Chalcidian Black-Figure Neck Amphora (Left profile)

The Greek hero Odysseus grasps the head of a Thracian warrior and slits his throat. The Thracian's comrades lie asleep—or perhaps already dead—on the ground, and on the other side of the vase, Diomedes dispatches their king, Rhesos.

The Thracians were allies of the Trojans, and as recounted in Homer's Iliad, had just arrived at Troy. Odysseus and Diomedes infiltrated their camp in a night-time raid, hoping to steal their fine horses. This vase is the only extant depiction of the murder of Rhesos in the Archaic period; it is remarkably close to Homer's account, down to the display of armor and the Thracian horses who panic on their tethers under the handles of the vase. The equine theme continues in the separate scenes on the shoulder of the vase, with young men riding horses.

When the Greeks began founding colonies in Italy and Sicily in the 600s B.C., they initially imported fine decorated pottery. Soon, however, local pottery workshops arose. Chalcidian pottery, one of these local productions in the black-figure technique, was probably made in the city of Rhegion, a colony of the Greek city of Chalkis.

The principal figures on this vase—Odysseus, Diomedes and Rhesos—are all identified with inscriptions. Odysseus's name reads left to right, but those of Diomedes and Rhesos run right to left. Such variability is by no means unusual at this time.