BLACK-FIGURED AMPHORA WITH LID – THE DEATH OF ACHILLES

This black-figured Attic amphora has figurative decorations on both sides. The scene on the front depicts a soldier returning from the battlefield. On his back he is carrying a wounded or dead comrade. His face and a great part of his body are covered by his shield, decorated with two snakes attacking a bird that lies between them. The soldier's legs are protected with greaves and the crest of his helmet is still visible behind the shield. The concave round profile of this type of shield is shown in the shield  which is attached to the back of his dead comrade. To the left stands an old man. On the right, a mourning woman walks towards the soldier, her hands raised in despair and grief. She is probably the mother of the dead soldier and her emotions are expressed through her gestures. This is interpreted as a scene from Homer's Iliad, when the dead body of Achilles is brought back to the camp of the Greeks. The woman is the goddess, Thetis, who foresaw her son's destiny and pleaded for Hephaistos the blacksmith god, to produce the best possible weaponry for him.

On the reverse is a group of soldiers all marching to the left. They wear full armour and carry round decorated shields. The leading soldier looks back towards his comrades. His shield is decorated with a dolphin and he wears a helmet, greaves to protect his legs and carries two lances. In the centre two soldiers march as a pair, the outer soldier hiding the inner one. The outer soldier carries a shield decorated with four circles, and he has greaves, a helmet and two lances carried horizontally. The inner soldier is not dressed in the Greek manner but in a tight patched suit typical of Scythian soldiers. His head, turned backwards, is not helmeted but he carries a pointed cap. Last in the row is a soldier  wearing greaves, a helmet and a mantle, of which the lower folds can be seen at the right. In one hand he holds a shield decorated with an anchor and in the other, two lances. The close connection between this group of soldiers is stressed not only through the eye contact that they keep, but also by the triangular composition created by the position of the lances.

Bordering decorations around the base comprise a circle of beams below a row of closed lotus buds and a row of meanders. There are also a languet (tongue-shaped) pattern on the shoulder, palmette motifs and open lotus flowers between the representations and a row of double palmettes at the neck. The amphora has been broken and repaired.

Pottery

510–500 BC

Found at Vulci (Italy)

Made in Attica (Leagros group)

Bought from the collection of Lucian Bonaparte,

Prince of Canino, 1839

Height 42 cm, Diameter 26 cm

Inventory no. PC 51, PC 40b                  

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