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Achilles and Troilos

This stamnos by the Hector Painter tells an episode at on early stage in the Troy war and concerning the ambushing of Achilles to Troilos, son of the king Priam. The painted scene shows Troilos on one of his horses riding off to the right. The young prince is pursued by Achilles, while Polyxena flees to the left. Her hydria lies abandoned beneath the fleeing horses. The Troilos story is preserved in the summary of the Cypra, but there is no surviving literary source for Polyxena’s presence in the scene.

The running Achilles is portrayed with helmet, spear and shield, and his his right hand is about to grab the astonished Troilos. He is portrayed as a young man, wearing an oriental dress. Contrary to the other depictions of the same episode, the Trojan prince is armed and holds two spears in his left hand.

 

Attic red-figured stamnos

About 450 – 440 BC

Attributed to the Hector Painter

From Vulci, Etruria

Rome, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

 

 

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Uploaded on April 12, 2014
Taken on February 6, 2014