Composition and Evolution of the Main Mythological Subjects in Reliefs of Roman Sarcophagi of the 2nd Century AD

Although Roman sarcophagi are well studied, there is an ongoing academic rethinking of this type of monument. Sarcophagi are an example of art created for the elite of Roman society. They mark the high social status and wealth of the client, as well as his financial success, because the production of a sarcophagus cost the same amount as the salary of a high-ranking officer. Epigraphic evidence showed that those buried in sarcophagi belonged to different social categories, from rich freedmen to senators, which is evidence of the prestige of the sarcophagus, that this monument marked the belonging of the deceased and his family to the elite of society. The emergence of a new type of sculptural work such as a sarcophagus is always associated with the search for formal and iconographic solutions that would correlate with the function of the monument, both literal - the preservation of the body - and symbolic, determined by Roman ritual tradition, fashion and the cultural codes of the Antonine era. Mythological sarcophagi are characterised by an attempt to depict an extended narrative, which in addition to its narrative functions must contain a number of signs, the interpretation of which will relate not only and not so much to the depicted scenes, but also to the memorial culture. The object of the study is mythological reliefs of Roman sarcophagi of the second century AD. The subject of the study is the processes of composition as well as the transformation of those mythological plots which became the most used in the decoration of Roman sarcophagi during the period in question. The main hypothesis of the study assumes that sarcophagus makers turned to a wide range of visual and textual sources, which in addition to inherent plastic and semantic solutions change based on the specifics of the sarcophagus format, as well as on modern formal trends which change in sculpture throughout the second century. The sarcophagus conveys many ideas on which Roman consciousness was based: it can not only show possible role models in society, represent philosophical values, religious notions, but also build an independent narrative, at the expense of iconographic and formal solutions, which "tell" the story, becoming not so much a visualisation of a text, but rather a text that exists in sculpture, "ut pictura poesis". The first chapter briefly describes the culture of the second century and how mythological stories were perceived at that time. The second chapter provides an overview and analysis of the sarcophagi, divided into groups according to the subjects depicted. In addition to dividing the monuments on the basis of their iconography, the suggested visual sources will be chosen and a hypothetical sequence of the works will be given, allowing the transformation of the subjects over the course of the second century to be seen. The third chapter will briefly describe the reception of mythological sarcophagi in the third century, a time when the stylistics and iconography of the subjects undergo considerable change. The appendix contains summary tables for each of the subjects, as well as a text dealing with popular second- and third-century plotless compositions.