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Sleep and Death Cista Handle
400–375 BCE
- Medium
- bronze
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- with base: 18.5 x 18.3 cm (7 5/16 x 7 3/16 in.); without base: 14 x 17.4 cm (5 1/2 x 6 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- Etruscan
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Greek and Roman Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Designed for attachment to the lid of a large bronze cista, a cylindrical lidded box, these three figures probably represent Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) holding the body of Sarpedon. A son of Zeus who helped to defend Troy from invading Greek forces, "godlike Sarpedon of the brazen helmet" fell at the hands of Patroclus, as told by Homer in Book XVI of the Iliad. Apollo then intervened to protect the body, removing it from danger and entrusting it to the two winged deities, as depicted here and in a number of other ancient artworks, Greek and Etruscan alike. If not Sarpedon, the fallen warrior could be Memnon, the son of Eos and Tithonos slain by Achilles.
