ATTRIBUTED TO THE GROUP OF WÜRZBURG 199, CIRCA 520-500 B.C.

The obverse of this amphora depicts Theseus slaying the Minotaur, the bull-headed monster born of the union of Queen Pasiphae and a bull sent to Crete by Poseidon. According to mythology, each year the King of Athens dispatched seven youths and seven maidens as tribute to King Minos, who fed them to the Minotaur to temporarily pacify the beast. Theseus volunteered himself as one of the sacrificial youths and, with the help of Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, navigated the labyrinthine palace to confront the beast. Theseus slaughtered the bull-headed monster, saving Athens’ young citizens, and soon after was crowned King of Athens.

The scene is centered by Theseus grabbing the Minotaur with one hand and holding a sword in the other. The Minotaur falls back and blood flows from his wounds. To the left is a draped female – perhaps Ariadne – and to the right is a draped male onlooker, his body facing right but his head turned back toward the gruesome scene. The subject of Theseus dispatching the Minotaur was similarly treated by a painter also assigned to the group of Würzburg 199 on an amphora now in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (see Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 320315). On the reverse is a turning quadriga with a charioteer and an armed warrior; nonsense inscriptions are in the field to the left.