Marble Sarcophagus: The Myth Of Theseus And Ariadne
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The marble sarcophagus with garland and the myth of Theseus and Ariadne can be found at the Metropolitan Museum in New your City. The sarcophagus was created in Rome around 130-150 A.D. The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek words “flesh” and “eating.” What makes this sarcophagus unique is that this piece was found in Rome, yet the story of the child eating beast called the Minotaur is from Knossos. This shows that how the Mediterranean Sea connected many coulters and how the stories reached around the Mediterranean area. The sarcophagus is carved delicately and is shows an amazing story from Knossos. The sarcophagus has a unique detail that the average person would not see if they were to walk by it, not knowing that the story and imagery used all has a purpose to tell a story about life and death.…show more content… All the characters craved out are craved in an archaic style. The sarcophagus imagery is very proportional each winged erote is separated by the same distance and that holds true for the story of Theseus and Ariadne. All the figures depicted are also symmetrical having all body parts proportional. At some point in time one can image this peace being fully colored. This must have been commissioned by someone very wealthy because of the amount of detail put into this piece and the material used marble, luni, and pentelic. The person was also probably very educated and interested in Greek mythology because one would need money to study something like Greek mythology in Rome. After the persons death they would be placed in the sarcophagus. The historical context of the sarcophagus is that it also shows that Christianity has yet to come into the Roman Empire. The romans were still believing in pagan gods. Only the wealthy who were able to study mythology were able to interpret the pagan gods and describe their