Sarcophagus with the Myth of Adonis

Roman art

This relief was the front of a sarcophagus with scenes of the myth of Adonis, only the left portion of which survives. It was recorded in 1808 in ‘the citrus garden’ of the Villa; in 1832 in Room VIII and, lastly, in 1854 in its current location in the Portico.

In the Metamorphosis, Ovid told of the love between Venus and the young Adonis, who was mortally wounded by a wild boar during a hunt.

On the sarcophagus, the story, which unfolds over a series of episodes, was interpreted by Nibby in 1832 as running from left to right, while Robert read it in the opposite direction, from right to left, in 1897. The wild boar is entirely missing and was probably depicted in the right-hand side of the relief.  The theme was very popular in Roman art in wall painting and also, starting in the second century CE, in sarcophagus production, as attested by numerous replicas.

Scholars agree that it likely dates to the Antonine period.

Object details

Commentary

‘Adonis is dying, Cytherea; what shall we do?

Beat your breasts, maidens, and rend your tunics’

(Sappho, frag. 140)

Zoega recorded the relief in 1808, ‘in the citrus garden to the east’ (App. Fol. 246); later, in 1832, Nibby reported that it was in Room VIII of the Villa (p. 132, no. 8). It was listed in the Portico in 1854 (Indicazione, p. 7, no. 25).

It is the left half of the front of a sarcophagus with scenes from the myth of Adonis, a young prince of Paphos, loved by Venus. Ovid tells the story of how a mischievous Cupid pierced the breast of his mother, Venus, with one of his arrows, making her fall hopelessly in love with Adonis. The young man’s passion for the hunt worried Venus, who was afraid he would encounter ferocious beasts. The goddess’s fears proved justified: despite her pleading, her beloved went out hunting with his companions and was fatally wounded by a wild boar. ‘When, from the heights, she saw the lifeless body, lying in its own blood, she leapt down, tearing her clothes, and tearing at her hair, as well, and beat at her breasts with fierce hands, complaining to the fates’. Ovid continues, ‘in less than an hour, a flower, of the colour of blood, was created’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10:519–552, 708–739).

According to Nibby, the scene depicts two different episodes. On the left, an amorous encounter between the goddess and the youth in the presence of the faithful dog and young Eros. On the right, the tragic epilogue of the hunt, with the wounded young man, surrounded by his companions. In 1897, Robert instead proposed a reading from right to left, identifying three episodes. The first, the attack of the wild boat, was lost. The second, the wounded young man. The third, the goddess by the side of the dying youth (pp. 11–12, no. 9, pl. II, 9). Grassinger agreed with this theory, specifying that within each episode, in itself independent, the action starts on the left (1999, pp. 71–72).

On the left, Venus is sitting on a rock under a long swath of fabric called a parapetasma. The goddess is wearing a high-girdled chiton under a mantle called a himation, gathered in soft folds on her lap. She is caressing Adonis’s face with her right hand. This gesture reveals her concern for her young lover, who is portrayed half dressed, covered by drapery that wraps from his left arm behind his body to his right leg. There is a crouching dog and a small Eros at the couple’s feet, looking up at the young man. In the middle of the composition, there are four armed men, looking mournfully at the ground. The right-hand side of the relief is heavily restored and very probably included the wild boar: Adonis is reclining on the ground, holding his wounded leg with his right hand. His arm, which must have originally been raised up in a gesture of defence against the animal, is now stretched out along his side. The figure is shown in heroic nudity, except for a length of fabric draped over his left arm. His right arm is held out from his side, and he holds a sword in his right hand. Behind him, there are two hunters. The one on the left is holding a spear (reconstructed based on the original trace of the support) in his left hand and a stone in his right, ready to throw, probably at the wild boar. The right-hand side of the figure on the right is heavily restored and its pose is out of step with the rest of the scene, with the head turned to the left and the right hand raised. His left arm extends along his body, and he holds a spear in his hand.

The scene on the right seems to be taking place indoors, or in a confined space, and the one on the right seems to be outdoors. These different settings are evoked on the two ends of the panel by depictions of hanging drapery on the left and a stone pillar on the right.

The myth enjoyed broad popularity in the Roman world and was especially common in wall painting. It is depicted in a room of the Domus Aurea and, in Pompeii, in the houses of Adonis, the Tragic Poet, Meleager and the Surgeon. In the second century CE, the iconographic subject was widely used to decorate sarcophagi as a representation of ἱερὸς γάμος, the sacred union between the human and the divine. In the funerary sphere, the symbolic union of the goddess and the young man seems to have expressed the negation of the distance between heaven and earth and rendered the idea of the eternal return possible.  The narration of the myth in funerary monuments through a sequence of evocative episodes with minor variants seems to attest to a shared archetype (Felletti-Maj 1958, p. 70). Among the numerous surviving exemplars, the one that seems closest to the Borghese relief is a sarcophagus in the Louvre with a similar division of figures and composition for the scene of the hunt, except for the of the wild boar and the seated Venus (Servais Soyez 1981, p. 226, no. 38).

Grassinger noted the heavy use of the drill for Adonis’s hair and the folds of the clothing, leading him to date the work to between 160 and 170 CE, although this dating still needs to be confirmed.

Giulia Ciccarello