Louvre G 146

Louvre G 146 (Vase)

Side A: Briseis led away by AgamemnonSide B: Mission to Achilles.

ID:: aa_5201
Beazley Number:: 204682
Type:: Vase
Date:: ca. -480 — -470
Period:: Late Archaic
Painter:: Attributed to Makron
Potter:: Signed by Hieron
Dimensions:: H. 0.31 m; Diam. 0.28 m; W. (max.) 0.40 m
Ware:: Attic Red Figure
Shape:: Skyphos

Shape Description

Type A cup, but with diagonal handles

Decoration Description

Side A: Agamemnon walks to the left leading Briseis away by her right hand. He wears strapped sandals and a chitoniskos under his armor, which includes an elaborately patterned cuirass and added red baldric with sword. A chlamys is draped around his shoulders and he holds his spear in his right hand. Briseis is totally veiled in a chiton drawn up over her head, one sleeve of which is modestly held up with her left hand, and a himation wrapped around her shoulders. Agamemnon's herald Talthybios walks behind her, wearing chitoniskos, chlamys, sword, messenger's cap, and high black boots with patterned tops. He carries a herald's staff in his left hand while raising his right. Diomedes brings up the rear, walking to the left while looking guardedly behind him. He has blonde hair (dilute glaze) tied in an added red fillet, a long beard, wears a chitoniskos, chlamys, petasos at the back of his neck with added red strap, and tall black boots with patterned tops. He carries two spears with their added red thongs in his right hand. A tree closes the scene behind him.

For the scene, cf. Hom. Il. 1.312.

Side B: The mission to Achilles (cf. Hom. Il. 9.162 ff). At left, Ajax leans on his staff, right hand on his hip, wearing a chiton and wrapped in himation, surveying the central scene. Dilute glaze gives him a light brown or blonde beard and hair tied with an added red fillet. Odysseus stands before Achilles in the middle, entreating him to return to the fight. He has an added red fillet in his hair which is framed with black glaze relief dots; the latter also cover the beard. He wears a chiton hiked up high at the waist, his chlamys falls from his left shoulder, and his petasos is at the back of the neck with added red ties. His high black boots are tied with added red laces. He leans on his two spears (each with added red thongs) and has a sword at back slung from his right shoulder with an added red baldric. An elaborate sword in its scabbard suspended on an added red baldric hangs on the wall between him and Achilles. The latter figure is seated on a stool enveloped in his himation. His short laced shoes are painted in added red. His hair is highlighted with some dilute glaze. A cap hangs on the wall behind him. The stool itself is an elaborate piece of furniture, with lion's feet and decorated with animals in metopes, and its cushion is patterned. Phoenix closes the scene at the right. Dressed in chiton and himation he leans on his staff facing the center, left hand on hip. His hair and beard is light brown/blonde like Ajax's with added dilute glaze. Another lion's-foot stool decorated with running maeander and patterned cushion is painted under the uninscribed handle.

The two scenes frame the beginning and middle of Homer's Iliad: Agamemnon forcibly taking Briseis from Achilles causes the hero to retire from the fighting; when the Greeks are thereupon being beaten by the Trojans, the other heroes Odysseus, Ajax and Phoenix plead with Achilles to return, but to no avail.

Graffiti

Incised on handle behind the tree, *I*E*R*O*N *E*P*O*I*H*S*E*N, Hieron made it. Most figures are identified; Side A:*A*G[*A]*M*E*S*M*O[*N], for Agamemnon, written from the stool up to the figure's shoulder; *T*A*L*Q*U*B*I*O*S, Talthybios, behind him; *D*I*O*M*E*D*E*S, Diomedes, written along the back of the tree trunk. Side B: *A*I*A*S, Ajax, written to the left of his head; *O*U*U*T*T*E*U*S, for "Odysseus", from his head to the sword on the wall; [*A*X*I]*L*L*E*U*S, Achilles, to the right of the hat on the wall; *F[ ]*O*I*N*I[*X], Phoenix, along the figure's back.