Sarcophagus Lid with a Reclining Couple in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007

Marble sarcophagus lid with reclining couple
Roman, Severan period, ca. 220

Accession # 1993.11.1

The couple are shown as semidivine personifications of water and earth. Like Hellenistic and Roman images of river gods, the bare-chested man holds a long reed, and a lizard-like creature crouches beside him. The woman holds a garland and two sheaves of what, attributes of Tellus, goddess of the earth. At her feet is a furry-tailed mammal with a small Eros on its back. While the man's head is carefully portrayed, his wife's head has been left unfinished, suggesting that he predeceased her, and no one added her portrait after she died.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.