Cyclops by Mercedes Aguirre & Richard Buxton

Author:Mercedes Aguirre & Richard Buxton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192524423
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

A relief on a sarcophagus in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove in Rome (Cat. 67 (Fig. 8.2)) gives us a not unfamiliar view of Polyphemus and Galatea, but also includes a rare image of Acis.26 The Cyclops, partly draped in an animal skin, sits on a rock, while the semi-naked Galatea is in the sea on a dolphin: no surprises there. But above and to the left is a small, reclining masculine figure leaning his left arm on a jar, from which water flows. This must be Acis as river god—the ‘end’ (as it were) of the myth. By contrast, the Polyphemus/Galatea scene belongs to the ‘middle’. He courts her by offering a young animal, maybe a bear cub or a lamb; her self-revealing posture hardly implies a definite ‘no’.

Fig. 8.2. Acis, Galatea, Polyphemus. Sarcophagus in Rome, 2nd cent. ce.

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