Der Tod und die Mädchen

why was the bloody struggle between the Amazons and Greeks among the most popular subjects for depiction on Roman sarcophagi? Were the persons who commissioned them thinking about the glorious victory of the Greeks – or were they interested in the very opposite: the gruesome death suffered by the beautiful female warriors? This study uses the extensive corpus of Amazon sarcophageal imagery as a source for examining key aspects of the history of bodies and the history of representations of violence. It provides insight into the radical transformation in ways of dealing with grief and death that took place toward the end of the ancient era.