The diver's tomb is the highlight of the collection of artifacts preserved in the National Museum of Paestum. It is a rare example of Greek painting and embellished a casket tomb. Inside the funeral monument are represented scenes of a symposium while on the cover plate the artist has painted the symbolic dip that the deceased made when he left the world of the living to reach that of the dead.

 

tomba del tuffatore Paestum This stone slab shows a banquet in which the deceased represents the guest of honor. Note that the participants are divided into pairs except one who is represented alone while offering a cup to someone who has not yet arrived, obviously the deceased who is coming.

 

tomba del tuffatore Paestum This stone slab shows a later moment of the same banquet. We move on to music and the invited "solitary" holds with his right a lyre to the deceased who is coming. There are many discussions about the guest who gives the stringed instrument: is he giving it to him or is he playing it? Since the right hand is the hand with which one played, (while the left held the lyre), then the guest should have been necessarily left-handed in order to play but the Greeks never represented exceptions. From a purely symbolic point of view, the idea that the otherworldly banquet was organized in honor of the deceased and that he was probably a musician capable of playing the instrument offered to him was much more meaningful.

 

tomba del tuffatore Paestum The god prepares the wine for the banquet

 

tomba del tuffatore Paestum The stone slab covering the tomb is certainly the most famous find of the entire collection from the Pestana area. The deceased dives into the unknown towards the otherworldly world that is preparing to welcome it.