Sacrifices being of the nature of feasts, the Greeks and Romans, on occasion of extraordinary solemnities, placed images of the gods reclining on couches, with tables and viands before them, as if they were really partaking of the things offered in sacrifice. This ceremony was called Lectisternium. The woodcut here introduced exhibits a couch employed on one of these occasions. It has a cushion covered by a cloth hanging in ample folds down each side. This beautiful pulvinar is wrought altogether in white marble, and is somewhat more than two feet in height. - Smith, 1873