Oil on canvas

According to Christian tradition, the ‘Seven Sleepers’ were six Christian youths, all male, and a trusty dog, who tried to escape persecution by the Romans in 250AD by hiding in a cave near Ephesus (in modern day Turkey) but were then entombed within. They allegedly fell asleep and, according to the mythology of the Middle Ages, awoke some 360 years later to find the world transformed and Christianity in the ascendant, but were unable to prove their identities.