The Sarcophagus of Adelphia: Detail, third scene on the lid

Statue of Polyhymnia at the Achilleion palace, Corfu
This scene features the enthroned figure to which the woman in the previous scene was casting her gaze. We see a veiled woman in tunic and pallium acclaimed by four women similarly dressed – one lying on the floor, two standing behind her, and the fourth standing on the right with the finger-on-the-lip gesture that in classical iconography identifies Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred poetry and of eloquence.

As explained in the page for the whole sarcophagus, one school of thought holds that the woman on the throne is the Virgin Mary, who receives the Angel Gabriel in the first scene on the lid and is led toward the throne in the second. This theory would necessitate positing a later date for the lid than for the case, which by its style is thought to be from the second quarter of the 4th century, too early for a cult of Mary. Nor does it explain the visual allusion to Polyhymnia.

On the other hand if the woman on the throne is Sophia, Wisdom, as another school of thought would hold, it would make perfect sense for her to be accompanied by a figure representing eloquence in matters divine. The second theory would also explain why the featured woman in the second scene is casting her gaze at the woman on the throne: Conducted into the presence of divine Wisdom after a life of seeking wisdom herself, she is given a place at the feet of Sophia, no longer in the humble weeds of her earthly life but wearing the pallium like the others.

In Christian typology Wisdom is Christ, the gender difference notwithstanding. So in the second theory the decedent would be taking her place in Heaven at the feet of the Lord. If the lid is in fact contemporaneous with the case, it may be no accident that directly below this scene of Adelphia at the feet of Wisdom is the woman with the flow of blood kneeling at the feet of Jesus, who in the Vulgate Matthew says, Confide filia fides tua te salvam fecit, "Courage daughter, your faith has saved you" (9:22).

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Sarcophagus photographed at the Syracuse Archeological Museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.