Achilles and Aias

Title
Achilles and Aias
Repository
British Museum
Alternative
Amphora Vase B211
Photographer
Lowenstam, Steven
Creator Display
attributed to Lysippides Painter (Ancient Greek vase painter, active 530-510 BCE)
Description
Pottery: black-figured amphora. On the neck, double honeysuckle. Under the handles, a pattern of spirals. Below the designs, maeander and lotus-buds. (a) Achilles and Ajax playing with pessi: On the right is Achilles seated on a block to left, bearded, with long tresses and short curls in front, high-crested helmet (raised), short embroidered chiton, striped himation, and greaves with volutes, right hand extended, in left two spears; behind him a Boeotian shield with device of a tripod; above is inscribed: ΑΧΙΛΕΥΣ. On the left is Ajax seated facing him, bearded, with short curly hair, high-crested helmet (raised), cuirass, short diapered chiton, striped chlamys, and greaves with volutes; in left hand two spears, with right he is about to move one of the pessi, of which seven are visible, on a table between them. Behind him is a Boeotian shield with two pellets; above: AIAΣ. Between them is inscribed: Λυσιππίδης καλός. (b) Heracles conducted to Olympos: A quadriga to right, in which are Athene, with long tresses, lofty helmet with cheek-pieces and fillet, aegis with scales and fringe of snakes, long chiton and diapered over-chiton spear in right hand, and reins in both, and Heracles, bearded, with hair curly in front and striped himation, carrying club. At the further side of the horses are Dionysos looking back, with long beard and hair, ivy-wreath, long chiton and himation with border of spirals, in right hand a vine-branch, in left a cantharos, and further to the right Apollo, beardless, with long hair arranged in spirals in front, laurel-wreath, long striped chiton and embroidered himation, playing on the chelys. At the horses' heads stands Hermes to left, bearded, with long tresses and curls in front, short chiton, striped himation, petasos, endromides, and caduceus. --The British Museum Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893; Rawson, Jessica, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, London, BMP, 1984; Walters, H B, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 5, British Museum 4, London, BMP, 1929
View
Front
Coverage
Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece (creation) Chiusi, Tuscany, Italy (discovery)
Temporal
ca. 530 BCE
Subject
Aias Achilleus Black Figure Pottery III
Style Period
Black-figure Attic (Mainland Greek pottery styles)
Work Type
amphorae (storage vessels)
Date
-0535/-0525
Identifier
Lowenstam_VRC_05522
Item Locator
Box 12, Section 18
Rights
In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder
University of Oregon, Department of Classics
Local Collection Name
Steven Lowenstam Collection
Type
Image
Format
image/tiff
Measurements
Height: 46.7 cm
Material
pottery | painted; incised
Set
Lowenstam Collection of Ancient Western Art and Archaeology
Primary Set
Lowenstam Collection of Ancient Western Art and Archaeology
Institution
University of Oregon
Cultural Context
Attic (culture)
Id Current Repository
1851,0806.15