Roman sarcophagi with mythological imagery provide a rich source for the study of visual culture of the Roman Empire. However, having flourished for about 150 years, in the course of the third century a.d. mythological images on Roman sarcophagi vanish. It is this ‘death of myth on Roman sarcophagi’ that the present volume addresses. While this process of ‘demythologisation’ has been touched upon earlier by different scholars (mostly in German), the present volume offers the first extensive study explicitly dedicated to the phenomenon.
The book is organised in two parts. After a concise introduction to Roman sarcophagi, their development until the mid-third century and the history of research in the field, the first four chapters are dedicated to a scrupulous discussion of earlier explanations for the abandonment of mythological imagery on Roman sarcophagi: the rise of Christianity (ch. 1), the replacement of mythological scenes by bucolic images as an expression of élite retreat (ch. 2), the general crisis of the Roman empire in the third century (ch. 3), or, alternatively, the rise of an arte popolare that replaced the allegedly more complex mythological imagery. Step by step, Allen convincingly argues that none of these explanations is sufficient.
In the second part of the volume, the author turns to his own line of argument. Ch. 5 focuses on isolated mythological figures on frieze sarcophagi. Earlier scholars have taken this phenomenon to be the first step towards demythologisation of Roman sarcophagi in the mid-third century. However, as A. reasonably argues, both phenomena should be addressed separately: on the one hand, the narrative potential of mythological scenes did not only depend on the number of figures or scenes depicted. To stress this point, the author rightly hints at the category of sculpture in the round that is usually composed of one or two figures only. On the other hand, isolated mythological figures were a common feature of strigillated sarcophagi already in the Antonine period. Therefore, A. convincingly concludes that extensive visual narratives and isolated mythological figures were simply conceived as two different options by the sculptors of sarcophagi and their clients (154).
Ch. 6 focuses on the similarities and differences between mythological scenes and scenes of everyday life on sarcophagi. The author argues that depictions of Romans hunting lions or leading military campaigns against barbarians were quite possibly used for the commemoration of people who were not involved in these activities in real life. Therefore, he argues that the allegedly biographical depictions were actually no more real than mythological images. While this argument seems generally debatable, A. draws the conclusion that mythological images and themes taken from real life were functionally equivalent (179). This interpretation deviates remarkably from the opinion of other scholars who have argued that mythological images provided an opportunity for the rendition of exceptional psychological situations and strong emotions whose depiction in real life scenes was considered inadequate due to preponderant social norms (see Zanker, in Hölkeskamp and Rüsen (eds), Sinn (in) der Antike. Orientierungssysteme, Leitbilder und Wertkonzepte im Altertum (2003), 335–55; Russenberger, Der Tod und die Mädchen (2015), 202–18).
Ch. 7 offers the conclusions the author draws from his previous considerations. In a holistic anthropological approach, A. develops an inspiring new interpretation for the phenomenon of demythologisation. He argues that the end of mythological imagery on sarcophagi resulted from a new desire to keep the dead close to the sphere of the living. As recent investigations by Jochen Griesbach illustrate, from the third century a.d. onwards graves were no longer separated spatially from domestic spaces such as villas, but became an integral part of them. Accordingly, A. argues that the omission of mythological imagery was meant to ensure that the deceased were no longer linked to a remote past. This interpretation seems particularly convincing since it helps to explain why mythological imagery disappeared from the sepulchral sphere while at the same time it continued to flourish in the domestic realm. In addition, this perspective sheds new light on the phenomenon of mythological portraits that is a prominent feature of mythological sarcophagi from the later Antonine and the Severan periods. Whereas earlier scholars have taken mythological portraits to be the final step in the continuous decline of mythological sarcophagi, according to A. the combination of mythological figures with portrait features of the deceased marks the culmination of the adaptation of myth for the sepulchral sphere. Thus, according to the author, the phenomenon of demythologisation marks an abrupt paradigm shift in the conception of death and the deceased rather than the result of a continuous linear process. In order to strengthen this hypothesis even further, it might be promising to investigate whether the same picture can be seen in complementary literary sources such as grave epigrams.
The final chapter 8 is dedicated to the subsequent development of Christian sarcophagi between the mid-third and the mid-fourth centuries. A. justly points out that, with regard to the principle of continuous narrative, sarcophagi with scenes from the biography of Jesus are similar to pagan pieces depicting the deeds of Hercules. Nevertheless, A. highlights the conceptual difference between pagan and Christian sarcophagi. Whereas the former were used to offer a mythological comparison for the deceased, according to A. the latter functioned as an expression of the Christian belief in resurrection (230).
Generally, the volume offers a welcome contribution to the study of Roman sarcophagi. Here and there, A.'s interpretation of individual pieces unnecessarily deviates from the results of recent scholarship (e.g. in the case of the Pianabella sarcophagus in Ostia: 154–5, fig. 11, and the Rinuccini sarcophagus in Berlin: 171–2, fig. 50). Nevertheless, the book offers an inspiring new interpretation of a complex cultural phenomenon, that has puzzled scholars for about a century.
