sarcophagus

Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus lid.|right|thumb right|thumb|upright=1.3|Roman Empire|Roman sarcophagus with the myth of [[Medea, , from Rome, exhibited in the Antikensammlung Berlin (Berlin)]] right|thumb|upright=1.3|Roman sarcophagus with Apollo, [[Minerva and the Muses, , from Via Appia, exhibited in the Antikensammlung Berlin]] thumb|upright=1.3|The Gothic art|Gothic sarcophagi of Don Àlvar Rodrigo de Cabrera, count of [[Urgell and his wife Cecília of Foix, , made of limestone, traces of paint, exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)]]

A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φαγεῖν ' meaning "to eat"; hence sarcophagus means "flesh-eating", from the phrase lithos sarkophagos (λίθος σαρκοφάγος), "flesh-eating stone". The word also came to refer to a particular kind of limestone that was thought to rapidly facilitate the decomposition of the flesh of corpses contained within it due to the chemical properties of the limestone itself.