Vatican Museums

The deceased is depicted on the lid, semi-reclining on a bed (kline) as if participating in a banquet, comfortably supported by a double cushion, dressed in a long tunic, adorned with jewels and comforted by a flabellum. However, the head veiled with a cape recalls that this is no longer the world of men, but rather the underworld, evoked also by the pomegranate held in the left hand – Persephone, queen of the underworld, holds this fruit as an attribute.
In the scene of the apparition or funeral rites on the casket, the deceased appears again on a draped kline, a reference to the funerary bed, while behind there is a servant holding a trunk, alluding to the preparations for the final voyage. On the right, a man and a woman witness the scene, while the man standing on the left is a symbolic reference to a different iconographic series, again on the funerary theme; or rather, the appearance of the husband who died before her, thus symbolising the reunion of the two spouses beyond the grave.
As a result of restoration works, traces have been found of the original lively polychrome decoration that embellished the sculpted stone, of the type that we are able to observe on small terracotta urns [cf. Cinerary Urn of the Tomb of the Ceicna; Cinerary Urn of Thana Heluśnei].