Combe, Taylor [Editor]: A description of the collection of ancient Marbles in the British Museum: with engravings (Band 11) (London, 1861)

PLATE XXXVII

SOMNUS.

A statue of Cupid,(1) or Somnus, who is represented sleeping
upon a lion's skin. Behind him are his bow and quiver, and in
front of him the club of Hercules. Two lizards are introduced
into this piece of sculpture; one of them close to the foot of
Cupid, and the other creeping from underneath the skin of the
lion towards his hand. These emblems are probably intended to
show that the divinity is asleep in the sunlight. Similar figures
of Cupid have often been mistaken for representations of the God
of Sleep. Several circumstances have tended to give rise to this
opinion. In the first place, the figure of Sleep is described as
having wings,(2) and on a vase of the Campana collection the
figure of Hypnos is represented with wings, bearing off, with
Thanatos, the corpse of Sarpedon: secondly, the lizard, as a crea-
ture which passes a considerable part of the year in a state of
torpidity, is held to be an appropriate symbol of sleep. Lastly, in
some monuments, similar to the present, poppies, the acknow-
ledged emblem of that divinity, are held in the hand of the

1 For similar statues of Cupid, see " Statue Greche e Romane della Libreria di San
Marco," Part II. tav. xxxi. Kopi, Raccolta di Statue Anticbe, T. cli. Marmora
Oxoniensia, Part I. tab. xxxiii., edit. 1763. Vetera Monumenta Matthaiana, torn. i.
Tab. cv., cvi. Bouillon. III. 11, 2; Gall. di. Fir. st. 63, 64; Gerhard, ant. Bildw. 72 2.

2 Geo'c aXAoc 0/j.oTTTEpog 'iKekog inrvq.—Nonni Dionys. Lib. xxxi. 61.

Postque venit tacitus furvis circumdatus alis

Somnus, et incerto somnia nigra pede.—Tibull. Eleg. Lib. ii. El. i.