Scenes from the mythological Trojan War decorate this Athenian black-figure neck-amphora. On the front, Achilles and Ajax, two great heroes of the Greeks, sit playing a board game. The goddess Athena stands in front of the board and gestures. The warriors have their armor and weapons ready, as if just pausing during a break in the conflict. This scene of Ajax and Achilles gaming was very popular in Athenian vase-painting of the late 500s B.C. and was a favorite of the painters in the Leagros Group. Many scholars believe that this mythological scene also served as a contemporary political parable on the value of staying alert, since the tyrant Peisistratos had been able to take control of the city of Athens while the army was distracted. The back of the vase depicts three hoplites, or warriors, in a line. Such files of hoplites are rather unusual in vase-painting, and this depiction may have been meant to relate to the scene on the front of the vase. These hoplites may be Greeks on the march to counter a Trojan attack, while Ajax and Achilles are notified by Athena. Such an interpretation would explain Athena's unusually prominent position on this rendition of the scene. --J. Paul Getty Museum; Bareiss Loan: S.80.AE.292, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 24.; Bothmer, Dietrich von, and J. Bean. Greek Vases and Modern Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss. Exh. checklist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: 1969. p. 2, no. 19.; Brommer, Frank. Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage. 3rd ed. (Marburg: 1973) p. 335, no. 23.; Woodford, Susan.
Pottery: red-figured neck-amphora, with twisted handles. (a) Anacreon type. A bearded reveller walking to right, wreathed in ivy and playing on the chelys: his head hangs forward to left, with eyes upturned as if partly drunk. The nose is curiously squat and broad, like that of a bearded satyr. His mantle flies back with the motion; and he has a staff under his left shoulder. (b) Ephebos, wreathed, walking to right, holding in his right hand horizontally a crutch staff, and extending his left on a level with his shoulder, holding on the palm upright a kylix: a mantle, rolled up, flies back from both arms. Extremities carefully drawn. Purple wreaths, tuning pegs, and cord of plectrum. Elaborate brown inner markings: the beard and the edge of the hair in a are indicated throughout in carefully traced-brown lines, which are also used for the knuckles of the bent hand and nostril in b and the hair on the cheek. Eye in archaic type, with inner angle open. Edge of hair dotted: and a dotted rosette for the left breast. Below a, a strip, alternate maeander and dotted cross squares: below b, a strip of key pattern. --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
Pottery: red-figured neck-amphora, with twisted handles. (a) Departure of warrior. Young warrior with long hair, short chiton with studded sleeves, mantle at back over arms, decorated with crosses, crestless helmet tilted back, cuirass, greaves, sword with twisted snake round scabbard hanging from a cross-belt, stands en face, looking to right, with shield on left arm, left hand holding spear upright, right holding out phiale to left towards (b) A woman in undertied chiton with apoptygma, with long hair fastened at ends in a club, radiated stephane, earrings, moves to right with oinochoe (silhouette against body), and raising the left edge of her dress from her shoulder, towards an altar in form of Ionic capital with volutes and necking of acanthus, on which is placed a high thymiaterion with wire cap, forming an acorn-shaped head (καλύπτρα), probably perforated. Brown inner markings, upper folds of chiton, edge of hair, and hair on cheek: also toe-nails of the foot en face. Eye archaic. Below, a strip of pattern, alternate dotted cross and maeander. --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
Pottery: red-figured neck-amphora, with twisted handles. (a) Hermes, bearded, wreathed, with hair in long single tresses, short sleeved chiton, chlamys, petasos at back, endromides of skin (surface covered with minute dots) with crescent-form flaps, moves to right looking back, extending to right his left hand, holding caduceus, with index finger extended, apparently beckoning. (b) Athene in long sleeved chiton, mantle fastened on left shoulder and hanging in pteryges, aegis with fringe of spiral snakes on lower edge, and dotted surface, bracelets, her hair hanging loose with a fillet wound twice round it, holding spear across her body in left, and extending a high crested helmet held by cheek-piece in right, moves to left, looking back; her left foot in foreshortening, her body en face. The aegis is short in front, but at the back hangs down below the waist. Late stage of large severe style. Purple wreath, cord of petasos, and bracelets. Brown inner details, upper folds of chiton, necklace, and hair over forehead. Eye in transition type (inner angle open). Below each side, a strip of pattern, pairs of maeanders set alternate ways, separated by dotted cross squares. At lower insertion of handles, egg pattern. --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
Pottery: red-figured neck-amphora, with twisted handles. (a) Departure of warrior. Young warrior with long hair, short chiton with studded sleeves, mantle at back over arms, decorated with crosses, crestless helmet tilted back, cuirass, greaves, sword with twisted snake round scabbard hanging from a cross-belt, stands en face, looking to right, with shield on left arm, left hand holding spear upright, right holding out phiale to left towards (b) A woman in undertied chiton with apoptygma, with long hair fastened at ends in a club, radiated stephane, earrings, moves to right with oinochoe (silhouette against body), and raising the left edge of her dress from her shoulder, towards an altar in form of Ionic capital with volutes and necking of acanthus, on which is placed a high thymiaterion with wire cap, forming an acorn-shaped head (καλύπτρα), probably perforated. Brown inner markings, upper folds of chiton, edge of hair, and hair on cheek: also toe-nails of the foot en face. Eye archaic. Below, a strip of pattern, alternate dotted cross and maeander. --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
![[No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection](/thumbnails/k/9/oregondigital-df691539k.jpg "[No Caption] Steven Lowenstam Collection")
