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Roman

Fragmentary sarcophagus front and lid depicting The Slaughter of the Niobids, end of the 2nd century CE

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Roman

Title

Fragmentary sarcophagus front and lid depicting The Slaughter of the Niobids

Year

end of the 2nd century CE

Medium

Marble

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • white marble

Dimensions

88.3 x 251.3 x 29.2 cm (34 3/4 x 98 15/16 x 11 1/2 inches) (front panel)

Type

  • Sculpture

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund

Object Number

21.076

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selected Works

Classical Sculpture

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries

Only the fronts of this sarcophagus’s lid and chest survive; together they show the slaughter of Niobe’s children by the gods Apollo and Diana (the Greek Apollo and Artemis). Niobe, a mortal woman with fourteen children, demanded more honor than Leto, mother of the two deities. To punish Niobe’s pride (hubris), Apollo and Diana killed all of her children.

On the lid of the sarcophagus, Apollo stands at left and Diana at right, both taking aim at the persons portrayed in the scene below. Between them are Olympian deities, including the central figure of Zeus, king of the gods. To the left of Zeus, Athena stands with Apollo and Diana, depicted as children. On either end of the relief is a bearded male head with an open mouth and wings in his hair. The heads may be personifications of the winds, but their meaning remains unclear.

On the chest, Niobe’s dying children gaze up at the vengeful gods. Older figures support the fallen children, including their father, Amphion, on the left. Presumably, the missing portion on the right showed Niobe herself. The myth was popular from the classical age of Greece to the end of the Roman Empire.

Weiss Ancient Art Gallery

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Fragmentary sarcophagus front and lid depicting The Slaughter of the Niobids with the accession number of 21.076. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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