Endymion and Selene

3rd century
Sarcophagus frontal
Metropolitan Museum of Art

In classical mythology Endymion was beloved by Selene, the goddess of the moon. When she saw him lying so beautiful in his sleep, she asked Zeus to give him eternal life. He did, but unfortunately he made Endymion live forever in sleep. Endymion's pose here was a familiar way for classical artists to express that a mythological subject was asleep and can be seen in images of other figures from classical mythology. It was adapted by Christian artists portraying the sleep of Jonah in Jonah 4:5-8.

Read more about images of Jonah.

Source: Marie-Lan Nguyen via this page at Wikimedia Commons.