Sarcophagus of the Triumph of Bacchus (Lyon)
Encyclopedia
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
of Carrara marble. The style and high quality of its reliefs and the choice of Bacchus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
triumphing over India as its subject suggest it came from a Roman workshop and possibly dates to the start of the 3rd century, from the reign of Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
to that of Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
. It was rediscovered around 1800 on the Saint-Just hill in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, during the rebuilding of the église Saint-Irénée. At that time it was broken into three pieces and reburied 4m below the church's staircase, from where it was exhumed in 1824 by A. Comarmond during restoration work on the church. It is now in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon
Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon
The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon is a museum on the Gallo-Roman civilisation in Lyon , previously located in the heart of the Roman city and now sited near the city's Roman theatre on the Fourvière hill, half-buried into the hillside on the edge of the archaeological site. The new building was...
.
Scheme
The sarcophagus's relief represents the mythological scene of Bacchus's triumph over the Indies in his youth. It is made up of two registers. One is vertical, with a group of figures around the central figure of PanPan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
looking backwards and wearing a nebris (a panther skin, a symbolic attribute like Bacchus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
's deerskin or Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
's lion skin), and the other horizontal from top to bottom, with genre scenes. A child-Pan stands between Pan's legs, holding a lagobolon (a stick used for hunting hare) and playing the flute.
Either side of Pan is a group of six figures. On the left hand side of the relief is Bacchus in his triumphal chariot, decorated with acanthus
Acanthus (ornament)
The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration.-Architecture:In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to...
foliage and drawn by two panthers (his favoured animals) in the foreground. He holds his thyrsus
Thyrsus
In Greek mythology, a thyrsus or thyrsos was a staff of giant fennel covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone. These staffs were carried by Dionysus and his followers. Euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the...
in his right hand and wears a royal tunic as worn by Hellenistic sovereigns and a woman's chiton
Chiton
Chitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
covered by a nebris belted at the waist. He is crowned by a Victory standing behind him and holding a palm in her left hand. To Bacchus's right sits Ariadne, crowned with foliage but with her body partly hidden by a Bacchante.
The right hand group illustrates Bacchus's triumph over India with exotic figures - captives wearing a short tunic, mantle and barbarian German trousers and with braided hairstyles. One of them rides an elephant whose trunk and tusks were carved in very high relief and have not survived. The elephant's face is covered in corymbs, his body is covered in a net and his neck bears a bell. Between the elephant's forefeet is a lion, and behind him are exotic animals from the Orient and Africa - camels, lions, panthers, giraffes and other elephants. To the extreme left is Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
in his lionskin, trying to approach a nymph who pushs her right hand against his shoulder. He appears to struggle but is supported by a satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
. Hercules's drunkenness is associated with the cult of Bacchus and (having travelled to the ends of the earth) his presence is another indicator of a foreign land. The link between Bacchus and Hercules is confirmed by the figure of Silenus
Silenus
In Greek mythology, Silenus was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus.-Evolution of the character:The original Silenus resembled a folklore man of the forest with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse...
.
In the top right corner is a shepherd lying between two goats and accompanied by a genius loci
Genius loci
In classical Roman religion a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding a Cornucopia, patera and/or a snake. There are many Roman altars found in Western Europe dedicated in whole or in part to the particular Genius Loci...
. The space between the main figures is occupied by smaller elements, such as squatting goats. The short sides of the sarcophagus are carved in bas relief - the left side has a smiling Pan or satyr holding a lagobolon and a flute, with a stone cyst with a serpent slithering from it and with a bacchante next to him playing a tambourine; on the right side is a satyr approaching a Bacchante before a garlanded altar with fruits and pine cones.