Sarcophagus of the Oresteia

A tragic Greek myth, the revenge of Orestes, decorates this sarcophagus imported from Rome. Its reliefs narrate the deaths of Clytemnestra and the traitor Aegisthus, his father Agamemnon’s murderers, the hero’s arrival at Delphi hounded by the Furies, and his appearance before the Athenian court at the Aeropagus, where Athena’s vote acquits him. The chosen theme emphasises the dead man’s erudition, a sign of prestige and authority.