Death of Priam

Title: Death of Priam
Repository: British Museum
Alternative: Amphora Old Catalogue 607 Vase B205
Creator: Group E
Photographer: Lowenstam, Steven
Creator Display: attributed to Group E (Greek vase painters, active ca. 560-540 BCE)
Description: Pottery: black-figured amphora: the death of Priam; Priam is being battered to death with the body of his grandson Astyanax. Designs in black on red panels with interlacing lotus and honeysuckle pattern above. The sides of the handles are chequered black and red. (a) Death of Priam: In the centre is Priam fallen to right on his back on the top of the altar of Zeus Herkeios, with white hair and beard, long purple chiton and embroidered himation, left hand raised in supplication to Neoptolemos, who stands over him to right. The latter is bearded and fully armed, with short embroidered chiton and Boeotian shield, and in right hand holds Astyanax by the right leg, about to hurl him on the ground; Astyanax is nude, and is represented on a small scale. Behind Priam is Hecuba to left, with long hair, fillet, long chiton, and diploidion, right hand raised to tear her hair, left extended in supplication. Behind her are two bearded figures, one moving to right, nude, looking back, the other has a fillet, long chiton, and striped himation. On the left is Andromache to right, with long hair, long striped chiton and diploidion, both arms raised; by her side a nude youth with long hair, running away to left and looking back (perhaps Polites). (b) Contest of Theseus and the Minotaur: Theseus to right, bearded, with long hair, cuirass, short chiton, and sheath at side, holds the Minotaur round the neck with left hand, and plunges sword into him. The latter has a bull's head, and kneels on one knee to right, looking to left, with stone in left hand; blood flows from the wound. On either side, looking on, is a female figure with long hair, fillet, long chiton tied at the waist and himation, and a nude youth with hair tied in a club. --The British Museum 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; Walters, H B, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 4, British Museum 3, London, BMP, 1927
View: Front; Detail
Coverage: Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece (creation) Vulci, Lazio, Italy (discovery)
Temporal: ca. 550-540 BCE
Subject: Myth between Iliad and Odyssey Sack of Troy
Style Period: Black-figure Attic (Mainland Greek pottery styles)
Work Type: amphorae (storage vessels)
Date: -0550/-0540
Identifier: Lowenstam_VRC_01693
Item Locator: Box 4, 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: Width: 320 mm Depth: 305 mm Weight: 4 kg Height: 46.99 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) Archaic (Greek culture or period)
Id Current Repository: 1842,0314.3