According to more recent scholars, the sarcophagus was created around 120–130 AD, i.e. during the reign of emperor Hadrian. The subject is being discussed: In 1972, Bernard Andreae still considered it a representation of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the one and only of its kind. In 2004, Paul Zanker explained the relief as Achilles receiving his weapons from Hephaistos/Vulcanus and further gifts from the Seasons. The veiled woman sitting behind Achilles would be his mother, the sea goddess Thetis. Her sad expression is caused by her knowledge about her son's early death in the Troian War. The sea monsters on the sarcophagus lid refer to Thetis being a sea goddess.
Wolfgang Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom, 4th edition, vol. 4 (1972) pp. 261–263 no. 3291 (text by Bernard Andreae).
Paul Zanker and Björn Christian Ewald, Mit Mythen leben. Die Bilderwelt der römischen Sarkophage (2004) p. 248 fig. 220.