Roman

This fragment of a sarcophagus, a Roman coffin, is carved with a dramatic high relief scene from the myth of Medea, as told by the 5th-century b.c. Greek playwright Euripides. A sorceress and princess, Medea helped the Greek hero Jason to win the Golden Fleece. They wed and had two children together. When a few years later, Jason forsakes her for a new wife, Medea, unhinged by jealousy, revenges herself by killing their two sons. The sarcophagus shows the climactic scene as Medea flies away with her children’s bodies in a chariot drawn by dragons. This is probably the right-most of three scenes framed by garlands of fruit and wheat; the middle garland may have framed a portrait of the deceased.

 

Marble, about A.D. 130
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 2005.320