ATTRIBUTED TO GROUP E, CIRCA 550-540 B.C.

Group E is the name Beazley gave "to a large and compact group, which is very closely related to the work of the painter Exekias," and is "the soil from which the art of Exekias springs" (see p. 133 in Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters). The vases of this group are typically large-scale amphorae and primarily depict important events from the lives of gods and heroes.

On one side Theseus slays the Minotaur, the bull-headed monster born of the union of Queen Pasiphae and a bull sent to Crete by Poseidon. The monster was contained in an elaborate labyrinth at Knossos. Every nine years the Athenians were forced to send seven youths and seven maidens as tribute to King Minos. They were locked in the labyrinth and eventually eaten by the monster. Theseus was sent to Crete to free the Athenians from this commitment. Here, Theseus holds the monster in a headlock as he prepares to slay him with a thrust of his sword; the Minotaur is armed only with a stone held in his right hand. Below the hero is perched a small owl. The combat is framed by seven youths and maidens, three to the left, four to the right. The maiden to the near right offers a wreath while the maiden to the left holds perhaps a mirror. According to Oakley (p. 72 in The Greek Vase, Art of the Story Teller), at the moment that Theseus kills the monster, the youths and maidens would not have been present with him in the labyrinth, thus the depiction is an example of continuous narration, “when a vase-painter combines elements from different points in the narrative into one picture in order to tell the story more fully.” The subject was painted by Group E artists more than once, with minor variations. See for example the neck-amphora in the Getty Villa, fig. 9 in Oakley, op. cit.

On the other side is a complex battle scene composed of four pairs of hoplites converging from either side on a single warrior who collapses onto one knee. All are fully armed in corselets, greaves and Corinthian helmets, most high-crested, two with double plumes, and each holds a shield and a spear. On the lid is an encircling frieze of animals, including a panther confronting a goat, and a panther between deer, the two groups separated by sirens. For a related animal frieze on the outer rim of a lid, see the Type B amphora also attributed to Group E in the British Museum, fig. 29 in Böhm, Sphingen und Sirenen im archaischen Griechenland, Symbole der Ambivalenz in Bildszenen und Tierfriesen. For another Group E amphora of Panathenaic shape, see the example in Tarquinia, no. 350437 in Beazley Archive Pottery Database.