Fragment of a Roman sarcophagus

In the walls of Terracina (Italy), built in the late ancient period, it is inserted this fragment of a Roman sarcophagus from the imperial age. In it we note a maenad (a bacchanal) that dances and whose movements, in sculpture, are well expressed by the fluttering of the cloths of her dress. Meanwhile, playing a tambourine, he observes a satyr to his left. The satyr appears with his right hand on his side holding a thyrsus and his hand left side up on what looks like a fragment of a cartouche (probably epigraphic) about the deceased. On this cartouche, given the difficulty of analyzing it due to its height from terrain, no epigraphic letter could be detected. The whole scene probably illustrated the representation of a bacchanal. The Maenads (in ancient Greek: μαινάς [-άδος, ἡ]), also called Bacchantes, Tiads or Mimallonids, they were women in the grip of the ecstatic frenzy possessed by Dionysus, the god of life force e in classical iconography they are often depicted as the object of desire of satyrs.