Marble_Sarcophagus_with_the_Myth_of_Selene_and_Endymion

Matt Schroeder Writing assignment 2 Marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion The story on the sarcophagus is about the love of Selene and Endymion. Selene is the moon goddess and Endymion is a young beautiful man that is a shepherd. Selene fell in love with Endymion after Selene saw him asleep in a grotto on top of Mount Latmos. Selene visited Endymion for many nights. Finally Endymion was given eternal youth and he was put into eternal sleep. Selene did this to him so she could be with him forever. This sarcophagus also contains another story of love. This story is between a god and a mortal woman. The story is about the myth of Psyche and Cupid. Cupid is the god of love and he is the son of Venus who is the goddess of love. The mortal woman’s name is Psyche and is extremely beautiful. Psyche’s beauty causes Venus to become very jealous. Venus sends Cupid to trick Psyche to fall in love with an ugly man. However, Cupid starts to fall in love with Psyche himself. Cupid then decides to hide her in a beautiful palace. He visits Psyche every night but is hidden by the darkness of the night so she does not know who he actually is. On one night Psyche decides to hide an oil lamp so she can see who is watching her from the darkness. Cupid falls asleep sometime throughout the night. Psyche then went over with the oil lamp to see who it is and discovers that it is Cupid. She accidently drops some of the oil from the lamp onto Cupid. He escapes and goes back to his mother Venus. Psyche then appeals for Venus’s forgiveness. Venus gives her a list of impossible tasks for Psyche to do to gain her forgiveness. Cupid then convinces the God Jupiter to help plead their case to Venus. Jupiter is successful and Psyche is granted immortality and is married to Cupid. On the front side of the sarcophagus there are carved figures and animals that cover the top and bottom and include each end. The lower carvings are carved in very deep relief. This section of the sarcophagus shows the goddess of the moon, Selene, going over the Endymion. This section starts on the left side and has Selene stepping out of her chariot that is being pulled by two horses. The horses are facing to the left and one is behind the other one. Selene’s drapery has many folds in it and it is bunched at her waist and is hung over her left shoulder. Her upper body faces outward towards the viewer but her legs and head are turned to the right. Her head is turned to the right to base the viewers attention to the naked man lying stretched out on the ground. This is Endymion and he takes up more than one fourth of the space on the sarcophagus. His body is rested on his left elbow and his right arm is behind his head. His body faces the viewer and his head is turned away to the left. He looks like he is sleeping or getting ready to sleep. Over top of Endymion is a winged, robed female. She is the goddess of Night. She is holding a stalk of poppy seed pods. She is holding the stalk with her left arm and she is pouring them in to a horn held in her right hand. The horn is meant to be drunk from by Endymion to put him to sleep. Around the three figures are six nude winged boys. They are very small so they could be cupids. There are three of these boys on each side of Selene. One of the boys is on top of the horses holding there mains and another one is standing on Selene’s chariot. Four of the small winged boys are holding torches. The torches are used to light Endymion. All but one of the nude boys is looking at Selene or Endymion. On the left side of the Selene’s horses there is a female figure that has the reins of the horses in her left hand which is raised above her head. In her right hand she has a whip. Underneath Selene’s horses there is another female figure lying on the ground. Her face is looking towards Endymion and she is holding a snake in her right hand. Her left hand disappears behind the horse’s body. To the right of the two women is a bearded man whose is faced towards Selene. His head is faced down at a dog that is in front of him. He pets the dog with his right hand. He is wearing some sort of satchel around his left shoulder. Above the man there are two sheep and a goat that are laying down looking towards Selene. There is also a smaller sheep right below where the man is sitting. It is also face towards Selene. On both sides of the sarcophagus are two large lion heads they both have their mouths opened up. Beneath the lion head and right next to the man with the beard stands Cupid and Psyche. Cupid is on the right of Psyche. He is nude and has small wings. Psyche looks like she is wearing a dress and both of the figures are holding each other. Psyche is touching Cupids neck with her right hand and Cupid is touching Psyche’s stomach with his left hand .On the rounded sides of the sarcophagus there are two figures. One is the sun god Helios and the other is Selene. On the top of the lid in the very center there is a square panel. The panel is inscribed for a deceased woman. There is also a bust portrait of the woman. She is facing the viewer and has her arms crossed. The portrait of the woman does not look like it was carved by the same person who carved the other part of the sarcophagus. Alongside of the bust portrait of the woman and the inscribed panel are nine other senses. There are four to the right of the panel and three to the right of the portrait. There does not seem to be a real setting in theses carvings on the sarcophagus. All of the figures seem to be doing different things at different times. There are no boarders in the main part of the sarcophagus so it is somewhat hard to see what is going on. Also the figures overlap a lot so that also makes it difficult to see what is going on. The sense seems to be connected by Greek myth. The relationships of the figures look like they are very attracted to each other or want to always be near or touching the figure they like.