A new and very large full-figure funerary portrait relief has been excavated in Pompeii, in the necropolis just outside the Porta Sarno at the east end of the town. The portrait relief is around 2 meters tall, carved out of tufa stone. It has the shape of a huge stela. It was placed on top of a stone base, which was half under ground, and contained a number of niches. Each niche contained a columella, a flat and strongly stylised portrait head relief, and the burnt remains of the person portrayed. The full-figure portrait reliefs positioned at the top of the tomb are fascinating and important for the understanding of Republican funerary culture in Pompeii. The figures correspond with many funerary figures found in the necropoli of Rome. The woman, especially, however, shows some more unusual attributes, identifying her as a priestess of Ceres. Funerary reliefs of priestesses are very rare but some are known.
Emily Hauser in The Conversation points to the fact that this relief proves not all women in funerary portraiture were mere wives and can be important by themselves. The researchers at Pompeii published an article with the new finds and in it, and they refer to the ‘wife’ and the ‘new bride’ before pointing out that the woman in question was most likely a priestess. Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii archaeological park, says in The Guardian, that a male and a female in a Roman funerary sculpture do not always automatically mean that they are husband and wife, as they could be siblings, or a mother and son. I suppose there are also a number of examples showing unrelated people, such as someone’s freedman or freedwoman, or friends (for example the tomb of Publius Vesonius Phileros in Pompeii, where a later inscription describes how the portrayed friends fell out).
No inscription was found, so far, so it is not known who these two people were and what their relationship was. They could be husband and wife, as the researchers themselves assume, but as Zuchtriegel mentions in The Guardian, they could have a different relationship. The researchers present a convincing case in identifying the woman as a priestess of Ceres. She is carrying a bunch of laurel leaves (asperigillum) which is generally used by a priestess to waft incense, and can be found in the relief of a (although much later) sarcophagus from the second century. Her necklace shows a moon-shaped amulet, which can refer to Ceres, goddess of fertility, the home and hearth, who is often associated with the moon. Young girls were also seen wearing a moon-shaped amulet (a lunula) to ward off evil and gain protection. The woman’s necklace and earrings also feature amphora shaped pendants, perhaps referring to produce and prosperity. This relief differs, however, from the so-called ‘Ceres-type’ of female statues in which women are represented as the goddess Ceres with attributes such as a cornucopia, or a bunch of corn.
Sculptures of priestesses are very rare. A couple of examples are the relief of Licinia Flavilla and Sextus Adgennius Macrinus from Nîmes in France, both of whom held a priesthood, or Usia Prima, priestess of Isis in the tomb of the Rabiri in Rome. Our woman is also holding an object in her other hand, which seems harder to identify. Is it a casket or a scroll? A scroll could refer to her literacy and learning, a casket could refer to her role as a priestess. In other funerary reliefs from this late Republican period scrolls do feature, but then mostly in the hand of a male.
Cicero wrote the priestesses of Ceres were usually of Greek origin but with Roman citizenship and often from old Greek colonies (now Roman) such as Naples and Velia. (defense of L. Cornelius Balbus). Being a priestess in no way excludes her from also being the wife of the man next to her as not all priestess roles required the person to be celibate (contrary to the famous Vestal Virgins) and in some roles husband and wife were both holding the role of priest, such as in the example from Nîmes.
Priestesses are rare in funerary portraiture in general, so this example might be more difficult to compare to the large body of funerary portraits we do have from this period. It does seem, however, that women played an important role in religion and ritual and so this relief will prove important in the understanding of priestesses in Pompeii.
The male figure is wearing boots, a sign of his aristocracy, and an early Roman toga from the Republican era. We can just about see the curved seam at the bottom of the toga. A Greek himation, a garment very similar to the toga, and also worn by Romans at the time, would be a rectangular garment with squared edges. In this relief the edges seem only just rounded, perhaps in a mixing of Greek elements, while later toga’s show a more pronounced circular shape. The toga is draped over the man’s shoulders and wrapped over his right arm in a loop that forms a sort-of arm sling. The fabric covers his whole left arm, reaching to his wrists. He holds the gathered fabric coming down from his shoulder, the balteus, with his left hand. The sculptor shows quite a complex sequence of folds and pleats. The toga is not overly voluminous, as later togas would be, and falls on to the shins.
A similar toga style, although sculpted in a much more refined manner, can be seen in the famous so-called Via Statilia relief, also from the early Republican era in Rome. The toga is of a similar shape and form and the woman’s dress is, although more elaborate and edged with fringes, similarly draped and sculpted. Another clear corresponding sculpture is the early Republican statue of an orator, who does not show an arm sling but holds his arm forwards in a lively gesture while speaking, but the toga is comparably in size, and also a statue of a senator in the Musei Capitolini in Rome (see image).
The woman is shown wearing a mantle or (palla) over a tunic. The palla is so thin it shows the pleats of the garment underneath, shown through the excellent techniques of the sculptor, and which became popular in the Hellenistic era in the east such as the statue of Cleopatra from Delos. The folds, again, are realistically sculpted, with sufficient variety and irregularity to read well. Her himation reaches over her head and is draped as a veil, partly covering her hair in a show of modesty.
Their pose is typical for the full and half figure funerary reliefs of the Republican period which we see in Rome and Pompeii. They have a slight contraposto, with their weight on one leg, although the torso’s are mostly frontally positioned. Their heads are not straight and frontal, but slightly angled towards each other. However, they are not looking at each other, and the angle is only very slight. She looks slightly to her upper left, although the neck is damaged and we cannot be sure. He is looking slightly to his right and his neck line is not quite straight. These head angles provide the statues with a liveliness that could, especially in many male bodies of the type, become quite rigid. She is positioned slightly in front of him, perhaps to indicate her importance as a priestess, or her superiority in rank if he is her freedman. The style of their thick hair and pronounced upper and lower eye lids positions them in the Republican or early Augustan period.
Pigment remnants have been found on the laurel leaves. Many other examples of these type of funerary sculpture show paint remains, so it is reasonable to consider these reliefs to be extensively painted; at least the hair and dress would have been painted in fairly realistic colours (brown for the hair, for example).
The relief could have been commissioned by one of the pair after the other had passed away. It could have been commissioned by a third party, or by the pair while both still alive. They wanted to be remembered like this, or were thought to want to be remembered like this, through a realistic full-figure portrait, with attributes helping the viewer makes sense of the scene. There would have been an inscription too, which has not been found (yet). The format of a full-figure deep relief, the poses, dress, and style of sculpting follows a fairly common format of funerary portraiture of the time with the only unusual elements in her slightly larger size, her position in front of the man, the jewellery and laurel bunch. This all seems to point to her position as a priestess. Her pose is closely related to the pudicitia pose, a commonly assumed pose in female statuary, especially in the Republican and early Augustan era, which expressed (marital) modesty. Although the reliefs are realistic, there is little individuality in the figures except in the faces. Their hair is thick and curly, as seen in other reliefs of the time, and so not necessarily related to what their actual hair was like. His ears are somewhat protruding, which again, might be a popular style choice or a specific element of his actual physique. We should consider their facial features in the same terms; there is a mixture of popular style and individual features (which we will never know). His body is slightly stocky, hers more elongated. These, again, are not out of the ordinary in comparable reliefs.
This pair was then happy to be remembered as people of their time, following the forms and styles of their neighbours and peers. They did not choose to commemorate any children to underline a continuing family line, and there is no reference to a veristic presentation of maturity, which could be interpreted as a reference to a noble past. Hair styles, dress and pose seem to refer to the late Republican era with no other links to the past or the future, except in their desire to be remembered in full bodily form. We see a woman, with attributes suggesting she is a priestess of Ceres (although I am not aware of other depictions of priestesses of Ceres), and a Roman citizen (dressed in a toga), perhaps her husband, perhaps her freedman. They were both well-off, since they both wear jewellery and clearly could afford a monumental tomb, which would house the burnt remains of themselves, and potentially other people who were part of their ‘family’ (which included slaves and freedmen), in the niches underneath. These two people, however, tower over them as the mater and pater familias, holding them all together.
Further reading:
Alapont, L. et al. (2025). A Monumental Tomb with a relief of two spouses in the funerary area of Porta Sarno. E-Journal Scavi di Pompei, 04, 31.03.25. https://pompeiisites.org/wp-content/uploads/04_E-Journal_A-Monumental-Tomb-with-a-relief-of-two-spouses-in-the-funerary-area-of-Porta-Sarno.pdf
Bieber, M. (1959). Roman Men in Greek Himation (Romani Palliati) a Contribution to the History of Copying. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 103 (3), 374–417.
Davies, G., Portrait Statues as Models for Gender Roles in Roman Society, in: Bell, S. and Hansen, I. (2008). Role Models in the Roman World: Identity and Assimilation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 207-218.
DiLuzio, M.J. (2017). A Place at the Altar: Priestesses in Republican Rome. Princeton University Press.
Fejfer, J. (2008). Roman portraits in context. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, p. 341 ff.
Giuffrida, Angela (2025). Two near lifesize sculptures found during excavations of Pompeii tomb. The Guardian, 1 April 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/01/two-near-lifesize-sculptures-found-during-excavations-of-pompeii-tomb
Hauer, Emily (2025). Life-size sculptures uncovered in Pompeii show that ancient women didn’t just have to be wives to make a difference. The Conversation, 4 April 2025. https://theconversation.com/life-size-sculptures-uncovered-in-pompeii-show-that-ancient-women-didnt-just-have-to-be-wives-to-make-a-difference-253863
Kockel, V. (1993). Porträtreliefs stadtrömischer Grabbauten: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und zum Verständnis des spätrepublikanisch-frühkaiserzeitlichen Privatporträts. Mainz am Rhein: Philip von Zabern.
