Ilioupersis and the Astyanax' Death - I

The figurative frieze painted on the lid was recomposed with some integrations from several fragments. It tells the tragic fate of Troy and the death of Hector's son, Astyanax. The painting shows a tight line of horsemen and hoplites interrupted to make room for the central scene that takes place near an altar: Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, grabs the young Astyanax by the foot with a gesture that fits well with tradition, which says he was thrown from the Troy walls. However, the image of Neoptolemus hitting Priam standing near the altar of Zeus with the body of his youngest grandson, the infant Astyanax, appears mainly to describe a gesture of contempt and of maximum violence against Priam and the female figure at his side, the mother or the grandmother of Astyanax, Hecuba or Andromache, who face him imploring pity for the boy.

Around this central scene the frieze describes the Greek troops taking Troy: the infantrymen arranged in three groups of seven warriors individualized by the designs on their shields, are interspersed with three pairs of horsemen. The sequence opens with a pair of knights who, aiming with their lances, mark the collision of the army with the enemy city.

 

Source: Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei – Vol. 1 – Cuma

 

Lekane lid, Attic black-figure

Diameter 34.6 cm; height 9.5 cm

Attributed to Painter C

Ca. 570 BC

Cumae, Northern Necropolis - Incineration tomb (Granata XII))

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei – Inv. 132615

 

 

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