Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SAR-COPH'A-GUS, n. [L. from Gr. σαρκοφαγος; σαρξ, flesh, and φαγω, to eat.]

1. A species of stone used among the Greeks in their sculptures, which was so called because it consumed the flesh of bodies deposited in it within a few weeks. It is otherwise called lapis Assius, and said to be found at Assos, a city of Lycia. Hence,
2. A stone coffin or grave in which the ancients deposited bodies which they chose not to burn. Encyc.