Exploring the Etruscan Sleep and Death Cista Handle
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University of Nebraska, Omaha**We aren't endorsed by this school
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ART MISC
Subject
Arts & Humanities
Date
Dec 12, 2024
Pages
6
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SLEEP AND DEATH CISTA HANDLEI have not received or given excessive aid for this paper/project nor have I copied someone else’swork. I have given proper credit to all the sources that I have used in the assignment.Hannah-Grace Northam
Sleep and Death Cista Handle400-375 B.C. (Early 4thCentury BC, Etruscan)- Classical Period.Materials: BronzeScale: With base it is 18.5 x 18.3 cm. Without base it is 14 x 17.4 cm. The figures of Thanatos and Hypnos, the gods of Death and Sleep, are used as a handle which is attached to a cista. A cista is a cylindrical lidded box and was used as a toiletries container. Oncethought to be just a basket, Praenestine cistae held a variety of things, but mainly beautification items (Ramage 2015, 65). The Sleep and Death cista handle is made from bronze, and the bodies of Thanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep) are opposite each other, each carrying Sarpedon’s body.Hypnos is the younger twin holding Sarpedon’s feet and Thanatos is the older twin holding Sarpedon’s torso. There is the use of symmetry and the feeling of Death is imbued within the artwork, as seen with the listlessness of the hanging hair of the dead Sarpedon. Thanatos and Hypnos’ figures are limber and flexible, with their wings protruding from their back that are decorated with intricate linework. They seem to be wearing the Greek plumed helmets, and they almost mirror each other’s pose. They each have their legs slightly bent, with one leg behind the other, mimicking the strain of carrying Sarpedon. They each rest on a solid bronze base with a small ring in the middle of them.Remains of chains or straps have been found in these handle rings in several instances, and it shows us that they probably fastened the lid with rings and chains on the side of the cista (Wunderlich 1945, 39-46). Their helmets are also intricately decorated with engraved lines and patterns that mimic the horsehair of the plume. Sarpedon himself is fully nude and lies with his body relaxed, displaying the dead weight of his body. 1
According to Homer’s Iliad, Sarpedon was a hero of the Trojan war, a Lycian king, and a son of Zeus. He was killed by the spear of Patroclus, who was a Greek warrior. Zeus directs Hermes to call on both Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) to the scene of battle where Sarpedon was mortally wounded. Patroclus withdrew the spear embedded in Sarpedon and with it, Sarpedon’s soul. There was a struggle over the body of the fallen king, so Zeus had Apollo rescue the corpse, who cleaned and anointed his body, and delivered it to Hypnos and Thanatos, who took his body back to Lycia for funeral honors (Homer 1996). In antiquity, sleep and death have always been closely associated in literature, society, and art. Homer makes Sleep and Death twins, and the writers Hesiod and Xenophon remark on their similarity. Hellenistic funerary epigrams use sleep as a euphemism for death, and in art, the personifications of Sleep and Death are either represented together or if they are shown individually, they are often almost indistinguishable. The god Eros, the representation of love and life, is often associated with Thanatos through Hypnos. This is because Eros is seen as being able to overcome anyone he wants, but with Hypnos, or sleep, even Eros himself cannot resist it’s power. This is further expressed with the intimacy between the relationship of sleep, love, and death in funerary use, such as statues of sleeping Eros being used for tombs of children (Stafford 1991, 105–120). In the ancient Greek word, a common conception was that at the time of death, the soul was separated from the body and had to go to the Underworld, and it was Thanatos’ role to bring the soul of the dead to the underworld so Charon could transport the soul across the river Styx. Hypnos was commonly associated with Thanatos in the transfer of the soul, and that therefore raises the question of why Hypnos and Thanatos were associated so closely. Obviously, sleep and death have a common unresponsiveness and immobility of the body, and therefore sleep is a 2
possible transitional state between life and death. Sleep overcomes the fatigue of the body and brings loss of awareness to the mind, so ancient Greek mythology also associated Hypnos with the river of forgetfulness, Lethe (Bresson 2013, 1257-1258).The Etruscans took this story from Greek culture and there is a Greek vase called the EuphroniosKrater or Sarpedon Krater and it was created around 515 B.C. The Krater was actually looted from an Etruscan tomb near Cerveteri in 1971 and through time and a long process, it was eventually moved to the Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri as part of a strategy of returning works of art to their place of origin. The Sarpedon Krater is a painted bowl that was used for mixing wine with water and one side of the krater is painted with Hermes directing Thanatos and Hypnos to carry Sarpedon’s body to hishomeland for his burial (Hawkins 1976, 1163-1181). As we can see with the handle, a similar scene is playing out on the top of the cista and the story itself is from Greek mythology and not Etruscan mythology, so the Etruscans didn’t come up with this idea themselves and adopted it for their own purpose. What the purpose was with this scene used for a cista handle, I am not certain, but I do believe it definitely has to do with the idea of life after death and shows an example of the strong link between Greek and Etruscan cultures.3
Bibliography1.Bresson, Julie. “Anesthesia, Sleep and Death: From Mythology to the Operating Room.” Anesthesia & Analgesia. vol 117. (2013): 1257-1258.2.Hawkins, Ashton. “The Euphronios Krater at the Metropolitan Museum: A Question of Provenance.” Hastings L.J. vol 27. (1976): 1163-11813.Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fagles. City: Viking. 1996.4.Ntaidou, T K, and I Siempos. “The art of providing anesthesia in Greek mythology.” Anesthesia and intensive care vol. 40 (2012): 22-7.5.Ramage, Andrew and Ramage, Nancy H.. Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine. (2015): 656.Stafford, Emma J. “Aspects of Sleep in Hellenistic Sculpture.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, no. 38. (1991): 105–120. 7.Wunderlich, Silvia A. "A Bronze Cista Handle." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 32. 4 (1945): 39-46. 4
Sleep and Death Cista Handle, Cleveland Museum of Art5