CIRCA MID 2ND CENTURY A.D.

The presence of the shield held by one of the Cupids suggests that this scene represents Thetis and her sister Nereids bringing new armor to Achilles in Troy after the death of Patroklos (Iliad, book 18), with the Nereid to the far left perhaps representing Thetis herself. For a related sarcophagus panel, now in the Vatican Museums, on which four Nereids are similarly reclining on dolphins, with one in the center carrying Achilles' helmet, see no. 238 in Koch and Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage.