Marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion

Marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An inscription at the center of the lid informs us that this trough-shaped sarcophagus 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 Endymion 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.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and EndymionMarble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and EndymionMarble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and EndymionMarble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and EndymionMarble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.