CIRCA 550-540 B.C.

Both sides of this amphora show a departure scene, centered by two warriors. Armed in crested Corinthian helmets and greaves and holding spears and circular shields, the warriors are flanked by a cloaked man and a woman in a belted chiton. The scenes are near identical on the front and back but one side depicts the right warrior's shield with a hunting dog as the blazon, and the other with a warrior with two tall feathers on his helmet rather than a crest.

Hildebrandt notes that while repetitive scenes makes identification of a mythological context near impossible, what is noteworthy is the overlapping shields of the warriors, which likely identifies them as hoplite soldiers (op. cit., p. 96). Prominent in Greece in the 7th-5th centuries, hoplite warfare relied on a tight formation of soldiers, whose overlapping shields formed one unit used to defend against advancing enemies as well as creating a strong offensive line.