Ancient Roman statuary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: IL SARCOFAGO DI ENDIMIONE, da Ostia (Rogers Fund, 1947) -- Found at Ostia in 1825

Speranza

Marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion
Period: Severan
Date: early 3rd century A.D.
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: H. 72.39 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1947
Accession Number: 47.100.4a, b
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162

An inscription at the center of the lid informs us that this trough-shaped sarcofago (literally 'flesh-eater') was dedicated to a woman named Arria, who lived fifty years and ten months, by her daughter Aninia Hilara.

Arria’s portrait is carved just to the right of the inscription.

The story of ENDIMIONE is shown in strongly undercut relief on the front of the sarcophagus.

In the center, Selene, the moon goddess, alights from her chariot to visit her beloved, the shepherd Endymion, who reclines at the right.

Endymion, most beautiful of men, has been granted eternal youth and eternal sleep.

A female figure stands over him, pouring out the magic potion of immortality and holding a bunch of sleep-inducing poppies.

The scene is flanked on the left end of the sarcophagus by a rising Helios, the sun god, and on the right by a descending Selene, each in a chariot. On the back, a bucolic scene with herdsmen among grazing bulls and unyoked horses is cut in low relief. Allusions to the changeless cycle of nature are combined with a myth of fulfillment through unending sleep.

Provenance
Found at Ostia in 1825


References:

Matz, F.
1957. "An Endymion Sarcophagus Rediscovered."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15, pp. 124-28.

McCann, A.
1978. Roman Sarcophagi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 4, pp. 21-22, 24, 36, 39-44, 97,106, 110, 119, 121-22, figs. 35-41.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987.
Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 114, pp. 146-47.

Sorabella, J.
2001. "A Roman Sarcophagus and its Patron."
 Metropolitan Museum Journal 36: pp. 67-79, figs. 1-5, 8.

Picon, Carlos A., et al. 2007.
Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 456, pp. 391, 494-95.

Zanker, P. 2012.
"Reading Images without Texts on Roman Sarcophagi."
Res: Sarcophagi 61/62: pp. 170-2, fig. 4.