6. In the Guise of Gods and Heroes: Portrait Heads on Roman Mythological Sarcophagi

Newby, Zahra

doi:10.1515/9783110216783.189

Cited by 23 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…548. On how portraits control (and 'tie down'), as well as enhance, the messages of mythological representations, see especially Newby 2011;2014: 280. See also Zanker and Ewald 2012: 39-44. For further discussion of portraits on sarcophagi and what they do for death, see Huskinson 1998: 131;Platt 2011: 377-84;Elsner 2012a: 179-80;Platt 2017: 379-80.…”

Section: Dying Like Adonis (Or a N Other)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Death by Analogy: Identity Crises on a Roman Sarcophagus

Clifford

2023

J. Rom. Stud.

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This article examines how images on a sarcophagus involved Roman viewers in processes of thinking by analogy and so invited them to engage in meditation on death. This more thanatological slant is sidelined in current approaches that emphasise how exemplary figures on sarcophagi consoled the bereaved and praised the dead. Building on these approaches, together with work on the mediating role played by artefacts in thought, this article proposes that analogies on sarcophagi also invited the living to think about their own death and the possibilities and limitations of analogy for thanatological reflection. It argues, further, that sarcophagi should be read more expansively, allowing for figures and scenes to have more than one identity rather than collapsing them into one: this multiplicity reinforces meditation on death. The article focuses on Roman sarcophagi that feature Adonis, with emphasis on the Rinuccini sarcophagus; this unusual sarcophagus explicitly juxtaposes real-life and mythological scenes.

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Section: Dying Like Adonis (Or a N Other)mentioning

confidence: 99%