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a garden. 187 Comparison with a similar group dating to the second century A.D., found in
the Domus of Valerii in Rome and now located at the Uffizi Museum in Florence, shows
how the finished statuette might have looked (Fig. 45a). 188
The myth of Eros and Psyche, seen as a philosophical symbol of the union of the
human soul with divine love, became extremely popular in the Roman world after
Apuleius wrote his Metamorphoses in the middle of the second century A.D., and was a
popular subject for sarcophagi produced from the second to fourth centuries A.D. 189 The
only statuette with Eros and Psyche dated to the third century A.D. I have been able to
find comes from Ostia. It is set on a tall pedestal which shows how the sculpture from
Punta Scifo might have functioned in its final context. 190 There are other, earlier parallels,
like a sarcophagus with Cupids dated to ca. A.D. 160-170 and currently located at the
Richmond Museum of Fine Arts, 191 an Eros sleeping on a torch, also from the middle of
the second century A.D., on exhibit at the Museo Nazionale Romano (Fig. 45b), three
statuettes representing Cupids from Florence’s Palazzo Pitti, 192 and two more in Leiden 193
and Thessaloniki. 194
Four tablets made of marble and slate (MOB 1), are so-called coticulae, or
“touchstones” supposedly used to test coins and precious metals. According to Carlo
Beltrame, however, it is more likely that they were used as palettes to cut, grind, and mix
the ingredients of ointments, drugs, and eyewash. .195
187 Slavazzi 2001, 93.
188 Brenk 1999, 70, fig. 1.
189 Guerrieri 2007, 56-7.
190 Boëthius and Ward-Perkins 1970, pl. 176; Calza 1947, 9,28.
191 Moss 1988, 205; Waelkens 1982, 53-4, table 15.
192 Saladino in Capecchi, Baldini, and Agostiniani 2003, 520-1, figs. 46-8
193 Herrmann 1992, 100, fig. 5.
194 Herrmann 1995, 78, fig. 14.
195 Similar tools are found in surgeons’ graves. (Beltrame 2002, 41).
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