Vote for Arms of Achilles

Title: Vote for Arms of Achilles
Repository: British Museum
Alternative: Cup Old Catalogue 829 Vase E69
Creator: Brygos Painter
Photographer: Lowenstam, Steven
Creator Display: attributed to Brygos Painter (Ancient Greek vase painter, active ca. 490-ca. 470 BCE)
Description: Pottery: red-figured cup. Description INTERIOR: man leading a woman (Odysseus and Briseis?). On the left a young woman, head lowered, is being led to the right. She wears a chiton and a himation (horizontal battlement border, dilute glaze vertical band, rows of dilute glaze dots) which is pulled up over the back of her head. She has a disc earring and a stephane with a row of sigmas. Her hair has a wash of dilute glaze and one long curly tress falls down behind her ear. Her mouth is slightly open and she must be exchanging words with the bearded man on the right, who similarly has his mouth open. Dressed in short chiton (dilute glaze folds), himation (rows of dots; battlement upper border) and petasos with red ties, he moves to the right, but turns his head back to look at the girl whom he leads, gripping her left wrist and hand in his right. He holds a spear in his left hand across his body, so that the point is above her head. There is dilute shading on his petasos at the top and above the beginning of the brim. His hair and beard are done with a dilute glaze wash and there are rows of dilute glaze dots on his neck. Border: stopt maeander (five-stroke, anticlockwise). EXTERIOR: the Arms of Achilles. Side A (upper): quarrel over the arms of Achilles. On the far left a male in dotted chlamys holds the right arm of the figure in front of him (his head and part of his draped lower torso are missing). In front is a bearded man, probably Ajax, in boots (dilute glaze wash) with horizontal rolls and red ties and a dotted himation with a black border loosely draped over his arms, who attempts to move forward to the right. He holds a sword back in his right hand and a striped scabbard in his left. His pectorals and mid-line are enhanced with dilute glaze to indicate hair. A youth tries to push him back to the left. He has a chlamys with rows of dots in dilute glaze over his upper arms and turns his head back to the right. His hair is painted with dilute glaze. In the centre is a man in a long chiton (folds in dilute glaze) and a dotted himation with a battlement upper border; he is presumably Agamemnon. He moves to the left, but his arms are outstretched to left and right; his head, which is missing, was turned to the right, as the red ties from his headband on the left indicate. On the right a youth pushes to the right at a bearded man. The youth has a himation (black border, rows of dots) loosely draped over his shoulders; his hair is combed up in plait over his neck and he has a double red hair-band. The bearded man, probably Odysseus, in front of him endeavours to move to the left. In the struggle his himation (black border, rows of dots) has slipped from his right shoulder; he has just drawn his sword from its striped scabbard, which he holds in his left hand (hand and top of scabbard missing). He wears boots like those worn by Ajax: rolls above the ankles, red ties and dilute wash. His pectorals and mid-line are enhanced with dilute glaze to indicate hair and his lips are slightly parted. On the far right a bearded man moves to the left, a dotted himation (black border) over his shoulders, his right hand gripping the left shoulder of the man in front, his left hand probably the man's left wrist (both missing). His hair is combed up into a stiff fringe and his pectorals and mid-line are enhanced with dilute glaze to indicate hair. Side Β (lower): the vote for the arms of Achilles. On the far left stands Odysseus, dressed in a dotted himation with a battlement border (all the himatia on this side have such a border) and shoes. He leans on a knotty stick, his right hand on his hip under the drapery, his left hand up in front of his chest. His pectorals and mid-line are enhanced with dilute glaze to indicate hair. His mouth is open and he has a red apicate fillet. In front of him stands a youth, dressed in a himation with rows of dots and leaning on a knotty stick. He reaches down to the right with his right hand to place his pebble (not shown) on the plain block (dilute wash) in the centre. His hair is tied up in a plait over his neck and he has a double red fillet. His left hand is to be thought of as on top of his stick, near his right armpit. In front of him stands Athena who wears a chiton, himation, scaly snake-fringed aegis (dilute wash inside) and Attic helmet (dilute wash for caul; black neck-guard). She holds a spear upright in her right hand and gestures with her left hand. Her head (hair done with dilute wash) is turned to the right, but her right knee is bent and the leg is to be thought of as facing to the left. Her lower legs are obscured by the corner of the block. On the corner in front of the folds of her chiton are two rows of black pebbles, totalling twenty. In the centre stands a bearded man to the left, wearing a dotted himation and a red fillet. He twists his right shoulder in order to place a pebble (not shown) on the block which hides his lower legs. His left hand is on a knotty stick, which goes under his left armpit (lower part of stick not drawn). At the right corner of the block stands a youth in a himation with rows of dots and double red hair-band leaning back on a knotty stick. He also holds his right hand down to cast his vote. On the corner of the block in front of the folds of his himation are two rows of black pebbles, totalling eleven. On the right a bearded man in a dotted himation and shoes moves forward to the left to vote, but turns his head back to the right. He holds a knotty stick in his left hand across his body and holds his right hand out to vote (pebble not shown). He has a reserved head-band. On the far right stands Ajax, his dotted himation with its battlement border framing his head. He leans on a knotty stick (with groups of horizontal lines in dilute glaze on it), his head lowered in despair, his right hand to his forehead. He wears a red fillet. Under handles: B/A, Corinthian helmet (dilute glaze on cheek-piece; black on neck-piece; dilute glaze wash for fur frontiet; chequer-board pattern on caul) on top of a shield (dilute glaze hatching before rim); A/B, pair of greaves (dilute glaze wash, elaborate modelling around knee-caps and a scroll on the calf, red ties above). Ground line: two reserved lines. Relief line contour throughout (except hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; thick reserved line inside lip, thin outside. --The British Museum Williams, Dyfri, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 17, British Museum 9, London, BMP, 1993; A Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, London, William Nicol, 1851; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893
View: Exterior
Coverage: Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece (creation) Vulci, Lazio, Italy (discovery)
Temporal: 490-480 BCE
Subject: Myth between Iliad and Odyssey Voting over Achillesarms
Style Period: Red-figure Attic (Mainland Greek pottery styles)
Work Type: cups (drinking vessels)
Date: -0490/-0480
Identifier: Lowenstam_VRC_01626
Item Locator: Box 4, Section 14
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: University of Oregon, Department of Classics
Local Collection Name: Steven Lowenstam Collection
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: Width: 41.5 cm Diameter: 32.7 cm Height: 13.8 mm Weight: 1.084 kg
Material: pottery | painted
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: 1843,1103.11