CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Hypnos, or his Roman equivalent, Somnus, was the personification of sleep. He lived in the underworld with his brothers, one of whom was Thanatos, the personification of death itself. While the merciless Thanatos had a heart of iron, Hypnos would sweep across land and sea, bringing peaceful sleep to mankind. Hypnos, who according to Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.623) was the “gentlest” of the gods, is depicted here as a naked youth with wings on his head.

Hypnos' torso is turned slightly and his left shoulder is raised, indicating that he would have probably had his arm raised outwards and holding an attribute. His usual attributes included either a horn of sleep-inducing opium, a poppy-stem, a branch dripping water from the river Lethe, or an inverted torch. For a similar example dating to the 2nd century A.D., after a Greek original of the 4th century B.C., showing the god pouring opium from a horn, see inv. no. VI 371 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.