A Marble Sarcophagus Lid Fragment with the Birth of Dionysos, Roman Imperial, Severan, circa 1st half of the 3rd Century A.D.

carved with the winged goddess of birth Ilithyia about to remove Dionysos from the thigh of enthroned Zeus, Hermes in attendance, a kneeling nurse depositing Dionysos in a crib, and Hermes taking Dionysos to be raised by the Nymphs of Nysa, the acroterion in the form of the mask of a frowning deity with moustache, deep-set eyes with engraved irises and drilled crescentic pupils, and prominent furrowed brow, his long hair swept up over the forehead and curving forward over the cheeks and temples.

Madeleine Ferragut, L'Antiquaire du Paradou, Le Paradou, Bouches-du-Rhône, as of 1973
acquired by the present owner from the above in 1976

As shown, note chipped nose on corner mask, surface is abraded, weathered, and pitted.
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For a related sarcophagus lid fragment see F. Baratte, "La naissance de Dionysos sur un couvercle de sarcophage du musée d'Amiens," Revue Archéologique, 1989, p. 145, fig. 2c. Only a few sarcophagi depict the birth and youth of Dionsysos: see F. Matz, Die dionysichen Sarkophage (Die Antiken Sarkophagreliefs, IV), Berlin, 1968-1975, vol. 2, no. 95, pls. 116 and 119,3, and vol. 3, p. 343-345, nos. 195-199.

For the myth of the birth of Dionysos see Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3: "But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl (transl. Sir J.G. Fraser)."