ATTRIBUTED TO THE MANNER OF THE ANTIMENES PAINTER, CIRCA 525-500 B.C.

Depicted on the obverse of this lively amphora is a pivotal scene from the Trojan War. To the left is Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians, who thrusts his spear into the fallen Antilochus. To the right, Achilles advances to his defense. It is this encounter that ultimately leads to the demise of Memnon himself: in avenging Antilochus, Achilles later engages Memnon in combat and slays him. The outcome of that fatal duel may be foreshadowed by the bird above the warriors. After his death, the king’s grieving companions were changed by Zeus into birds, known as Memnonides, who fly to Troy each year to lament their leader’s death. For an amphora by the Antimenes Painter, formerly at Castle Ashby and now in the Ashmolean Musuem, Oxford, depicting the combat between Memnon and Achilles, see J. Burrow, Der Antimenesmaler, no. 41.