On the left an old man with thick hair and beard sits on a throne. He is nude, his hips are covered with a draped himation. He leans on the seat of the throne with his right hand while the left one rests relaxed on his knee. To his left stands a young woman in a sleeveless tunic. She has placed her right hand on the old man’s shoulders while her left hand touches his arm.
The gazes of the old man and the woman are directed towards the nude figure of a young man standing in front of them. His head and shoulders are covered by a cloak (abolla), the folds of which he holds in his hands. A child between the man and the woman embraces them, its gaze fixed on the man. The child’s figure is nude and wingless. A column is visible behind the child. The defect of the man’s right foot and the absence of the child’s right leg were noted in publications from the 19th to early 20th centuries; the other numerous damages are consequences of the 1943 bombing.
Several versions of this scene are known. The most convincing one reveals a complete correspondence between the relief and the Lucian’s XXIII Dialogue of the Dead (Lucian, Dialogi Mortuorum, XXIII): Protesilaus in the Underworld addresses Hades (Pluto) with a supplication to be allowed to return briefly to the world of the living to see Laodamia, his wife. Persephone persuades Hades to grant the hero’s plea. This interpretation also explains the appearance of Hermes in the next scene on the frontal relief. However, the role of the child in this scene remains unclear. Possibly, it embodies the support that, according to Lucian, Persephone gave to Protesilaus by siding with him.
According to the Giulio Minervini’s version (1844), the woman on the relief is Laodamia. With this reading, it turns out that before us is a scene in which Protesilaus and the suicidal Laodamia appear before Hades in the underworld, where Eros unites them. G. Minervini finds confirmation for his assumption in the lines of Ovid:

Respice Phylaciden et quae comes isse marito
Fertur et ante annos occubuisse suos.
(Ovid. Ars Amat. III, 17)
and
aut comes extincto Laodamia uiro.
(Ovid. Trist. I, VI, 29).

However, Minervini in proposing his hypothesis acknowledges that the competing version, corresponding to Lucian’s text, has a strong foundation; moreover, he considers the scene on the sarcophagus "highly similar to that in Lucian’s dialogue (’una scena somigliantissima a quella del dialogo di Luciano’)... It is enough to read Lucian’s lines to see them embodied in our monument." As a commentary on Minervini’s version, we note that the woman’s pose on the relief is absolutely natural for Persephone, Hades’ wife, but it seems rather inappropriate for a young woman presented with her husband before the god of the underworld.
The third version, proposed by G. Oliverio in 1910, is as follows. The relief depicts the moment when Laodamia, realizing she is alone, throws herself in despair to Acastos, her father; their gazes are directed into the distance where a ship with Protesilaus is visible at sea. The appearance of the hero, who left his wife the morning after their wedding, serves as a reflection of his doubts about the correctness of his actions; "a small winged (?) deity is trying with all its might to bring Protesilaus closer to Laodamia. However, the desire for glory prevails, and the young warrior departs to meet his destiny, to be the first to fall a hero’s death at Hector’s hand under the walls of Troy." In support of this version the author refers to scenes with the protagonists of the myth depicted on the Vatican sarcophagus and a Pompeian fresco. However the arguments he presents do not seem convincing. Reflecting on this rather risky assumption by G. Oliverio (1887-1956), it should be borne in mind that the honorable Italian archaeologist, being a graduate of the Neapolitan Athenaeum, presented it at the very beginning of his career.