld, whose presence recalls the hero’s twelfth labor. This circumstance suggests that the figure of Heracles, inserted just in the right corner of the relief, symbolizes the point of separation between the world of the living and that of the dead.
A rich set of characters is carved in the lower part of the sarcophagus, at the feet of the main characters. They cannot be neglected because their presence inscribes the described event inside a cosmic dimension.
Starting from left, Tellus, the Earth Mother Goddess, is easily recognizable under the chariot of Hades. The bearded character under the chariot of Hades may represent either a "Genius Locii" or Oceanus. Further to the right a second bearded character emerges from the ground raising his arms. This figure, surrounded by snakes, can be identified as a death demon, probably as "Ianitor Orci", who opens the ground in front of Hades' chariot. A fourth enigmatic figure, apparently female, appears from the ground putting her right hand over the mouth; this character could be “Lethe”, the personification of oblivion.
The "bright and vibrant" style of the bas-relief is, definitely, posterior to the Severian age. The sarcophagus dates from the second quarter of the third century AD.
Source, Zanker P. e Wwald B.C., “Vivere con I Miti – L’iconografia dei sarcophagi romani”
Greek marble sarcophagus
Heigh 62 cm, Length 218 cm, Width 64,5 cm.
225 – 240 AD.
Rome, Museo Capitolini, Palazzo dei Conservatori
Musei Capitolini: The Rape of Persephone I
The sarcophagus
On the left side, Demeter is searching for her daughter abducted by Hades. She is standing on a chariot drawn by snakes, her right hand holds a torch, the left a scepter; her loose hair are a sign of mourning.
The second scene shows the main characters: Hades and Persephone. The god of the Underworld, holding his scepter, suddenly appears to Persephone while she is gathering flowers with other goddesses. The two female figures on the sides of Hades are Aphrodite and Artemis. While the latter grabs her bow, the goddess of love, characterized by a diadem on her hair, raises her right hand to encourage Persephone.
The central scene of the abduction occupies two thirds of the whole surface. While in the previous scene the face of Persephone is rendered by using idealized traits, in this scene she is portrayed with well-characterized physiognomic features. Here the goddess has the features of the dead woman, therefore, the owner of the sarcophagus becomes the bride of Hades. Her position carved exactly in the center of the sarcophagus confirms this hypothesis. Differently to other sarcophagi describing this myth, there is no trace of the violent abduction of the goddess. Persephone, embraced by Hades, is standing as a charioteer on his chariot: she runs to meet her fate, holding with her hand the mantle swollen by the wind. The two figures of Athena and Hermes, the latter located in front of the horses, belong to the traditional iconography of the myth. On the contrary, two new characters are introduced on the far right side. They are Heracles, portrayed with mantle and club, and Nike who is running towards the chariot of Hades. Near the legs of Heracles there is Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld, whose presence recalls the hero’s twelfth labor. This circumstance suggests that the figure of Heracles, inserted just in the right corner of the relief, symbolizes the point of separation between the world of the living and that of the dead.
A rich set of characters is carved in the lower part of the sarcophagus, at the feet of the main characters. They cannot be neglected because their presence inscribes the described event inside a cosmic dimension.
Starting from left, Tellus, the Earth Mother Goddess, is easily recognizable under the chariot of Hades. The bearded character under the chariot of Hades may represent either a "Genius Locii" or Oceanus. Further to the right a second bearded character emerges from the ground raising his arms. This figure, surrounded by snakes, can be identified as a death demon, probably as "Ianitor Orci", who opens the ground in front of Hades' chariot. A fourth enigmatic figure, apparently female, appears from the ground putting her right hand over the mouth; this character could be “Lethe”, the personification of oblivion.
The "bright and vibrant" style of the bas-relief is, definitely, posterior to the Severian age. The sarcophagus dates from the second quarter of the third century AD.
Source, Zanker P. e Wwald B.C., “Vivere con I Miti – L’iconografia dei sarcophagi romani”
Greek marble sarcophagus
Heigh 62 cm, Length 218 cm, Width 64,5 cm.
225 – 240 AD.
Rome, Museo Capitolini, Palazzo dei Conservatori