Hattatt Painter
Black-figure Amphora with Scene from the Iliad

CultureGreek (Attic)
Titles
  • Black-figure Amphora with Scene from the Iliad
Date540–520 BC
Probable placeGreece
MediumTerracotta & slip
Dimensions10 5/16 × 5 1/2 in. (26.2 × 14 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by George Fleming, Robin Gibbs, Lee Godfrey, Charles W. Tate, and Richard Mithoff in honor of Lee Hage Jamail at "One Great Night in November, 2006," and by Ali and Hicham Aboutaam
Object number2006.644
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
200 Jamail Atrium
On view

Explore Further

Department
Antiquities
Object Type
Description

This amphora depicts scenes from Homer's Iliad, the greatest war epic of the ancient world. An amphora was a general-purpose container for liquids. In a funerary context, these vessels could also hold the ashes of the deceased. They are named for their two characteristic handles.


Here, two hoplites, or foot soldiers, engage in face-to-face battle. Both wear menacing Corinthian helmets. They hold shields on their left arms and wield spears in their right hands. Paris, the Trojan prince who started the war by abducting the beautiful Helen, flees from the battlefield. He wears Eastern dress and carries a quiver of the arrows that would eventually cause the death of the great hero Achilles.


ProvenanceCharles Gillet (1879–1972), Lausanne, Switzerland, 1950s–1972; by inheritance to Marion Schuster (1958–1982), Lausanne, 1972–1982; by inheritance to Madame Mathilde de Goldschmidt Rosthschild, 1982; [Phoenix Ancient Art, New York/Geneva, by 2006]; purchased by MFAH, 2006.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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