Where Is Sleeping Ariadne? See It at Vatican Museums

Q: Who is Ariadne?

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was a Cretan princess who helped Theseus kill the Minotaur. He promised to marry her but abandoned her on Naxos. The god Dionysus found and married her.

Q: Why was the statue called Cleopatra?

A snake bracelet on her arm led viewers to assume she was dying from an asp bite. Modern scholars recognized the sleeping pose and iconography as Ariadne on Naxos.

Q: When was Sleeping Ariadne made?

The statue is a 2nd-century CE Roman marble, likely copying a Greek original from the Hellenistic period. It entered the Vatican collection in the early 16th century.

Ancient Roman Sleeping Ariadne shows the mythological princess asleep on the island of Naxos, where Theseus abandoned her after she helped him escape the Minotaur's labyrinth. This Roman marble, dated to the 2nd century CE, was long misidentified as Cleopatra dying from an asp bite.

Ariadne reclines on rocks, her arm curved over her head in a pose suggesting deep sleep. Her drapery clings to her body, revealing the form beneath. A snake bracelet on her arm led to the Cleopatra misidentification. The figure's sensuality and the virtuoso carving of translucent fabric made it highly influential. It stands in the Vatican Museums' Pio-Clementino Museum.

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was a Cretan princess who helped Theseus kill the Minotaur. He promised to marry her but abandoned her on Naxos. The god Dionysus found and married her.

A snake bracelet on her arm led viewers to assume she was dying from an asp bite. Modern scholars recognized the sleeping pose and iconography as Ariadne on Naxos.

The statue is a 2nd-century CE Roman marble, likely copying a Greek original from the Hellenistic period. It entered the Vatican collection in the early 16th century.

Sleeping Ariadne

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The Artist

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